CampusKidsNJ's Xanga

Changing of the Guard

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:49:31 GMT

Jeremy's week of Canadian snowboarding comes to an end today (assuming he decides to come back!) and I leave early in the morning for a meeting of American Camp Association (ACA) delegates in Orlando. So we have a sort of changing of the guard taking place here in the office.

It was a busy week here in the office, made a bit busier for me by Jeremy's absence. Except for Cheryl T. coming in a couple of times to help out with some office mailings, it was kind of quiet. Last weekend we attended our final camp fair in New Jersey for the year, at the Delbarton School. Paula joined me for that fair and, as always, she brought her full-force of camp energy and enthusiasm. While we chatted up camp with families at the fair, Stu had a full day of tours up in Blairstown. As Jeremy wrote, the Week 9 and Weekend Adventure materials were completed and proofread (with some extra help from summer camp office manager Sharon!) and posted on the website. Don't worry, we'll be mailing them out also, but as usual you'll always read camp info first on the website. Speaking of mailings, all the pieces for what we call the "first parent packet" are finally done and (you guessed it) posted on the website. We've had the Riso cranking away here in CK-NJ Land, printing out all the health forms, clothing lists and other information that we'll be mailing out to enrolled camp families soon.

A highlight of the week was my trip up to Blair to meet with the foodservice director, Sue. We talked about camp menus and all the details of meals and snacks for the coming summer. Since this is our first summer at Blair, I brought the official Frito pie recipe and presented it to Sue. She had never heard of it (imagine!), but will definitely incorporate it into our menus. And we talked about barbecues, ice cream, vegetarian entrees, salad bar, allergies, scheduling and serving and lots more. Sue's had 19 years experience serving school and camp populations and she's excited to work with CK-NJ this summer.

Then our buddy, Dave, one of the main guys at Blair, told me that the school has acquired an additional 125 acres of land out behind the golf course and woods as a buffer. The property was a Girl Scout camp many years ago and has a lake, Lake Genevieve. We're looking forward to doing some fishing there, as well as having campfires by the lakeshore and maybe even some sleep-outs. When the snows melt a bit more, we'll go exploring and let you know more about our plans. In the meantime, I've included a photo of the lake that I took yesterday when I was doing tours at camp. It's a pretty gray winter day, but you begin to get the idea.

Speaking of the golf course, we're looking forward to including that in our program, too, but I'll save that news for another blog.

I'll be back in the office mid-afternoon Wednesday. Check in on Jeremy, if you like, so he won't get too lonely. Oh, and a big Happy Birthday on Monday to Vanessa.!

Tom

Banff, Here I Come!

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 20:27:33 GMT

Okay... So in about one hour I will be heading home to go pack up for a week long vacation at Banff National Park in Canada! Woot! Vanessa and I will be meeting a friend from Calgary up there and doing a heck of a lot of sowboarding. Everyone says the mountains are beautiful up there and the hot springs are not to be missed. I am very eager to experience it all and promis to come back and bore you (or make you jealous) with lots of pictures!

Before I leave, I did want to let you know that I just handed Tom the promotional materials for the Week 9 Adventure Road Trip and this summer's Weekend Adventures. As soon as he proof reads it, it will appear on the CK-NJ page of our website! Keep an eye out for that and sign up! Ryan and I are both really excited about Week 9. We really want lots of campers to sign up and take part in this amazing program!

See you in a week,

Jeremy

Wearing Many Hats

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:36:03 GMT

What do you have to be good at to be a camp director? Roast a marshmallow without burning it up? Maintain a smile and motivate 400 people to have fun in the pouring rain? Be able to explain to a mom why it's a good thing that her daughter hasn't called home all week? Well, these are some handy skills. But probably the most important one is to be versatile: be a "jack of all trades" and "wear many hats". Because it turns out that camp directors end up doing a little bit of everything.

Jeremy and I were talking about this earlier in the week when, suddenly, our main database failed to properly produce the beautiful merge letters we were used to getting with a few simple keystrokes. So we quickly switched hats and became "database troubleshooters". Now I have to admit that, at first, all I wanted to do was smash the offending machine (see photo). Try and try as we might, we just ended up with more paper to feed into our shredder. But then we remembered, "We're camp people. We can fix anything!" And so I put down my hammer and we went to work and, eventually, solved the problem.

