Hello Canadensis!

Yes, I know.  I have been very delinquent on my blog posts.  Somehow, someway, time has escaped me and have neglected my Canadensis Cyberworld!  I am sorry and hope to make it up with this October Catch Up Blog.  After reading the following, I hope that all of you will be satiated (good SAT word for all you CITs) and will have had your fill of all things Canadensis and the happenings in the Life of Brian (a Monty Python movie title, by the way).

Over the past month or so, our Winter office has been getting back into the swing of things.  We want to thank all of the campers that completed our annual survey.  In compiling the results, we now have a 100+ page report of really wonderful feedback.  We use this information every year to continue to grow the camp program new heights each Summer.  It is such a wonderful tool for us to evaluate the summer from one year to the next.

And, by the looks of it, Summer 2012 was simply amazing for our campers!  We have already received so many incredible e-mails and phone calls from camp families, letting us know about their awesome experience.  At the same time, we have gotten word from a lot of campers and staff of planned reunions and get-togethers that have already taken place since camp ended or plan to take place in the upcoming months.

As for our own get-togethers, our Annual Reunion, celebrating Summer 2012, will be held on Saturday, January 5th at Funtime America in Cliffwood, NJ from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm.  This is the same location we had our reunion at last year and from your feedback, all the campers and staff that attended let us know that it was a great place for this event.  The facility is jam packed with games and rides as well as an eating area.  We hope that our camp families and staff will save the date on their calendars now.  Here was the online invitation that was just recently sent out…

Along with the Reunion, we are planning to once again have our Canteen on the Fly events in November.  We are still working out specific locations and times, but we will be hitting areas in the Philly suburbs, northern New Jersey, Westchester County and Long Island.  Be on the lookout for e-mails, letting you know when we will be in your neighborhood and ready to eat some ice cream.  We have also been working on a T-Shirt give-away for all those that attend.

As is always the case, if we learn of any get-togethers or special moments involving our campers or staff, we will post them here on our blogs.  In an effort to catch everyone up, here are some that were sent to us over the past few weeks / months…

OK.  So, the next one needs a little explanation.  As you may remember in a previous blog, Freshman Boy Eric Miller was the lucky recipient of Bruce Springsteen’s harmonica that was thrown to him by Bruce at show he attended earlier in the year.  Just when he thought this would be a memorable moment in his life, at a show after camp, things were taken to a whole new level.  If you’ve never been to a Springsteen concert before, it is typical for Bruce to bring up one lucky fan to help him perform the song “Waiting on a Sunny Day.”  Well, suffice to say, that lucky fan was Eric Miller.  Here is the video of which I am completely jealous of.  Ha Ha!

On a personal note (and sort of on a camp note), since camp ended, Jaime and I have been busy with our wedding planning.  Our date is set for Mother’s Day weekend.  Where you ask?  Well, we decided that Camp Canadensis was the most fitting location for this memorable event!  Jaime and I are excited that amphitheater will be the place where we will be making things official.  With Summer 2012 being Jaime’s fourth summer, she has felt very strongly connected to camp and she couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate.

Since camp ended, Jaime and I have also been getting in our fill of concerts…one of our favorite things to do together as a couple.  In the past few months, we have seen a ton of shows, including God Street Wine (an old favorite of mine from my college days), Bruce Springsteen (on his birthday, nonetheless), Ben Folds Five, Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler.  All good stuff.  Of these, Bruce was probably my favorite.  After a two hour delay because of lightning, Bruce played from 10:30 pm to 2 am.  And, like I said, at midnight, it was the Boss’s birthday, which made the show extra special.

Of course, my weekends have also been filled with the New York Football Giants.  Finally, Eagles fans, I will no longer mention the Super Bowl score from last season now that a new season is upon us.  Although the Giants are currently sitting atop the NFC East division, I will subtly remain quiet (for now) since the Eagles won our first meeting this season.  However, I hope to get revenge in the final week of the season.  As you may know, we love to tailgate in Lot L12 before every home game and I had the pleasure of seeing a few camp families stop to say hello and enjoy some BBQ.  Thanks to Ben Keim and dad Dan Keim as well as Noah Stern and dad (also, camp doctor) David Stern for stopping by and seeing us.  Speaking of football, it is great to hear that so many campers have used Fantasy Football leagues as a way of staying in touch through the Fall months.  How is your team doing this year?  Mine…not so good.

One final camp note:  this Friday, our Year-Round Crew will be volunteering at WHYY-FM (which is the National Public Radio station in the Philly area), taking donations for the station.  During the day, we are sure to be mentioned on air, so our Philly-based families should tune in!  If you call in to donate, there is a very good chance you will be talking to us.

Well, that’s all of the blogging for now.  I hope you now feel more caught up in the Life of Brian.  I promise to blog much more (and more frequently) in the months to come until Summer 2013.  As Group Leader Pete Tarnoff asks, “Is it too early to start the countdown?”

Have a great day!

