Last week, I spent some quality time with Devyn & Derek in Great Neck, NY.  Devyn is a current 2nd grader, who will be a Lower Junior Girl for her first summer at camp. Big brother Derek is a current 5th grader, who will be an Upper Inter Boy coming to camp for his second summer.  They both planned ahead for my visit, and greeted me at the door wearing camp gear – Devyn was wearing a Canadensis sweatshirt, and Derek was wearing the awesome t-shirt he made during tie-dye week at camp last year!

Devyn came to camp for the Tour & More Overnight this summer, and that’s when I first got a chance to know this spunky girl!  During the home visit, we spent time talking about the best parts of the overnight at camp, and she is so excited to be able to spend a full summer enjoying the Canadensis fun!  Devyn says that she is the “perfect mix” of both of her parents – she got her love of fashion from her mom, and her sporty side from her dad.  She loves to play gaga, swim and she likes anything that is tie-dyed.  During the year, she stays busy with after school activities – including dance classes 3 nights a week!  She also makes time for gymnastics and tennis, and she is excited about doing those activities at camp.  She’s excited for everything!

Her favorite food is pasta & cheese.  This girl really takes her pasta seriously, and she even showed off a full drawer in her kitchen that is stocked for her!  Her birthday is coming up on January 23rd, and because we are both born on the 23rd of the month, we share a mutual lucky number of 23!  Since her half birthday will be during camp, she asked if she could have a pizza party on the back deck…but she understands those parties are only for “full” birthdays!  Luckily, Visiting Day is only two days beforehand, so she can save a special snack to share with her bunk.  Without a doubt, Devyn will be a fun girl to be bunkmates with – and she told me that she’s really good about applying sunscreen, so she’ll help all her camp friends remember too!  We just have to work on her love of gum chewing because it’s not allowed at camp!

While I was hanging out with Derek, he was online reading the camp Twitter feed!  He was excited to go through the camp clothing catalog that I dropped off and see pictures of his friends – he’s been seeing camp people a lot!  He really appreciated the Camp Canadensis “Coca Cola” T-shirt I brought for him, and I even got to see him wearing it at the reunion a few days later while he was hanging out with friends.

Devyn & Derek have a perfect Color War winning streak so far – regardless of what camp they’ve been at, they’ve always been on the team that came out on top!  Let’s hope they are on your team at camp this summer!!

We are so lucky to have an amazing staff at Canadensis – and I wanted to dedicate this blog post to one of them…

Rebecca is lovingly known by everyone at camp as “BeckyJ” and she loves summer camp so much that she is even studying it in college!  She has recently signed up to return to camp for her 13th year – and for the first time, she will be in the role of Group Leader!  We are so fortunate to have her at camp – she is creative, thoughtful, and makes everything more fun!  She is passionate about all things Canadensis, and has limitless spirit!  She is a two time Blue Team Color War Captain (as a CIT and counselor) and she can probably sing you every Color War Alma mater that has ever been written.

BeckyJ is always volunteering to help, or do more.  She has been up during pre-camp for two years (and she’ll be back this year too), working in the office to help with administrative tasks.  She’s willing to do anything – we’ve had her sorting t-shirts, cleaning buildings, calling new staff members and even making Harry Potter quizzes!  She sacrifices her precious college winter break to come into our office to volunteer!  She was here twice this week, and she put together promotional boxes, rolled posters for the Reunion, helped us with a mailing, and above all else, she brought extra spirit and fun to the office!

We are so thankful to have BeckyJ in our Canadensis family – and I am personally lucky to have her in my life!  She sent us a super sweet thank you fruit basket this week…it’s just more proof of how wonderful she is!

Now that we’re officially on our way to summer 2012, it’s time to introduce this summer’s CITs!!! Every few days I’ll be updating the blog to feature a new 2012 CIT. Keep checking back to read all about this summer’s rockstars!

Brett Feldman

Hobbies when you’re at home: Hangin’ with friends and dreaming about being a CIT someday.

