One of my favorite summer roles is showing new families around Canadensis – every time I give a tour to a family that is looking at sleepaway camps I feel like I get to see Canadensis for the first time!  I also get to meet a lot of great people by giving tours, and when the new kids start Canadensis I already have a connection with them.  One of the great things about being at camp through September is that we are still giving tours of our facility, and it’s not too late to set up a time to see Canadensis if you are still looking for summer camp in 2012.

The director of our Photography program at camp this summer was very talented, and he took some incredible shots of our facility that will be popping up on our website and media outlets in the next few months.  Below is a compilation of some of my favorite frames…and these facilities look even better when you come tour camp!

2011 has come to a close – we said goodbye to all our campers and staff nearly a week ago, and we miss everyone so much!  Since it is Friday, all of us who work for camp full time just blasted the Glee version of the song “Friday” throughout the office.  It reminds us of the way our Today Show producer, Jason “JCal” Calabretta used to play the song at Friday Morning Line Up, and the way we used to dance on the stage…don’t you just love camp traditions?

I’m still up at camp, and will stay up here until the end of Labor Day.  Luckily I have great company with Cara, Eric, Brian & Matt!  One of my favorite post-camp jobs is going through all the photos that Lauren “LMac” McGuire took this summer and put on the website for our families.  I’m creating a library of images that we’ll use throughout the winter, and when I finish, I’ll post some of the absolute best in the blog…there are a lot of choose from!  The photo above is another camp tradition…we wear our Color War team color, and spell out numbers of the year.  This will be turned into a poster, and given out at the reunion this winter, but this is a sneak peek!

Wow, it has been a truly amazing summer!  We are about to start the last week, and it’s electric here at camp because Color War can break at any moment!!  There are just too many highlights to even get started…but I wanted to share at least one quick photo that was taken at camp this week.  Mindy & Hallie from the “Future Fashionistas” came up to camp and every girl got a chance to design a t-shirt.  The shirts above started off as boring white tees, but they were turned into art work by some of the Freshman Girls pictured.  The first step was cutting and tying, the second step was using fabric paint in all sorts of creative ways.   You can learn more about the program here: http://futurefashionistas.com/ – I can’t wait to wear my shirt soon!

Art has been everywhere at camp this summer!  Our climbing boulder has a mural being painted on it that gets better and better everyday.  Tye-dye week was fantastic, the Glass Fusion kiln has been super busy making necklaces and bowls, and the Fabric Arts program made amazing projects…and taught a lot of kids how to embroider & crochet!  The Wood Shop has been full of checkerboards, step stools & race-cars.    The Ceramics projects have been plentiful, and the photography projects have including light paintings and photoshopping flying campers!  I’ve learned tons of new bracelet making techniques…and my favorite has to be chainmaille!!

Camp + Great Art = Perfect Summer at Camp Canadensis!

This will probably be my last blog update before the campers arrive and I cannot wait!!  We are in the middle of Staff Orientation right now, and they are all amazing!!  It’s been great to see them getting excited about the Canadensis traditions, and forming friendships of their own.  “Camp Friends” is one of the best part of camp, so I wanted to post this photo of some of my favorite camp friends!  On the left is the Assistant Lower Girls Camp Head Counselor, Karen “Rainbow” Sharir.   On the right is the Girls Camp Head Counselor, Robin Forti.  Can’t wait to make summer 2011 memories with them!

Another great part of camp is building confidence – and I got a great opportunity to do this recently.  During staff orientation, a popular activity is trust falls…but we don’t just fall from the ground, we stand on the top of our bleachers and trust our co-staff to catch us!!  Last year, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it – it was way too scary.  When I was looking through the photos of the trust fall last year, I was jealous of the people who did it…so I resolved that this was my year!!  Luckily, Lauren “LMac” McGuire (our camp photographer) was nearby to capture it!  I screamed the whole way down, but I had such a rush of energy after doing it…and my confidence really grew from it.

I often say that I am a camp director because I LOVE COLOR WAR!!  Color War can “breakout” at any time during the summer at Camp Canadensis, and it’s sometimes very suspenseful while we are waiting for it to start.  Something crazy happens every year…like a helicopter landing in camp, sky divers jumping out of a plane, or the Rec Hall getting lit up with different colors.  When Color War breaks out camp is divided into the Blue and Gold team, and it starts a week of spirit and sportsmanship.  It’s five amazing days that everyone in camp gets excited about, and I can go on about it forever!

One of our staff members from last year, Jye Freer, is returning from Australia for his second year being a counselor and working at the lake.  He caught the “Color War Bug” last year, and this year he ordered “Color War Sneakers”!!!  He went on www.nikeid.com and made a Blue and Gold sneaker that was even personalized with the words “Color War”.  He think he’s going to be able to save them until Color War breaks out, but I have a feeling he’ll be wearing them from the first day of camp…

More about Color War in future blog posts…

I’ve worn many hats in my camping career – I think it’s a really important aspect of the job.  I feel like I am able to instruct campers in sports, arts, and adventure activities in a pinch.  I could even lead a pretty great soccer activity…and I bet you wouldn’t even know that it’s my most dreaded sport!

