Well unlike usual storms, Philly got slammed with 23 inches of snow, while Canadensis got a measly 4 inches! But, I am not complaining, as the less snow at camp the better, as more work will get done without all the snow to contend with. For all of you that enjoyed the weekend snowstorm, please see the post below. If you played in the snow, had a snowball fight, made a snowman, etc. please email editor@canadensis.com with your picture of the fun in the snow! We will feature your pictures right here in future blogs as well as in the Canadensis Courier.

Sorry I didn’t blog for a few days. Between the holiday card being posted on the website as well as the latest edition of the Today Show, things have been busy! If you haven’t seen it already, please login to the Canadensis Media Room on www.canadensis.com and view the Today Show as well as the Holiday Card. The Holiday video features all of the administrative staff and a special surprise at the end…(OK, I will tell you…it’s Robin and me at the end in front of a bazillion menorahs at my mom’s house!) So, Happy Holidays to everyone and enjoy the videos.

This past Thursday was exciting in the office as staff member Peter Tarnoff stopped by before headed to Steamboat Springs, CO for a ski trip with his sister Liz (from ceramics) and friend Hannah Race (girl’s general counselor). I have spoken with Pete since arriving in Steamboat and he is having an amazing time snowboarding the slopes!! Pete dropped off his contract in our office, which means he will be back for yet another Summer!!

After his visit, I headed to Long Island to continue visiting camper homes. It took me over 3 hours and 45 minutes to drive there. Along the way, I passed 2 separate tractor trailers flipped over as well as a few accidents. The drive should have taken me 2 hours or so, it was horrible! I was over 1.5 hours late to my first appointment and I felt so bad. Fortunately, the families completely understood and took it in stride. My first stop was camper Logan Katz and her brother Brent Katz who will be a new camper this summer! Brent is really excited for camp, obviously. We watched a new promotional DVD that Jaycal had created for us and it is about 7 minutes of nonstop fun. From activities to evening activities to special event days to friendships, the video captures all that Canadensis has to offer. Brent is excited for pretty much all of the activities that Canadensis has to offer and is looking forward to a great summer at camp. Logan is doing well and is also excited to return to Canadensis for her third summer of fun. They are both doing well in school. While I was there, I also got to meet her younger brother, who is so cute and was wearing those little footie pajamas, which I wish they made for adults. But, that’s a story for another day.

After leaving the Katz house, I went to visit the Portnoy boys! Ben, Jacob, and Matthew Portnoy are all campers at Canadensis. I remember when Ben was coming for his first summer, with his younger brothers in tow at the Open House and how excited he was to join the Canadensis Family! Now he is in his fifth year and moving to Senior side. His younger brothers are both at camp, and they are a FUN family. For Chanukah, they received a number of Wii games, which they showed me, including Tony Hawk (no I didn’t attempt to skateboard), High School Musical Sing Along (no I didn’t sing HSM, but I was secretly wanting to – JUST KIDDING!), and many more! Matthew is going to be Danny in Grease (the main lead character) and practiced some of his lines with me! He knows all of the choreography as well, and I am sure he will do an amazing job…just don’t break a leg literally Matthew as that wouldn’t be fun at camp!

After showing me the Wii games and Matthew singing his lines, I checked out their rooms, which are awesome. Of course they are great rooms, but what makes them awesome is that they have Canadensis stuff all over each of them!

Friday was a pretty normal day in the office! Counselor Erica Carey stopped by for lunch and to discuss the COALS Program. COALS is the Canadensis Outdoor Adventure Living Skills Program at Canadensis. Erica will be once again returning as a COALS staff member and has great improvements for this already successful program, including new and fun activities to offer during the COALS period and awesome enhancements to the overnight program! It was great to see her and then head out around 6PM for a weekend of SNOW! Just before leaving, this email was sent out. If anyone wants to join in the fun at the Sixers Game/Matisyahu concert, please email me at eric@canadensis.com. We have had an overwhelming response between 6PM Friday night and today, Sunday. Tickets are limited, so be sure to email me if you want to join Canadensis for this exciting event.

