June 2008
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Second trip to the corn fields

Well, as you can see, the corn has shot up quite a bit (compare with the first corn picture below).  Since the last time Jeremy and I went out to the fields a lot has happened.  Our returning counselors arrived at camp for a two-day conference, followed by our entire staff and an amazing orientation week.  We had our first "settling in day" for the first-session campers.  And then the big day camp, the first day of camp.  We've just finished a fun and exciting week of camp and I've just heard in from the last of the bus counselors letting me know that everyone is home safely.  As a camp week ends we feel both tired and energized.  We manage to pack a lot into one week and we make lots of friends.  It's a wonderful feeling to see so many people come together as one family, having fun, being good to each other, smiling and laughing.  There's a spirit in camp that's hard to find anywhere else.  So the corn grows higher and we look ahead to another spectacular camp week.  We'll see what happens next at camp and how high the corn is by the Fourth of July.

Tom
 

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Only at camp

One of the things I enjoy about a typical day at camp is that so many odd and funny things can happen.  For instance, I'm at the salad bar and two campers come up to me and perform a song they have written about croutons.  No, it's a real song and it has a point.  Then I sit at a table with campers who have a pair of magical sun glasses (it did many very cool things).  Walking through the quad at Clubs there's a group playing the strangest version of Ultimate I'd ever seen and it had everyone assuming different names and laughing hysterically.  As I'm walking back later, by this same group of campers and counselors, I suddenly find myself at the head of a conga line, with the hysterical laughter continuing of course.  Then Dave Heath, who is walking along the path to Van Winkle, suddenly breaks into this "new walk" that is hard to describe but involves floppy arm movements and shorter steps and it looks very funny but isn't very practical.  And now as I'm finishing up my day and heading off to the dorm for some sleep and thinking, "All of this could only happen at camp," I see Global Rover signs all over the place.  What could this mean?  I can only guess, but I'm sure it's some other new, crazy, odd camp-type-thing.  And I'm more excited than ever to see what surprises are in store for me tomorrow.

Tom 

Sunday, June 22, 2008

On the eve of camp's first day

It's Sunday night and I'm supposed to get some extra sleep for the big day tomorrow, but I'm too excited to sleep.  To work off some of the excitement, we went bowling tonight with our staff assistants.  But we're back at camp and all that's left between now and summer camp is a good night's sleep.

This is summer #18 for Campus Kids and it's actually true that we have the same excitement that we had our very first day in 1991.  It never gets boring.  How could it?  We've just finished an amazing time together with our staff, a unique group of talented people who have brought their energy, enthusiasm, skills and varied cultural backgrounds to share with our lucky campers this summer.  You should have seen our staff yesterday -- our first "settling in day" -- as they came alive with excitement to see the campers and their parents.  All of our preparation and training and orientation suddenly made sense.  It's all about the kids and this staff is going to have an amazing summer with our campers, no doubt.

I am very grateful for the incredible amount of work this entire staff has put into preparations for the summer.  I am excited to see our returning camper friends tomorrow and the first-time campers.  I'm excited for the challenges we will face, the fun we will have, the memories we will create.

So I'd better try to get some sleep because tomorrow is the best day of the year.

Tom

Friday, June 13, 2008

A Corny Blog

Tom & Jeremy here.  Every summer at camp, we take lots of car trips passed Donaldson's Farm.  It's located right behind the college.  They sell wonderful fresh fruit and homemade pies.   You can also go there for strawberry picking this time of year. 

One thing they grow a lot of at Donaldson's is corn.  We always joke that you can tell which week of the summer it is by how tall the corn is.  Today, we thought it might be neat to get out of the car and take some pictures.  We were thinking... why not check in on the progress of the corn each week.  You'll see how quickly it grows!  By the end of the summer it will be taller than the camp director. 

So check back every week this summer and see pictures as the corn  grows!  Well, guess we'd better get back to work.  Our returning staff arrives tonight to join us at camp.  Tomorrow begins their orientation and the new staff arrive on Sunday!  It's so exciting!