That's how it is in the camp world. One minute we're interviewing a counselor applicant, the next we're creating a new web page, then we're consulting with a nurse about updates to the camp health plan, followed by planning the construction of another ga-ga pit, after which we're updating menus, figuring out bus routes or designing a staff training session. On any given day we might be writing articles for our newsletter or collating and stapling it together. We might be planning the summer camp budget or sorting out the unclaimed lost and found for the charity bin. We could be planning a reunion party or opening the mail.

Some of it is exciting, some a little less so. But since it's all about camp, we love what we do. If "variety is the spice of life", then we have very spicy jobs!

Tom

New Stuff!

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:52:58 GMT

Okay... It's been a crazy, busy month and I've got a lot of stuff to tell you about!

First up: We've picked a bunk group theme for camp this summer! It's "Around the World in 40 Days". As we looked at all the theme suggestions sent in, the most popular were all about the countries of the world. Tom and I were thinking that's probably influenced by all the great international counselors we had at camp last summer from places like Columbia, England, Wales, Australia, Scotland, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, and Ireland! We're going to celebrate a different culture every day at announcements. PLEASE NOTE: Our counselors choose the bunk group names from the suggestions you send in. Please click here and give us your suggestions for the names of bunk groups!

Second: There is a new online photo game up on the website now! All you have to do is fill in the chat bubbles for the pictures. It's great fun. Enter as often as you like here. You can also view the past winners here to give you some ideas.

Next: We're putting together the next issue of the Sundial next week. That doesn't mean it's too late to send in an article, poem, letter or piece of artwork. You can email it to us at sundial@campuskids.com or fax it to 973-845-9262. In this issue we'll be introducing the leadership team, some of the staff assistants and some of the campers!

Also: You may have heard some rumors regarding a special project Ryan and I have been working on. We're calling it WEEK 9! That's right folks! We're going on a weekend adventure-style road trip across Pennsylvania and checking out everything cool. We'll be stopping at Hershey Park, Skirmish USA, an indoor water park and much, much more! The trip will feature two nights of camping and 4 nights of staying at hotels. We're even planning a Week 9 talent show so start practicing. The trip we'll be like a week-long Weekend Adventure getaway. Campers entering 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grade are eligible to go on Week 9. All the details for Week 9 will be added to the website in the coming week or so. There will be a write up in the Sundial as well! And before I forget, we're finalizing the details for Weekend Adventures for next summer and that information will go out some time in February.

Finally, on an unrelated note, I got a new snowboard and I can't wait to ride it! As soon as I do, I'm going to post some pics from the slopes.

Keep checking the website for new content!

Take care,
Jeremy

It's Camp Fair Season!

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:27:55 GMT

January is many things to many people. It's skiing and snowboarding time. The start of spring semester at college. Football playoff season. Inauguration month. It's even National Oatmeal Month.

But in the camp world, it's also Camp Fair Time! This year Campus Kids is being represented at many camp fairs in the NJ-NY-CT region (here's the schedule). Weekends are busy for us because some of our staff are at the camp fairs while others are conducting the tours out at camp.

This past weekend, for instance, I had the pleasure of touring a number of families around our beautiful Blair campus -- a real winter wonderland experience. Meanwhile, Ryan was doing his second weekend of camp fairs, Saturday in Eatontown (assisted by Stevey) and Sunday in Bridgewater (assisted by Paula, as you can see from the photo).

At a camp fair, anywhere from 25 to 60 camps of all kinds set up their booths and provide information to the parents and kids who come by looking for camp information. It's fun to meet everyone (whatever camp they choose) because talking about camp is always FUN! We like helping people learn more the fantastic world of summer camp and giving them tips for choosing the right camp for their children. Campus Kids stands out because we are the only weekday sleep-away camp and because we give kids daily choice of their activities. Plus we have such a wide variety of activities and we offer the choice of a campus camp or a cabin camp.

So remember, it may be National Hot Tea Month, but it's also Camp Fair Season!

Tom

White Blanket of Snow

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:52:25 GMT

Camp was covered in a beautiful white blanket of snow this past weekend. Unfortunately, we had to postpone our Saturday tours, but the roads were clear enough on Sunday for us to make the journey to Blairstown to meet the hearty families who came out for a summer camp tour. It was beautiful, as you can see, but very cold and windy. I did the tours and, during a break between them, took a hike around campus to snap some photos. I think I'll enlarge a couple of them and put them on my dorm room wall next summer so on a hot summer day I can think cool thoughts.

