It’s the winter, and that means travel season for all of us who work full time at camp! I wanted to tell you about some of my recent journeys, and I hope you’ve been following along through the facebook group, twitter and instagram as Eric & Matt went to Eastern Europe, Brian & Cara went to Michigan, Ohio and Western PA, and Eric went to New Zealand and Australia!
My first trip was to Maryland for a camp fair. We offer bus transportation from Bethesda to camp, so we went down to spread the word!
Jason “JCal” Calabretta is a Senior at Geroge Washington University in D.C., so I got to spend a bunch of time with him. He came to both days of the fair, and showed me around D.C. at night. JCal is an amazing volunteer, he worked so hard at the fairs!
The highlight of the weekend was getting to see our existing Canadensis families in Maryland! Pictured above from left to right:
Lauren, Freshman Girl, 2nd summer at camp.
Emily, Freshman Girl, 2nd summer at camp.
Dani, Junior Counselor, 10th summer at camp.
Haley, Upper Inter Girl, 4th summer at camp.
Ben, Super Senior Boy,2nd summer at camp.
Marshall, Lower Inter Boy, 4th summer at camp.
Jes, Lower Inter Girl, 2nd summer at camp. 
We sort of turned it into a Maryland Canteen on the Fly, and decorated t-shirts!
On the second day of the fair, Pete Skurman came to volunteer as well…he was a huge help, especially when he used his Spanish skills to speak with an interested family – muy impresionante!
Volunteer all day, and get some t-shirts! Here are some “new” vintage shirts I found for Pete & JCal as a thank you for spending their weekend with me!
The next big trip for work was to Paris for more camper recruitment! We attended 3 camper fairs at bilingual schools. Having a small number of French campers at Canadensis each year has added an exciting dynamic to our program.
Liam has been at camp for the past two summers, and it was so great to see him and his mom! He is currently in 7th grade, and his Bar Mitzvah is only a few weeks away. School is incredibly busy for him, but he’s still finding ways to have fun!
Dave came on the trip and was a huge help navigating a foreign country, and talking to interested parents where there were 5+ families waiting to get information about all the activities we have at Canadensis! When we weren’t at the fairs, we walked a lot – we trekked over 20 miles exploring Paris, and it was great to see the city on foot!
Later today I’m off to Arizona for staff recruitment…can’t wait to see our 2012 staff members, and find awesome new people to join us in 2013! My travel isn’t even halfway done, so stay tuned!
