Its still cold! The weather is playing games with us, going from extreme heat to extreme cold for this time of the year! The nights have been dropping to the 40’s (Fahrenheit for you Aussies reading along). We have a school from Philly (common theme on the precamp posts), and despite the chilly temps and overcast skies, they are having a blast. I mean come on, they are at Camp Canadensis after all! It’s so refreshing having “kids” running around camp- climbing the wall, boating in the lake, doing tie-dye in the art center, etc. but it still isn’t the same as camp time. Only a few more weeks until we get to greet all of you back up here for another great summer.
We have been getting rave reviews on the food this year. We have switched our main food supplier to a large company from NJ and they seem to have fresher ingredients and better products. Our London Broil tonight (Flank steak) marinated of course by cook Silas, was great! Tomorrow is grilled cheese and fries (cheese toasties anyone) and then the group leaves.
They have also been commenting on how great our staff have been. They told us that this year the staff seem to be even more accomodating than usual and asked if we did any extra training. I was extremely proud to hear this, because our counselors and staff are on the “front lines”. They are the ones running our activities, serving the food, and keeping the facility running in good, clean condition. Our precamp staff is small- 16 counselors, 4 kitchen girls, 6 kitchen guys, and a few of the “head staff”. They are truly working so hard and it’s great to hear compliments.
Speaking of our staff, this past Tuesday they had a day off. Some of us head staff folks took advantage and went out for dinner to give our kitchen staff a break. Brian Krug, Justin Winch, Sam Ginsburg, Cara Corradetti, and I crammed into a booth at Texas Roadhouse in Stroudsburg, PA near our local mall and enjoyed a bloomin’ onion type thing (called a Cactus Blossom), fresh rolls, pulled pork, steaks, etc. Our waitress was especially nice and gave me a brand new sealed bottle of Roadhouse Gold Steak Sauce to take home and Justin/Brian received their famous rolls to go!
Sam Ginsburg (as I mentioned above) arrived at the perfect time to go out to dinner! Sam was a camper at camp and is now in his 10th summer at camp. Last year, the Operations Office welcomed Sam and he was a fabulous addition to our staff. Sam, Unger, and Forti- the Operations team (or as some Juniors called it last summer, the Optional Office) is now complete and we are in full swing getting everything in pristine shape for the upcoming new camper Open House and then Opening Day!
So as you can see there is alot going on up here. Will Armon will be arriving on June 1 and he doesn’t know it yet, but he will be driving all of the precamp staff out to the local bowling alley as a special thank you for all that the staff do up at camp!
One final thought- yesterday marked exactly one month until the opening day of camp. I couldn’t be more excited. The winter office staff (including me) works extremely hard 10 months each year for the upcoming 7 weeks of camp! Memorial Day weekend just passed which is the unofficial start of summer for most Americans. The official start of summer (as the highers ups in the world determine) starts on June 21. However, for Eric Forti, the absolute official start of Summer 2009 is on June 27, 2009 when the buses roll past the parking lot and park at the main office and we welcome both new and returning campers to their summer home. I am looking forward to seeing all of you soon and good luck with packing, because trunks will be picked up before you know it!
P.S.- Remember to login to the media room from our homepage for our latest Canadensis 411 and additional videos to be posted soon!