Years at Camp: 4 going on 5.

One fact about you: I regret not coming to camp sooner.

Favorite Camp Activity: NBA, not even close.

Favorite Camp Memory: Winning showcase and rope burn last summer.

Best Advice for a First Time Camper: Get along with your bunk and cherish being at camp because it only lasts for 7 weeks.

One thing you’ve never done at camp that you’re going to do this summer: Be a counselor for part of the day.

If you could plan your own perfect camp day, what would it look like: Sleeping through breakfast then waking up and seeing my bunkmates shining faces, having basketball elective in the morning, then having a taco salad for lunch made by the great Dara Zeltt. After lunch i would like to take a long nap and have NBA in the afternoon. Then having BBQ for dinner and finishing the night with MTV night and canteen.

I had a super fun trip to Long Island last week, and I got to hang out with two sets of twins that will both be coming to camp for their first summer!

First, I met Alexis & Ilana who current 3rd graders, and will be Junior Girls at camp this summer.  When I rang their doorbell in Roslyn, they answered wearing the adorable airbrushed Canadensis shirts above!  I’ve gotten to meet these girls a few times…I gave them their tour of camp this summer, they came back to visit their cousin the next day for Visiting Day (Zach S was in boys bunk 8 last summer), and I saw them at the Canteen on the Fly in Long Island…but there is still so much stuff I didn’t know about these awesome girls!

Ilana is super sweet and did an excellent reading of reading the packing list reminders about not over packing for camp!  Her favorite colors are red and purple…so maybe she’ll decide to decorate her camp bed that way?  Alexis is ready for an adventure and will be the first to get in line for a big scary roller coaster!  She was wearing a Mets shirt, which shows some of her “team spirit” and she’s also very patient (she waited with no problems while we were checking out Ilana’s room first).  Her favorite colors are blue and pink.  After the girls had shown me their rooms (both of them have a chair FILLED with stuffed animals in their room…so cute!), we went to their basement and wow! They have super cool parents who have let them and their friends write on the walls!  There were names and pictures drawn everywhere…and “Canadensis” was up on the wall a bunch too!  The girls even asked me to add my name, so I wrote it in their favorite colors – it was a big honor!

They already know a lot of stuff about camp because their mom is a Canadensis Alumni.  Dad also went to sleepaway camp (the same one I grew up at!) and since cousin, Zach was at Canadensis last summer, they watched every episode of the Canadensis Today Show, and they are huge fans!  They also have excellent memories, so they remembered the names of staff members, evening activity programs, camp shows, meals…and pretty much every detail about camp there is to know!  They even remembered that my favorite snack is a can of Fresca with a Red Vine as a straw, and they sent me home with a thoughtful gift that I will be enjoying soon!They’ve got tons of excitement and spirit!  We took the photo above to show off their “pizzazz”!  They stay busy during the year with after school activities, including dance classes, gymnastics and tennis.  They also like drama, and they suggested we do “The Lion King” or “Mary Poppins” this summer – both are great suggestions!  Alexis & Ilana are good skiers, so I’m sure they’ll be water-skiing around Lake Lenape this summer! During dinner, we enjoyed some good food (including a candy popcorn cake for dessert!), and the girls told me how much they love sauce! That means I’m going to have to warn their counselors about not wearing white shirts on pasta day!  During dinner, we took a break to answer their really well planned questions about camp (see below) and they even did some “line dances” including the “Dougie” – they are totally ready for the Rak Dan Evening Activity this summer! Their birthday is only a few days away, and I wish them a ton of fun and their glow-in-the-dark roller skating party!

About 20 minutes away, I also met with twins who live in Melville, LI.  Jessica and Amanda are current 4th graders, who will be Lower Inter Girls at camp for their first summer.  Because my visit ran a bit long, the girls and I were up until almost 10PM on a school night – but they said they have no trouble staying up late…luckily, they are good at waking up in the morning too!