-Brian

I love this quote!  My two favorite programs areas at camp are the Arts (painting, crafting, ceramics, photography, glass fusion, fabric and woodworking) and Outdoors Programs (camping, biking, hiking, hondas, ropes, kayaking…) anything that gets you outdoors exploring the beautiful setting.  This simply ties the two together in a way that Camp Canadensis does oh so well!

I’ve been doing a few different crafty things lately, and since it’s a Monday, I thought it was time to share!  After a fun night of playing Mah Jongg with friends (the best game ever – see my earlier blog about it here) we decided to dig out the nail polish, but use it in a crafty way!  I had learned this awesome marbled nail technique from a great staff member, Grace O’Neill this summer.  She was teaching our Senior Campers how to do it during an iCan Night, which is a chance for them to pick what they want to learn during an Evening Activity a few times each summer.  Click here for a tutorial if you want to try it at home with parental permission!

Here are our results…each nail comes out so unique, my favorite is the ring finger!

And since it’s getting colder, I’ve also been spending more time crocheting – one of my favorite fall crafts because as you are working on a blanket, it’s also keeping you warm!  We made some cute crochet projects at camp this summer, including these adorable crochet monsters…each had their own personality!  If you want to learn crochet at camp next summer, make sure you sign up for the needle arts elective!

I like working on BIG projects – many of which I’ve posted on the blog at times…like here and here.  This past weekend I was digging through my crochet bin and found this chevron blanket that I haven’t worked on in years!!  I probably started this blanket 7 years ago when I lived in New Orleans, so it’s about the same age as our Bunk 2 campers!! It’s huge, and since chevron print is so popular right now, I thought it was a good time to get back to work on it.It’s mostly blues and grays, but as I continue to work on it, my plan is to just grab whatever color skein (aka ball of yarn) I have on hand so it will use up whatever I’ve had laying around, and hopefully the random pattern looks good at the end!  It’s grown a lot this week because we spent a lot of time in the car this weekend visiting family and friends in NY.  (There is no better way to spend time on a long drive!)  As it gets longer, I’ll post more photos.  It’s super cozy though…take Annie’s word for it!

Hi camp world! I’m really excited to be able to share my first post-camp reunion story! My sister [aka, Upper Senior counselor] Dani and I, along with my two best friends, spent last Saturday in beautiful NYC! We went in to town to see a play and ended up getting to meet Jake Gyllenhaal – talk about a crazy morning!

After some shopping we decided to meet up with my other favorite celebrity, [Upper Senior group leader] Alex Feigin, for dinner that night!

Alex and Dani put that photo on instagram and within minutes their Upper Senior girls were going crazy! Alex said that her parents we ALSO in town seeing the new Paul Rudd play – now, anyone who knows us knows that we LOVE Paul Rudd, specifically in his famous camp movie, so hearing that he was in town meant we HAD to get tickets. As it always is when we’re together, the man at the box office was able to give us rush tickets in 2 private boxes, we thought that was a pretty sweet setup!

After dinner we had some time before the show so we trekked uptown to one of my favorite places – Bendels! We were having the time of our lives in the headband room and Alex posed for this picture with her favorite accessory…

After lots of laughs and crazy hair pieces we went back downtown to see our show! My friends and I sat in one box, while Alex and Dani sat in the “Upper Senior Box”:

The actors in the play were absolutely amazing – we were all on the edge of our seats the whole time! After the show we waited outside for a chance to see Paul Rudd… we were NOT dissapointed:

I love NYC, I love seeing shows, and I LOVE my camp friends, so this was pretty much the perfect day! Dani and I are already planning our next trek for November, so hopefully we’ll have some more camp friend sightings to report! I hope you’re all making time to keep in touch with your camp friends throughout the winter, it definitely keeps the campsick-ness away!

I love this picture above – it is of Rachel & JMitch, the Presidential Gold Color War Captains, sitting with the rest of our amazing CITs of 2012 on the Amphitheater stage the last night of the summer while the whole camp sang the Color War Alma Maters one more time.  As the weather has dropped 20 degrees overnight, and I’ve been back in the winter office for nearly a month, it’s officially time to say goodbye summer, and start focusing on 2013!

Hopefully, a lot of you have been able to see camp friends (either in person or through Skype) and that you are keeping the memories alive!  I’m lucky to have this job where I get to “ThinkCamp!” all the time, but I got to see some camp friends who live a bit father away just a few days ago.  We mostly ate and enjoyed each others company, but we also did an arts & crafts project!  See below…

I hope by now that you’ve been introduced to the adorable Carli Forti…

Since Carli’s been living up in Canadensis with her parents Eric & Robin since she was less than a month old, she never really got her “crib” setup at home in the Philly suburbs.  (“Crib”…get it?)

Anyway, the furniture and bedding were great, but she was lacking some inspiring artwork – so the Camp Canadensis crew came to the rescue to ensure that her walls would make her room feel like a home.  We divided up tasks…Matt Unger, Sam Ginsburg, Dave Malter and friends worked mostly on hanging frames and a quilt.  I worked on some vinyl art work (similar to the kind we put up in the Camp Canadensis Welcome Center), which includes the tree below.  Once I got the branches up on the wall, everyone started adding flowers…including our Today Show Producer, Jason “JCal” Calabretta, and our Lower Juniors Group Leader, Melissa Torban.