Come join us at a Philadelphia 76ers game vs. the New York Knicks and a postgame concert featuring Matisyahu on January 13, 2010 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia! The Sixers will be celebrating Jewish Heritage Night and are offering discounted tickets of $25.00 per person. Our directors and winter office staff will be there cheering on the Sixers or the Knicks (some of us are from Philly and some from NJ/NY!). We would love for our camp families to come join us, see your camp friends, and enjoy a basketball game/concert. Be sure to wear your Canadensis shirts and show off your Canadensis pride!

We have reserved a section at Center Court in the Mezzanine for Camp Canadensis so that we can all sit together. After the game, we will all go down to the Lower Level and enjoy a postgame concert featuring Grammy nominated recording artist Matisyahu. There will be special booths and food stands setup on the concourse and it is sure to be a fun event! In addition to the game and concert, with this special $25 ticket deal you will receive a Sixers t-shirt in Hebrew! For more details, see the attached PDF flyer.

If you are interested in attending, please email eric@canadensis.com with the number of tickets you would like for your family and we will reserve seats for you. Seating is limited, so please respond ASAP.

We hope to see as many camp families as possible!

And finally, if you made it this far in the post, KUDOS TO YOU! This afternoon, a few of us camp staff people (11 to be exact!) got together for lunch at CHAMPPS in King of Prussia. It’s always fun seeing camp people and today was an absolute blast. Thanks to all who came out for lunch. Afterward, I stopped by the Waxman/Cook family home for a quick impromptu visit with campers Matt Cook and Rachel Hannah Cook! See the picture below!

That’s all for now. Hope to see alot of you in the coming weeks at the Summer 2009 Reunion and the Sixers Game/Matisyahu Concert!!!

Hello all. Sorry I didn’t post yesterday, but I along with Aunt Terri left the office in the afternoon to drive up to north Jersey and have dinner with an alumnus and her son. Heidi Skolnick and her son Bradley are good friends of Canadensis. The past 2 summers they have come to visit and hopefully Bradley will be a camper real soon! We went to a great Italian restaurant in Englewood and enjoyed great conversation. Heidi is a Today Show Guest from time to time on her topic of expertise- nutrition. She is also in the process of writing a book, so she is quite busy. As many of you know, I have an affinity for the Today Show and so we talked about some of the ins and outs of the show, which of course I absolutely love to hear.

When we got back last night to the Plymouth Meeting Office around 8:45PM, I had to run in to use the bathroom. We have an alarm system and since I never open in the morning (our office opens at 8AM, and I start at 9AM!), I have never had to turn off the alarm. Well, what a disaster that was and after 5 minutes of trying to push random buttons (yes I knew the correct code), I sort of set off the alarm, or tripped it, and felt horrible. I waited a little while and the police didn’t show up, so I went to Shoprite to do some food shopping and I guess when I got back, I missed the police. Oh well…it got some laughs and chuckles this morning from the others in our office!

Today was a great day! Matt and Cara sent out postcards to some of our prospective families and we had some great laughs throughout the process. Then Aunt Terri came with an afternoon snack for each of us- McDonald’s diet coke floats. She invented it after finding out from Robin that the ice cream is “supposedly” only 3 weight watcher points, including the cone. So, if we put it in diet coke, maybe it’s only 2? I have to admit, it was great tasting, except for the ice they stuck in there! So, go to McDonalds, order a coke float, but make sure you specify no ice. They may look at you like you have 10 heads, but tell them to fill the cup halfway with soda and then put ice cream on top. It’s good, I promise.

Terri also replaced the “stolen/missing” peanut butter filled candy cane today, since Matt went to camp yesterday and picked up more. Except, I opened my mouth and told Robin about the candy cane and once again, there goes mine. Robin now wants it and there is me without my PB filled candy cane…poor ME, haha.

Tonight, I went to see the Burstein Family (Lindsey and Michael) and their dad Billy. Some of you may recall Dr. Burstein who was the camp doctor the week after visiting day. Billy is also an alumni of Canadensis and it was great to catch up with them. The kids are doing great and when asked are you returning to camp, the answer was YES! They loved the wristbands I dropped off and will hopefully be at the reunion.