Jessica (or maybe she’ll go by the nickname “Jessie”) is super bubbly, and loves to talk!  She has a personality that sparkles, almost as much as the sequiny shirt she was wearing!  She was telling me about some of her favorite activities at her day camp, including the time she caught a coy fish!  Amanda is incredibly sweet, and had some awesome questions to ask about camp!  Amanda has a lot of nicknames she likes to use, including A.J. & Mandy, but she’ll let you know what she wants to be called this summer!  The girls already know a bunch about camp because they took a tour last summer, they came to Canteen on the Fly to meet all of the camp staff, and best of all…they are friends with someone who came to camp last summer!  Sarah A. was in girls bunk 4, but she will be a Lower Inter with Jessica and Amanda this summer.  Sarah’s been giving them all the inside information about things like Color War and flashlight time.

Some of their favorite activities include soccer and dance.  They also really like playing tennis, which is great because they have tennis courts right across the street from them!  We will definitely teach them some extra tennis skills at camp which will improve their game!  They are really excited for the ropes course and zip line at camp, and they are planning to work on their bike riding skills so they can hit the 12-miles of private Canadensis trails!  Amanda & Jessica actually have bunk beds at home…how cool!?  When I asked who slept on top, they said they switch every night, which proves they are great at sharing, and will be awesome bunkmates this summer.

I ended the home visit by going out to the car with their dad, and putting the “Camp Canadensis” magnet on the trunk!  It’s official now, and all of Long Island will know where Amanda & Jessica are going to camp!

So, I told you above how Ilana & Alexis had really organized questions about camp…they actually made these giant posters that you see above which are covered with questions!  I’ve never seen such an awesome display!  If you have a home visit with one of the Canadensis directors, you definitely do not have to make an amazing art project like this (unless you have a snow day with time to waste!) – but it’s so important to spend some time in the days before thinking about questions to ask!  We want to make sure campers and parents feel completely comfortable asking us anything…but if you forget anything, you can always call, email, tweet, facebook message, blog…

I just wanted to do a quick blog post with some photos from our AMAZING camp reunion this weekend!!  We had nearly 300 campers, and many more staff members, join us for some winter time camp fun!  Thank you to everyone for coming out and being so flexible about the location change.  Can’t wait for summer 2012!!

Alex, Josh M., Ben, Josh R. & Alec – They will all be back for their second year as a Lower Inter Boy in 2012

Valerie is coming to camp for her third summer, and will be an Upper Inter Girl

Jordan will be coming to camp for her 2nd year in the Junior Girls division, and she was randomly selected to be the first recipient of our new Flat Indian Head – which will travel to different campers this year, just like “Flat Stanley”.  I know she’ll do a great job with it!!

Okay, I know this might sound lame…but this blog post is all about the dog sweater I crocheted for Annie.  Annie loves camp almost as much as I do, and although the kids at camp might paint her nails or use washable hairspray to make her blue & gold for Color War, she really doesn’t dress up much (except for her Halloween costume!).  I don’t expect to use this sweater much – but it was a really good project for me to learn new skills, and now that I’m telling the whole Canadensis community about it, I’m just going to proudly admit that I made a dog sweater.  Anyway, we are in the photo above showing off our crochet creations (I made the scarf I’m wearing).

I’ve never made any clothing before, and the idea of making a shirt for me seemed overwhelming, so I made this instead.  The sweater is orange with beige details and monogram.  This was my first time learning how to make a letter in crochet, and I found this tutorial really helpful.  The collar is ribbed crochet, there is a cable running down each side of the letter, and the stitching around the arms and bottom are slipstitches.

You can see that I started with the collar at the neck, and the sweater grew and grew from there.  I had to keep trying it on her to make sure it fit, and I took a photo each time.  Whenever you are crocheting with multiple colors, you have a lot of loose ends to weave in at the end, which is my least favorite step, so I wait until the project is finished to do them all.

Annie was very cooperative with my crochet experiment, and I think she enjoyed her trip around the block to show it off…

The Camp Canadensis Reunion location has been changed!!