We hope Carli enjoys her new room for a few months, but she’ll be back at her summer home before she knows it!

Happy October everybody! It was a chilly morning as I made my way into the office – I guess this means summer really is over! Now that we’re back in full swing in the office I’m really excited to get back to my blog – I’ve got so much exciting camp-themed fun lined up for this fall and I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Looking back over the summer, I can definitely say this was the BEST SUMMER EVER! So, as is usually my “first-blog-back” tradition, here are some of my favorite moments of the summer, captured on film for you all to see. The best part, I’m proud to say, is that I took all of these snapshots myself! I’m getting super proud of my photography skills and I loved toting my camera around with me, from Ithaca to Orlando, to capture the most amazing summer of our lives…

Credit to LMac for this one:

There are literally hundreds of photos I could post and still never show you what a fabulous summer we had. A picture is worth a thousand memories and this was a summer we’ll never forget 🙂

Hello Canadensis…

It’s been five days since the campers and counselors left.  I’m sad.  Here are some of the things I miss already…

* Dance Parties on the Amphitheater Stage before Morning Line-Up begins!

* Strawberry Shortcakes at Canteen!

* Girls divisions cheering and yelling to be called next in the Dining Hall!

* Junior and Lower Inter Boys playing their CBL games, especially the ones under the lights!

* Being continually asked by campers, “When is Color War going to break?!”  or “What are the teams this year for Color War?”!

* Hearing the score Giants 21, Patriots 17 at Morning Line-Up!  (Sorry Eagles fans.  Had to do it one last time!  I promise.)

* The sound of campers riding hondas and quads!  (Those new ATVs were so cool!)

* Camper siblings that happen to see each other and give a hug or high five!

* Tie Dye T-Shirts made in the Art Shack!  They were awesome this summer!

* Campers telling me they got up on water skis for the first time!

* Campers and counselors dressing up for Crazy Night!

* Seeing who got TAC Awards!

* Taco Tuesdays!

* Senior and CIT Boys playing in NBA games during 6th Period!

* GaGa games at Free Play!

* Surfboard Games at the Lake!

* Watching campers go down the zip line!

* Hearing J.Cal sing “Call Me Maybe”!  Could possibly be his favorite song of all time?!

* Seeing campers practice, then perform their MTV Night routines!

* The 2012 CITS!  They were awesome!  Thanks for a great summer!

Much more to be missed.  Already counting down the days until Summer 2013!  How many is it?

Have a great day!

-Brian

After months of planning and waiting, the first day of camp is about to begin!!  Campers have loaded onto buses, and we are just waiting for them to arrive at Canadensis so the summer can begin!

We cannot wait!!

We’ve been having a lot of fun at pre-camp!  As we are waiting for our full staff to arrive for orientation, BeckyJ has been up here doing all sorts of odd jobs, and getting crafty!  She made some super fun photo props that we’ll be using at the photo stations at dances this year, and we couldn’t help but try them out!

She’s also been using the Accucut to create posters for our TAC (Tagged At Canadensis) Program.  It recognizes campers that go above and beyond in making Canadensis a warm and caring place.  When a camper gets a TAC, they get a Camp Canadensis dogtag, and their name goes up in the Dining Hall.  BeckyJ made these cute posters to display the names!

You’ll see them in 15 days!

If you come to camp from PA or South Jersey, you’ve probably driven by the Stonewall Garden Center at the bottom of our camp hill a hundred times.  I stopped in there for the first time a few days ago with Aunt Terri & Cara, and I fell in love!  Gardening is one of the new hobbies I picked up this past year, and this place has some beautiful plants.  We picked out some plants that accentuate the absolutely beautiful setting we have at Camp Canadensis.  The hanging basket I’m holding is now at camp, and hanging outside the main entrance to the Dining Hall.Aunt Terri is a gardening pro…she knows what grows well in the Poconos, how to arrange everything, and how to keep it safe from the deer who like to eat plants as a midnight snack!  I learned so much from her, and we loaded up the car full of beautiful plants to bring home and place around camp.  We spent hours getting everything potted, and picking out the perfect spots…it was so much fun!  We hope you’ll enjoy seeing them this summer.  Only 17 more days to go!

We know that parents who are getting a child ready for their first summer away from home have lots of questions, there is a lot to prepare.  In order to help make this process easier, we’ve been putting together “Camp Canadensis How-To” videos, with the help of our amazing Canadensis Today Show producer, Jason “JCal” Calabretta.  The first video, “How To Send and Receive Mail At Camp” went online today.

In the video, we mention that you should create your own “Fill Ins” with information you want to know about your child’s experience at camp.  In order to get you started, I’ve created a sample that you can print and even pack your child with!  Click here to download and print it.

Feel free to even share it with friends who are sending children to other overnight camps.  Lookout for more great How To videos in the next few weeks before campers leave for camp!  If you have a topic you’d like us to cover in a video, please be in touch!  Pam@canadensis.com or 570-595-7461.

(and yes, I do wish I was Martha Stewart…)