Bloglander

As anyone who’s been a camp counselor knows, even the most stalwart immune system may quail before the approaching hoard of grubby, snot-nosed campers. Think of a kindergarten classroom, but it’s always recess and they never go home for the day.

But Lutherhaven, a Lutheran camp on Lake Coeur D’Alene that I counseled at in 2007, has had some particularly bad luck in recent years. Today, five kitchen workers — and possibly three other staffers — were found to be infected with E. coli, the Spokesman-Review reports. (The health and safety standards of their kitchen were not found to be problematic, and the ill workers have been quarantined.)

If all this seems familiar, it’s because Lutherhaven shut down for an entire month in 2009 because E. coli was found in the water well, forcing a jury-rigged fix to be found. That same year at Shoshone Base Camp, a sister camp, four people tested positive for swine flu.

The good news, at least: No sign thus far of madmen in hockey masks.