Tim Thayer, Bears and Tennis Balls
Circa 2001
During one summer season we had an exceptional number of bears coming into the camp. They are black bears and usually afraid of people. They just want something to eat that is easy to “catch”, like a trash dumpster.
Tim Thayer was on year round staff. He and I were usually the ones to chase the bears away. We would do this by raising our arms and screaming at bear. But, we were always close to a building with a door close by.
During one incident with a bear, Tim went a little nuts. It was during the afternoon and we were in the parking lot. A bear walked in the driveway and to the parking lot. Yes, that’s a bear. For some reason, there was a bucket of tennis balls nearby. Probably set up for some upcoming afternoon game with the campers. Tim ran and grabbed some tennis balls. The next thing I knew Tim was yelling and screaming at the bear to go away. As the bear turned and headed out the driveway, Tim chased the bear while throwing tennis balls at the bear. The bear went off into the woods with Tim in pursuit. Tim returned when he ran out of tennis balls. Good idea to return to camp. We laughed hard with Tim, his tennis balls and his bear.
The rest of the summer, we were all safe and secure knowing Tim would protect us and the campers with tennis balls.