Next, I went to see the Steinman Family. Jack and Max are both doing great. Max will be coming to camp for the first time (lower inter boy) and is into sports, arts and crafts a little, some water activities, you get the point! He is definitely an all-around kind of boy, but very into soccer. He currently plays on a travel Philly Soccer team and is looking forward to playing on the soccer intercamp team representing Canadensis! I had a great time seeing both of them and talking “camp.”

Tomorrow is actually a quiet day (as of now) and I will be hopefully be coming home and cooking dinner, after being on the road the last 2 nights! Thursday, I am headed out to L.I. again to see a few families. If you want me to stop by Thursday, or anytime, email me- eric@canadensis.com and I will try my best. I would love to drop in and say hello!!

Sorry no pictures today, but hopefully I will remember that my cell phone which does everything under the sun, also has a camera on it and I should USE it to take pics! On a final note, Sam Ginsburg is back in town for a month, so I am excited and looking forward to seeing him soon. While I am doing shout-outs, Will Armon (Lower boys HC and YES HE IS STILL MY CO-ANCHOR ON TODAY!!!) will be here in less than a month for our winter leadership meeting/reunion weekend! I can’t wait to see him and all of you!!!!

What a long week it’s been! Monday and Tuesday I was up at camp and had a great time seeing all of the wonderful improvements we are working on up there. It’s definitely turning cold and it snowed on Sunday and then again on Wednesday. Back in the winter office, we had a big meeting to discuss plans for the winter. I can’t quite divulge all of the secrets to you campers just yet, but we may be coming to your town, so stay tuned for more details on that. (Staff out in Washington state, we may not make it out there though!)

Our office on Wednesday had our winter holiday party, which was a lunch at Redstone Grill. Aunt Terri bought the females a small little gift and the men got pretzels from Callie’s Pretzel Factory/Candy Kitchen. We all also got specialty homemade candy canes, including the one I got temporarily, a peanut butter filled candy cane. I was so excited to try this candy cane, but was so full from lunch, so I left it on my desk overnight. When I arrived the next morning, the candy cane was gone! So, I began an investigation and after wrongly accusing Pam of stealing it (and then apologizing), the truth came out that Aunt Terri regifted my special candy cane to Neil so that his daughters, Mel and CJ Sukonik  could enjoy it. Oh well, I didn’t need it anyway. The word on the street is that Matt is going to camp Monday for the sole purpose of bringing home a stash of Peanut Butter filled candy canes. While in the area, he may drop in at camp. Just kidding, he is going to camp to work on a special secret project that we will fill you in on real soon.

Thursday brought Jaycal to our winter office, which was alot of fun. He came with his camera and laptop and filmed/edited a few special editions of Canadensis Today, which will be posted over the coming weeks. He is so excited to be coming back to camp and we had a long meeting over lunch to discuss plans for the new “Canadensis Today Elective” that we will be offering this summer.  We have already purchased 4 new video cameras for you all to use during this elective and we have such terrific ideas to bring new segments and increased camper involvement to the extremely popular Canadensis Today Show!

After dropping Jaycal off at the Amtrak station for his train back to NY, Matt and I met Bobby Clearfield, who is a Canadensis alumni and the uncle of former camper Alex Clearfield, for dinner. We went to Chinatown, my first time there in the 6 years I have lived in Philly. We had dinner at the local Indian restaurant, just kidding!! We went to the Imperial Inn, a good chinese restaurant and enjoyed catching up on Canadensis news and updates. He promised to be at the Canadensis Turns 70! Reunion that we will be having in honor of our 70th anniversary for all of our alumni up at camp on June 19th.

In the mail this week, I got a thank-you note from new camper David Brucker. I am the one who opens all the mail here at camp and it’s extremely rare that I ever get a “fun” piece of mail, as it’s usually bills, etc.  So when I opened this great thank you note it really brought a smile to my face and as corny as it sounds, it reminds me how much I love my job!

