At least a dozen families with three generations of Door County Jellystone Park campers are expected to attend the park’s 50th anniversary celebration in Sturgeon bay, Wis., on the weekend of June 28-30.
“We’re going to have an anniversary cake for all campers, a DJ dance, two special parades, professional fireworks, and other special activities for families who literally have multiple generations of Jellystone Park campers,” said park co-owner Jill Kavicky, who herself grew up camping at the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts location in Door County, Wis., with her family in the 1970s.
Anniversary weekend campers will include Chet and Kris Wojcik, who have been camping at the Door County Jellystone Park for 38 of the campground’s 50 years.
“We started as weekenders with a pop-up camper,” Chet Wojcik recalled, noting that it was a great family-friendly place to bring their kids camping.
Now, nearly four decades later, the Wojciks are still camping at the Door County Jellystone Park location. Only now it’s with not only their children, but also with their grandchildren.
The Wojciks and their son have their own park model RVs right next to each other, and they enjoy not only quality family time together, but the friendships they’ve made with other seasonal campers who have made the Door County Jellystone Park location their destination campground for the summer months.
“It’s like an old-fashioned neighborhood,” Chet Wojcik said, “and we all watch out for one another.”
It’s also a great place for building family memories.
“Some of our best memories are from there,” said Janet Ebert, whose family has been camping at the Door County Jellystone Park since the late 1970s.
“My husband and I started camping there,” Ebert recalled. “We raised my son and daughter camping there. My daughter even met her future husband there. They have been married for 26 years and now their kids camp there, too.”
Ebert’s daughter, Tammy, remembers the day she met her future husband, Dave Tlachac. She was 15 and he was 16.
“He squirted me with a water gun,” she said. “Then we danced at the Saturday evening dance, and we’ve kept in touch ever since.”
Indeed, the Tlachacs now have 26 years of marriage and two children, ages 21 and 15, and they continue to camp at that Jellystone Park location.
“We come for the family environment,” she said. “They have activities for every generation. We feel safe there. My children bring their friends with them, so it accommodates all of us.”
Tammy Tlachac said her family experimented with other campgrounds over the years, but always came back to Jellystone Park because of the family friendly environment it provides.
While Douglas Haag first opened the Door County Jellystone Park on July 4, 1969, park owners Jill and Jim Kavicky plan to celebrate the park’s anniversary the last weekend of June to avoid any conflicts with Independence Day festivities.
For more information about the park, visit here.