Jeremy & Tom

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A quiet midnight at the sundial.

Being at camp this time of year is strange because everything is so quiet.  No campers yet.  Just a few staff members.  Tonight I left the office in Van Winkle and walked across the quad, stopping at the sundial to look up at the sliver of a moon and enjoy the somewhat cooler air (compared to the blazing hot day).  The dorms were mostly dark and empty and I didn't see or hear another person.  That will change soon, as the counselors arrive and then the campers.  And when I stand out at the quad late at night then, there will be energy in the air and a feeling of excitement for the coming camp day.  It won't be long now.  I enjoy a peaceful night like this, but I'm ready for a change.  Camp is coming.  I'd better get some sleep.

Tom 

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Gubjub goes to camp!

As some of you know, this is the week that Tom and I head up to camp and start setting up the camp office.  There's lots to do in order to make it ready for all the campers arriving on June 23rd so we've been pretty busy.  The leadership team arrives tomorrow and the rest of the staff start showing up a week later.  I'm actually in the middle of packing right now but I took a break when a friend of mine gave me a call to make plans to get together once I have a free weekend (not until July for me).  I've talked to a lot of my friends this week who I won't see for a while and went out for a fancy dinner with my wife yesterday.  I really get into being at camp when I am there and tend to miss a lot of what's going on in the "real world" during the summer.  Apart from saying, "see you later" to people in the real world... I must also say goodbye to people in the World of Warcraft.  Hee hee hee! 

When we're not out snowboarding or backpacking, my wife and I play an online game some of you may know about called the World of Warcraft.  It's a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (or MMORPG for short).  It's a video game that takes place in a fantasy setting where you team up with other players against all sorts of adversaries.  Some of them are computer generated bad guys, but sometimes we also play in battles against other players.  Although it's a lot of fun, I don't have much time to play over the summer.

My character is Gubjub, the troll shaman.  According to wowwiki.com, a shaman is "Shamans are spiritual visionaries of tribes and clans. These gifted healers can see into the world of spirits and communicate with creatures invisible to eyes of normal beings. They are beset by visions of the future and use their sight to guide their people through troubled times. Although the shaman may seem wise and serene at first glance, he is a formidable foe; and when angered, his wrath is as fierce as those who have a connection to Eternals or nature."  But really, I mostly just throw lightning bolts at the bad guys. 

Vanessa plays Virika, the troll priestess.  "Priests are the masters of healing and preservation, restoring their wounded allies, shielding them in battle, and even resurrecting their fallen comrades. While they have a variety of protective and enhancement spells to bolster their allies, priests can also wreak terrible vengeance on their enemies, using the powers of shadow or holy light to destroy them. They are a diverse and powerful class, highly desirable in any group, capable of fulfilling multiple roles."  Thanks again, wowwiki.com!  Ain't she cute?

We play in the World of Warcraft as part of guild known as Resolve.  Resolve is a raiding guild.  That means we get together in groups of 25 players (!) and go up against the nastiest, toughest bad guys in the game!  We also run smaller raids (sometimes called instances) in groups of 10.  It's a lot of fun.  Even when we can't win against the bad guys, we'll keep at it and we keep trying.  For those of you who play, our current nemisis is the evil Lady Vashj! 

Resolve is a group of people from all over the country and all over the world.  We have players in Europe, Australia and Asia.  We talk and joke around over microphone headsets while we play.  Alright... I know it's a little geeky but we have fun.  Vanessa actually got really in to WoW while I was away at camp last summer. 

So anyway, I just thought this might be fun to tell you about.  Sometimes, I think we play too much and I am looking forward to doing all the fun stuff at camp.  Goodbye Resolve!  Goodbye World of Warcraft!  Hello Campus Kids!  It will be nice to be playing out in the quad and skateboarding out back. 

And if you're reading this Emma... I want a rematch in Spit!