And finally, the Ambos family sent me a really nice email along with pictures of them in Disney! Apparently, based on 2009 CIT Mara Bernstein’s recommendation, they ate at the Chef Mickey’s breakfast and absolutely loved it! Thanks for sending in the pics.

Just in case you didn’t see the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, make sure you watch the Today Show below!!!!!!! See you all at the reunion in LESS THAN ONE MONTH.

And finally, HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Quick post with more to follow…

Matt Unger and I were up at camp last night and today and it was freezing! There is a few inches of snow on the ground and the lake is in the beginning stages of freezing over. You know what that means- sledding down the amphitheatre and snowmobiling on the lake will hopefully happen soon! I will post pictures of our time at camp and more info soon, so stay tuned.

A final thing- Happy Birthday to my Mom! Of course I won’t divulge her age here on the blog, but a very happy birthday to her!

Camper visits are awesome! I love being able to see all of you during the “off-season” and so Thursday night, Pam and I headed up to L.I. to visit the Glassman, Ambos, and Yedid families. We had such a good time in the car on the way up talking about camp, filling Pam in on all of the inside jokes of camp, etc.

Our first stop was Amanda Glassman. Amanda is doing so well in school and is having a great winter. She told me she keeps in touch with several of the girls and may be having a sleepover before the reunion with some as well! Of course when I asked about what activities she misses most, cooking came up as number 1 (a common theme always!). Amanda also has a great glass fusion project in her basement, but its not mounted yet on a block of wood. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture (sorry Amanda), but at the reunion we will be sure to get good photos!

Next, we went to see Lauren Ambos and her sister was home as well. Lauren has been very busy between art class (with Amanda), hebrew school twice a week, and basketball to name a few! She says hello to everyone and even took me to her room to see the reunion poster hung up from last year! During the photo below, Lauren and her sister were very good sports as her parents tried to use my phone to take the picture! In their defense, taking a picture with the Blackberry Storm isn’t easy.

Finally, a quick stop at the Yedid’s! Jake was running out to tennis practice and was running late, so we had a chance to take this quick photo before he left.  A side note about Jake- he works at a very well known candy store near his house in Port Washington and apparently alot of camp kids see him at birthday parties, etc. I am told he is ALWAYS friendly and so excited to see campers- good job Jake and thanks for continuing the Canadensis Spirit all-year round! Can’t wait to see your spirit this summer as a CIT.

I also spent some time with David Yedid. Believe it or not, I was his counselor in Summer 2000 in Boys Bunk 2. I know people always say, “I feel old”, but I truly do! David is a Senior in High School and applying to colleges. I can’t believe that at all! Pam and I had so much fun with David reminiscing about Canadensis, talking about Key Club (which I was president of back in the day, and now David is!), and the whole college process. I know David would like to come back to camp as a counselor (after taking a year off) and is thinking about it, depending on his H.S. graduation and college start date. Good Luck David with college apps and keep in touch!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Robin will be flying in tonight and we will be going to hear a band play down in Maryland! Very exciting stuff…

Once again, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families. I had such a busy weekend, with no time to update the blog, but I hope to make up for it with today’s post!

Robin, the girls Head Counselor or my fiancee (whichever you prefer), flew in Thursday morning to spend some time with my family for the holiday. We went to my cousins house in NJ for the day and had a blast! My cousin is a pilot for Jet Blue, so I love talking about airplanes with him, while his wife did an amazing job cooking and preparing a feast for 25. For a change this year, the meal started out with lasagna, and it was the best I have ever tasted- good job Kelly! Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner followed with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. but the best part was the dessert (DUH!). My cousins and my mom both had cakes that said Congratulations to me and Robin, which was really nice. But the highlight were the CRUMBS cupcakes that my cousin Lindsay brought in from Hoboken! The favorites were the Dutch Apple Pie, Reese’s, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake. We cut them all into quarters and I must have had 8 quarters (so that means 2 huge cupcakes- AAHHH!). The whole family had an awesome time and there were some little kids around which kept us all occupied and playing games- invisible ink, my little pony, spongebob stuff, etc.