There are three main “campy skills” that I feel I’m lacking and I’m hoping to acquire them over time…

1.  I do not have a loud voice – I really can’t be heard in a crowd.  If I try to raise my voice too much, I can lose it, so it’s best to not even try!  I feel like I can overcome this by learning how to make the REALLY LOUD whistle sound using my fingers, so it is my goal to learn how to do that this summer.

2.  I can’t play the guitar – I took lessons a few years back, and I even learned a few Beatles songs, but nowadays, if you can’t play Taylor Swift at a campfire, you can’t really call yourself a song leader.   This is definitely one of my goals for the fall – at camp in 2012, I’ll be making the rounds with my guitar, and we can have TSwift sing-alongs all night!

3.  I’ve never been a lifeguard – It’s pretty hard to believe that I’ve spent 27 years at summer camps and never been lifeguard certified!  I plan to take the course at some point in my career (I want to know if I can pass the test!).  It’s a long shot, but maybe I’ll even be able to take the course this summer with our Super Senior (9th grade) and Counselor-In-Training (CIT’s, 10th grade) campers.  It’s an option we provide these oldest campers.  It’s very cool that they don’t miss out on any of the summer fun, but for an additional $200, they can end the summer being a certified Lifeguard for the next two years!  See the above picture of our 2010 Lifeguard Graduates!

I had a feeling that someone has been reading my blog, and his name is Alex!  He was at camp yesterday for the Open House program, which welcomes all our families to come up for a day of camp fun before the actual season starts.  As we were talking, he mentioned that he saw the projects that we are making in Fabric Art this year, and when I asked how, he said that he reads my blog!!   It was super exciting for me, so I wanted to dedicate this post to him.  Alex is returning to camp this summer, and will be an Upper Inter Boy.  While at camp, he’s often seen in our Camp Shows and he can also be found making awesome projects in Glass Fusion.  Can’t wait to see him around camp in a few weeks!

I have been SUPER PUMPED about our arts and crafts program overall the summer.  I’ve had several conversations with Carrie, who is the Arts and Crafts Director…Marty, who is the Woodshop Director…Katie, who is the Ceramics Director…Jesse, who is the Glass Fusion Director, and Drew, who is the Photography Director!  Each one of them is creative, artistic, and ready to have a magical summer up at camp.

The final art director who wasn’t mentioned above is Ida, and she is the director of our *new* Fabric Arts program.  We are both up at camp now, so we spent some time together today talking about project ideas and going through supplies for the summer.  Her ideas are FANTASTIC, and the projects and skills taught this summer will “knock your socks off”…literally!!  Ida has a plan to do a sock monkey project, so you might literally loose your socks in Fabric Art!

She had some samples of projects she wants to make this summer, and it got me SO excited!  I took a photo and posted it above.  The top left is an embroidery project, the top right is an applique, and the bottom is my favorite project idea so far…a sleep mask!!  We are going to be sooooo crafty this summer, I can’t wait!

Camp isn’t just my career, it’s also my hobby!  I love everything about overnight camping, but most of the industry centers around NYC, and I live in the Philadelphia area.  Last year, I banded together with some other friends who live in the Philly area and work at camps, and we decided to start an organization called PAYCE (Philly Area Young Camp Enthusiasts).  We started planning monthly events for camp professionals in the Philly area, and two years later we now have a great group of around 40 professionals that come together to learn from each other.

This past week, we had our last PAYCE event before camp, and we took tours of several Poconos area camps.  We had a great turn out of 25 people, and we went to see four camps total.  We visited Canadensis for lunch and a quick tour, everyone was impressed with our eight passenger go-karts, the lake, amphitheater and arts and crafts room.  It was a super fun day, and got us all so excited for camp!  Picture above, you can see Eric, myself, and Karen from Canadensis, with our PAYCE friends Rachel, Anna, Gary and Johnny.

I arrived at camp this afternoon, and when I walked into the camp office I was greeted by “Happy Birthday’s” from my fabulous co-workers, and I noticed that my desk has been decorated with a sign and streamers by Jason “JCal” Calabretta – he is the absolute best!!  At dinner, I got to meet a bunch of our new staff for 2011, and I got to enjoy the delicious cake pictured above (sadly, it took me three attempts to blow out the candles).  Today is my 30th birthday, so I’m getting old…well at least by camp standards!

I’ve heard from so many amazing friends, family, campers and counselors today – it’s so nice to hear from people that you’ve might have lost touch with during the year.  There were so many special memories from this bday weekend (my dearest friends even arranged for us to make s’mores on my driveway in Philadelphia!!) – but one of my favorites was this picture emailed by my friends Suzy and Gary.  They live in New Orleans (my adopted home town) and their boys Evan and David are getting bigger every time I see a picture of them…and this one was just so cute!  In last year’s bday photo, they were in the tub…haha!