See you all soon!
Gubjub the troll,
or Jeremy the assistant director of Campus Kids.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Say "hi" to everyone in the office

We get lots of messages from current and former campers and staff.  Often they include something like this: "Say hi to everyone in the office."   So we do.

I say "hi" to Jeremy.

Jeremy says "hi" to me. 

That takes care of everyone.

When people say that, we think they are imagining camp as they know it, up in Hackettstown in the summer with all those wonderful staff, including a fantastic office staff.  In just a couple of days we'll start our summertime move from Madison to Hackettstown where we will happily greet our staff as it grows over the next two weeks to about 70 people.  It will be our pleasure to say "hi" to each one of them.

It's about time camp got started.  We can't wait.

Tom

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Goodbye, Lou

With tears running down my face, I am writing to tell you that our dear friend Lou Brauner died yesterday.  He would have been 96 on July 8.

Lou had been a van driver for Campus Kids-NJ back in the days that we leased and drove our own vans to take kids to offsite activities and to pick up some of the campers who lived off the normal bus routes.  A professional school bus driver at that time, Lou filled his summers for about ten years working for Campus Kids.  However, he was so much more than just a driver to us.

Lou was the spirit of energy, life and friendship.  Camp meant a great deal to Lou and he was a very special friend to each of us.  Even after he no longer was able to drive, Lou came up to camp for visits, spoke at announcements to the campers and staff and managed in just a few hours to charm each person and to make yet another group of friends.

Lou had several careers during his long life.  Son of an immigrant Hungarian family living in Elizabeth, NJ and raised by his mother, Lou was fortunate that a friend of the family paid for him to go to camp as a youth.  He spent many years living in Cranford, during which time he was a butcher and then found a career at the Western Electric division of AT&T.  He had a wonderful family, including his daughter and her husband, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Lou’s beloved wife Alice passed away the year before he found Campus Kids and he often reminded me that the joy of camp and his love of the campers and staff filled a huge void in his life.

Lou wrote faithfully for the “Sundial”, our camp newsletter.  His articles were poetic, philosophical and complex.  Yet they were simple in their expression of love for people and for life and for the appreciation of every moment that is given to us.

Many CK old timers will remember Lou’s powerful “lumberjack handshake” and I recall many times in the dining room when there would be a line of senior campers eager to see if they could hang on to Lou’s hand as he sawed back and forth.  Some very old timers will also remember how he got his nickname, “Cannonball Lou”.  He had gone to pick up a group on a day trip and they were swimming when he arrived.  He looked so eager to join them, that someone loaned him a pair of shorts (which were much too big for the ever-lean Lou) and he gleefully ran like crazy, jumped off the edge and performed a magnificent cannonball dive.  Pretty good for a granddad.

Many times at the end of a summer camp season, Lou traveled to Hungary to visit the scores of relatives he had there.  He was still fluent in the language and would bring what I would call “care packages” of clothing and other items that were not available in the country at that time.  His treasure trove included Campus Kids t-shirts and the summer’s worth of “Sundial” issues!  I can imagine him reading those aloud to all the relatives.

I recently spoke to Lou as he was in physical therapy, following open-heart surgery, and we made plans to celebrate his 96^th birthday at camp this summer.  He was really looking forward to being at camp for that party and, I’m sure, was already working on his speech to the campers and staff.  Lou never shied away from the limelight or the microphone.

For those of you who knew Lou, his daughter Carol says that Lou very specifically did not want a memorial service of any kind.  She asks, though, that we all raise a glass to “the memory of his wonderful life” on July 8.  It’s the least we can do to honor a dear friend and a life lived with a richness beyond any reasonable expectations.

I miss you, Lou.

Tom

P.S. -- Our web photo journalist of the past two years, Matt Lurrie, wrote a very nice piece about one of Lou's birthday visits to camp.  I share it here: http://www.campuskids.com/nj06/articles/Lou.htm

 

June 2008
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