Friday morning was “Meet the Parents” Forti style at the Forti household! My mom invited Robin’s immediate and extended family over to meet my family. Our parents had already met at camp (many of you will recall that), but now the extended family’s had the opportunity to meet. My mom cooked tons of things- my favorite spinach quiche, french toast, blintze souffle, etc. It was all delicious and yes again there was dessert with yummy things. The highlight today was “David’s Cookies”. If you recall, these are the cookies we have at camp sometimes (Chocolate Chunk) when the baker is on a day off (Open House comes to mind). Anyway, it was all delicious.

Friday afternoon/evening was devoted to SHOPPING with the moms. Robin, myself, and the moms spent over 4 hours at Bed, Bath, and Beyond scanning things, deleting things, adding them back on to the registry, etc. All I can say is GRRRR. Shopping with ladies is hard enough, but on Black Friday…not an easy task. In the end, I was told that I am a good fiance and did a good job keeping cool (for the most part) and allowing Robin to choose what she wanted. Yes, there were a few items I put my foot down on (like the 48 everyday drinking glasses she wanted to order), but in the end we agreed on everything!

Saturday morning was spent at temple in honor of Lauren Gadol’s Bat Mitzvah. Mazel Tov Lauren! You did a wonderful job reading from the Torah and your always present huge smile was great up on the Bimah! The luncheon Kiddush following the services was wonderful (and yes there were desserts there too- see the theme of the weekend?)

Saturday afternoon Robin and I went to Macy’s to continue on our Registry Shopping saga. We picked out a few “must-haves” including a waffle maker, George Foreman Grill, and “pretty” (or not so pretty to a guy) vases.

Saturday night was our second Bat Mitzvah of the weekend- Alix Steerman. Alix looked so beautiful and we had such a fun time. The food was amazing (the Kung Pao chicken bites during the cocktail hour, Pad Thai, etc.) and the band was so lively and entertaining. It was so awesome to see so many of the girls and a few boys from camp. Everyone looked like they were having a blast and I even used the excuse of “checking on the campers” to eat some of the food from the kids station! Here are a few pics from the Bat Mitzvah.

Sunday was a final registry stop at Crate & Barrel and then a quick drive to Atlantic City Airport to drop Robin off for her flight home to Ft. Lauderdale.

Sunday night, I spoke to Alex Dean on skype. The good news- Alex will be returning for his 3rd summer working in our Hondas department! He is up in Canada working on landscaping and he decided that how could he miss camp this summer (especially compared to landscaping!). Alex, we are really excited that you will be back.

As you can see, a very busy weekend for us but it was a blast and thanks again to all of the Canadensis campers we saw at the Bat Mitzvahs- we had such a fun time!

Hopefully by now you have all enjoyed the Canadensis Today show from up at camp on Monday. Sonic is such an exciting place to go- old school drive-in fast food where they roller skate to the car! Sorry that the video was so poor, but Matt Unger couldn’t get it to zoom in so he was running around the parking lot while I was trying to film moving the camera in and out manually!

Anyway, the point is that camp looks great. The warmer than average weather has certainly helped us get more work done before the snow arrives, which I am guessing will be coming to the mountains soon. There are many more exciting projects that we are doing up at camp, but we aren’t quite ready to announce them just yet. I promise to let you all know before the “general public” finds out in the newsletter!

This week the office has been a bit calmer for me, because for the first time since camp, I am here 4-days in a row! The only problem is that the Payroll software I use has been so buggy. For the last 2 weeks, it wouldn’t download an update that is required every 2 weeks. After an hour of phone troubleshooting, they sent someone out to fix it, which he supposedly “did”. Well today, the same problem occurred and again they can’t fix it. Seems like maybe it’s time to change payroll companies!