Camp tours are really fun because we get to meet kids and their families and talk about camp. The best part is answering questions and finding out all the activities that the new campers are looking forward to. On this particular weekend we were happy to see that the new athletics building construction has moved to the final stages. The field house (two gyms, fitness center, 7 squash courts and aerobics room had opened up a couple of months ago. This weekend the "performance gym" re-opened after its beautiful renovation, as well as the swimming pool (yes, there were swimmers in the water on this cold winter's day -- proof that the pool water is heated). That leaves only the new student center (our "canteen") to be completed in about a month.

It was a busy weekend at Blair, but most of the students and faculty were inside, so the campus was quiet and almost desolate. Some footprints in the snow were the primary evidence that people were around. And then, when the sun came out and the wind died down, some young sledders took advantage of the sloping sides of "the bowl".

Another thing I did to keep warm while waiting for tour families was to enjoy the artwork in the Armstrong-Hipkins arts center. In addition to the gallery with its rotating exhibits, the lobbies and halls of the arts center have lots of interesting paintings on the walls. I share a sample here.

We also had a Campus Kids booth set up at two camp fairs this past weekend, one in Parsippany and one in Teaneck. Thanks to Ryan for taking on camp fair duty on both days and for Stevey's help in Teaneck on Sunday. (Paula was supposed to help on Saturday in Parsippany, but we didn't want her driving in the snowstorm. Sorry, Paula!)

I hope your new year is off to a great start. The pace here at the camp office goes from fast to very fast as soon as the holidays are over, but it's very exciting. Tours and camp fairs are just a part of what happens around here. We'll be sharing more office stories with you throughout the year.

Oh, one more thing. Liz S. visited us just before she had to head back to Buffalo for the second half of her sophomore year. She left in the midst of our measly little snowstorm for the city where Lake Erie dumps "real snow" on you. Stu always wonders why anyone would want to live in Buffalo (he did for a brief time many years ago), but it doesn't seem to faze Liz. Better you than me, Lizzy! Good luck to you and all our college students who are heading back to their academic studies. Which reminds me . . . we also enjoyed visits over the holiday break from Josh K., Jessica L., Erica G. and Lauren B., more of our former campers who are now attending college.

Tom

Summer in December

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:43:55 GMT

It really feels like summer when camp people come over to visit. One of our final visits of the year was from Paula and Stevey, who dropped by to talk about some new staff positions we are creating for Summer ’09. We’ll be adding some support for the activity coordinators in sports, aquatics, fine arts and performing arts – to make our program activities even better than they have been.

Of course, being that these two just completed two years as staff assistants, we didn’t have to think very hard about where to go to lunch. Most of our meeting took place at the local Charlie Brown’s. (And, for those of you who are wondering, “yes” I am still redeeming my large supply of CB coupons.) Our friendly waiter quickly caught on that we were there to talk about camp and, therefore, were in no rush, so he very kindly paced the meal accordingly. So we talked and brainstormed and questioned and made some really cool plans for next summer. And, of course, we ate. But we didn’t have dessert; it wouldn’t have seemed right without Adam and Doug there (two guys who eat Charlie Brown desserts with a certain special “style”).

We’ve had several other visits during the month as we continue to prepare for our next spectacular summer. Dave M. braved a really bad snowstorm to drive over and talk about sports and other camp activities. Donald came on a much sunnier day, also to talk sports as well as aquatics. Lauren B. and Alexa L. (former campers and staff assistants) each came by to talk about being counselors next summer (our kids are growing up!). We even had dinner this month with two alumni -- Mel and Dani -- who are now attending one of our local universities.

Keeping in touch with camp folks and listening to all of their good ideas about camp makes our jobs even more fun and it's an important part of our preparations for the next camp season. There are lots more conversations to come, so we'll be in touch with many more staff members during January.

It's almost time to turn the calendar page to a new year. Thanks to all our camp friends for making 2008 such a fun and meaningful year. Best wishes to you all for a happy and peaceful 2009.

Tom

Friday, December 19, 2008

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:46:08 GMT

A Day At Blair Academy

We had a busy day in Blairstown yesterday. Tom and I met up with Stu out in Parsippany and drove out to Blairstown to go through the dorms and get the information we needed to finalize some planning. Moving to Blair Academy is a big change. We need to figure out things like where and how our offices will be set up, which bunk group will be in which part of which building... that sort of thing.