Problems aside, I had an awesome time last night at the Center’s! Matthew and Adam are doing really well it seems. School is going well, they are busy with their team sports (soccer just ended and Adam’s team did really well) and basketball is beginning. We talked about some of the counselors who are returning, their camper friends, and of course the corn man was discussed! Rumor is their dad ate something like 6 ears of corn on visiting day. They also invited over a new camper- David Brucker and his family to meet me. David is awesome! Pretty much into a little bit of everything camp has to offer. He is going to try waterskiing, mentioned liking the arts center and all that has to offer, the high ropes course/zip line/climbing wall, and general sports. David’s sister was also great and she will be at camp within the next few years, although secretly she said she is ready to come to camp this summer! The Centers brought in dinner for me and it ended with a warm apple pie! After 2.5 hours (you read that correct) it was 8:30PM and time for the kids to get to sleep (although they were definitely wound up with the sugar in the pie!) and me to drive home to Philly. Thanks again for a wonderful night guys.

Tonight I am headed to Cherry Hill with Pam (our new assistant director) to meet the Liebman Family (new campers) with a stop at Scott Brown’s house to say hello!

Hope everyone is doing well and busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, whatever that means, but it sounded good!

The brains (or lack thereof) behind every single Today Show…the man who works INCREDIBLY hard to bring you the Canadensis courier newsletters, all of the videos, and many of the photos is a very special person. He is also one of my best friends- Jason Calabretta (Jaycal). When news broke about my proposal to Robin, Jason went in front of the Today Show cameras to bring to you this very SPECIAL EDITION OF CANADENSIS TODAY!

You can see it by logging into the media room or by clicking on the video below. Thanks Jason for all you do.

And finally something you all have been waiting to see for the past  few weeks, my proposal to Robin!

This past weekend was the ultimate weekend and is ending in an even better way…

Friday night Aunt Terri and I were invited to surprise camper Rachel Green at her birthday party with school friends. Terri and I showed up to California Pizza Kitchen at 6PM and it was a perfect set up. Rachel’s back was to the front door at the head of the table with 12 girls from her school. Terri and I each went on one side of her, tapped her on the shoulders simultaneously, and she looked at me, dropped her jaw then I pointed to Terri and she was in absolute shock! It was “priceless” and so exciting to be a surprise at her party. I also spent a little bit of time with Rachel’s brother as well as her dad, Stu. Stu is a LOYAL Today Show fan, blog groupie, and an all around Canadensis Fan! He told me some stories reliving his camp experiences (which were only 10 years ago, right Stu???!!!). Anyway, it was a blast and I was honored to drop in. If anyone else is having a birthday party, let me know and I’ll see if I can drop on by.

Here is a picture with Stu, Rachel, and me!

Later that night, Robin flew in to Philadelphia during the winds and rain. Her flight was delayed until after midnight, but of course as a good fiance would, I was there waiting for her! My friend Andrew was with me and when we returned to my condo in Philly, we watched the engagement proposal on DVD. Robin’s principal was recording the whole thing and made a copy for me. I will be getting it to Jaycal ASAP for him to post here on my blog.

Saturday morning brought me to Temple Beth David in Gladwyne to celebrate Mel Sukonik’s Bat Mitzvah! She did a terrific job at services and I had a chance to see tons of her girlfriends from camp as well as Billy Koutcher and Alex Distefano. Saturday night was her party and it was one to remember. The theme of the night was M el (taking after the BIG M in MTV and then the characters el instead of TV). The room was setup beautifully and again we spent some time with some of the campers. Of course my dancing I am sure embarrassed them, so I had to hide in the corner of the dance floor so they wouldn’t be too humiliated! Here are some pictures from the night:

And….the end the great camp weekend- I AM UP AT CAMP!!!! Matt Unger are here sitting in my house on freshman hill after taking a drive through camp. Since there is literally nobody in camp (Tom our caretaker lives at the entrance, but before the “gate”) we can drive through camp and take a look at things. The paving looks AWESOME, but you will have to wait for pictures and videos since it’s pitch black out there tonight. During the winter, we turn out most of the area outdoor lights and just leave on a few, so it’s dark and very lonely without all of you.

So, exciting camp weekend even during the winter season! Stay tuned for pics, videos, blog postings, and if you read this far I will hint a surprise to all of you- TWITTER is coming to Canadensis….MORE TO COME SOON!