First off though, we got some lunch. We went to a diner and pizzeria combo that is on Route 521 right off the exit from Interstate 80. The Mediterranean is a great place with nice food and a friendly owner named Millie who has been teaching us a lot of stuff about Blairstown.

After lunch, we went into town and Tom got the mail out of our new post office box in Blairstown (that's just for summer though, keep sending your mail to PO Box 8 in Madison for now!). As exciting as that sounds, the day got even better when we got to Blair Academy.

There we met up with Dave, the facilities director. We chatted a bit but quickly got down to the business of going through every dorm on campus and systematically taking pictures of all the rooms. It took a while but it was time well spent. We really have a full picture of the layout now and can start fine-tuning our dorm decisions. Once we got through the dorms, Dave took us inside the new gymnasium complex. We got to see the performance gym, the field house, the squash courts, the new campus center ("canteen") and even the pool (which is SOOOO nice).

It was a long day, but a good one. Every time we go up to Blair, the people there are warm and friendly. It's a good feeling. We've made a lot of friends there and everyone is excited that Campus Kids is coming.

On that note, I'm leaving soon to go snowboarding for a few days. Everyone have a wonderful and safe holiday!

~Jeremy

Reunion Fun!

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:14:48 GMT

The camp reunion was a huge success! Over 300 campers, their families, and staff gathered in Wayne, NJ at the Ice Vault for an unbelievable camp event. There was ice skating, plenty of pizza and camp spirit everywhere you looked. It was a really good time. I always enjoy seeing so many camp people all in one place. Although I sometimes feel a little odd because this time of year there isn't any frito pie... and it's too cold for shorts (except for Mitch's dad, he's hard core)... and we go to school or work during the day instead of going to activities... It quickly begins to feel like it was just yesterday we were all at camp together. There is so much excitement and so much to catch up on!

We were taking everyone's suggestions for a bunk group theme and if you weren't at the reunion, you can submit your suggestions online here. We'll be announcing the theme very soon.

It was great to see all of you! We took tons of pictures and will be putting up more throughout the week. If you have pics you'd like to contribute to the reunion photo galleries, email jeremy@campuskids.com or tom@campuskids.com.

Write more soon,
~Jeremy

Party! Party!

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:12:29 GMT

So we at the CK office had only a day to recover from the Thanksgiving weekend before we headed off to the annual ACA-NJ (American Camp Association) holiday dinner. And now it's time to get things ready for our big CAMP REUNION party this Sunday! The holiday dinner was actually pretty awesome. Teri and Vanessa joined me and Tom and we had a really great time. It's wonderful to get together with other camps and celebrate what we do.

One of the evening's highlights is a series of auctions that raise money for S.C.O.P.E., an organization that helps send economically disadvantaged children to camp. You can read a lot more about S.C.O.P.E. at their website: http://www.scope-ny.org/. Vanessa and I won a large decorative set of tins that stack up like a Christmas tree and happen to be filled with CHOCOLATE during the silent auction portion. Tom, who normally does quite well in the silent auction, walked away with only two J. Crew caps. One day I'll have to do a blog about all the junk Tom has won at this auction over the years that can be found in our office. Teri didn't win anything in the silent auction but in the big auction she did take home a nice piece of sports memorabilia that's going to end up as someone's Christmas present so I'd better not say any more. Tom won 3 pounds of smoked salmon, a box of 100 mini cheesecakes and 4 sets of silly stilts for camp! I can't wait to set those up!

A highlight for us CKers was that Tom ran the announcements at the dinner. He is the president of the ACA-NJ board of directors, so he was basically the MC of the evening. Vanessa was very upset that the whole room didn't bust out the announcement song. Oh well. If Donald were there, I'm sure we'd have had the whole room singing and clapping. Despite the announcements missing their introductory song, everyone enjoyed the evening. It was a huge success. The food was good, the auctions were fun, the announcements were brief and over $4100 dollars was raised for S.C.O.P.E.!

Before I go, I just want to point out a few things. First, it's not to late to RSVP for the reunion this Sunday. Reunion info can be found here. Also, the latest online photo game closed last week and the winning captions are posted here. Finally, we are taking suggestions for next summer's bunk group theme and all you have to do is click here to enter your suggestions! Enter as many as you like!

I hope to see all of you on Sunday!

Jeremy