September 2008
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Monday, September 29, 2008

Our First (and soggy) Open House

Yesterday was amazing.  It was our first chance to show our people -- the CK-NJ family -- our new summer home at Blair Academy.  It couldn't have been worse weather -- pouring rain the entire time -- but over 250 campers, parents and staff came out and we had a great time.  We organized groups for tours and saw everything on campus: dorms, sports facilities, fine and performing arts facilities, dining room, etc.  By the end of each tour we were soaked, but very happy.  I think it's clear now to everyone who came to the open house why we are so happy to be making Blair our camp home.

Yesterday was like a bonus reunion!  We usually don't see so many camp people together until our official reunion time in December.  So it was extra fun to see everybody so soon.  In addition to all the campers, siblings and parents, we had some of our staff on hand to help out.  Staff assistants were a HUGE help: Adam B., Paula, Stevey, Emma, Meg, Ali, Abi, Doug, Matt.  Other staff included Jeremy, Vanessa, Stu, Teri, Sam T., Jimmy C., Donald and Ryan.  And we had lots of help from the directors of our other two CK camps: Jani (Minisink) and Brad (Conn.). 

If you missed the open house, don't worry.  We can still show you camp (we'd love to!).  Just contact us to schedule a tour on a Saturday or Sunday.  Bring your family and/or camp friends.

Tom

Monday, September 22, 2008

A Saturday trip to Blairstown

As you know, this past Saturday was a beautiful day and, as it turned out, a perfect one for a trip to Blairstown.  Stu, Jeremy, Teri and I met in Parsippany and drove out together in my van to visit our new summer camp home, Blair Academy.  Although I have been on the Blair campus quite a bit by now, Teri had never been there and Stu and Jeremy had had just a couple of visits.  So we were all very excited as we pulled into town, drove through the Blair gates and up Academy Drive to the top, where we parked.  Stu had his camera, of course, and we started our walk around the campus.  It was one of Blair's "Community Weekends", which means everyone was on campus.  They had classes in the morning (yes, Saturday classes!).  Sports and and other activities were in the afternoon and they had lots of fun (camp-like) activities planned for the rest of the weekend (we saw tie-dying on the big patio of the Annie Hall dorm).

We first saw a very nice outdoor theatre that's on one side of the pond and were very excited about the evening programs and other activities we can have there.  Next we went into the Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts (where we will start our open house tours next Sunday).  We entered through the upper lobby and descended the spiral staircase to the main lobby below.  It's a really beautiful building.  We saw the main theatre, the black box theatre, music rooms and dance studio.  We also visited the wing of the building that houses the arts studios.  The first floor is dedicated to ceramics -- lots of space, wheels, work tables, kilns, etc.  The second floor has five separate studios for a variety of fine arts activities.

Out in front of the arts center is "the bowl" -- a big grassy area that is shaped like (yes) a big bowl.  Also around the bowl are three dorms, one of which will probably be where we have our camp offices and health center in the summer.  We went up the other side of the bowl and saw the vast expanses of sports fields; mostly nice grass fields, but also the synthetic turf football/soccer field.  Next to that we saw Blair's girls tennis teams warming up for an afternoon inter-scholastic match.  We then looked at some possible locations for our skate park.

We next visited the athletics center, which has been under renovation and expansion since last spring and will be completed by this January.  We saw the squash courts, but could not get into the rest of the building due to the construction.  There are several gyms, fitness center and swimming pool.  The renovation also includes a new student center with "canteen".

We then saw the rest of the dorms and the dining room.  That made us hungry, so we went down the hill to the small Main Street of Blairstown, where we had lunch and met some of the local people.  We then climbed back up the hill to the Blair campus, where we sat in the quad (I mean bowl) and planned out the details for our first open house on Sunday.

It was a great day.  We're very excited and can't wait to show you the campus on Sunday.  Remember, if you can't make the open house on the 28th, you can just schedule a tour with us on another Saturday or Sunday.  We may also set up another open house date.  We'll let you know.

Tom

P.S. -- Here it is, folks!  The very first shaking of the booty by Stu on the theatre stage.

Friday, September 19, 2008

I am so excited!

So you all know by now that Campus Kids is moving to Blair Academy.  Some of you probably have some big questions and I am sure some others are apprehensive and worried that it just “won’t be the same”.  Well, it won’t be the same.  But every time I think about the fact that we are moving, I get more excited because I am sure that Campus Kids is just going to be AMAZING at Blair Academy. 

First of all, I’ve never thought of Campus Kids as a place made out of bricks.  What I mean is that, camp was always defined as the group of people – the kids and counselors, who every year became a family by the end of the summer.  Although we’ve had lots of good times at Centenary over the years, as a facility to house the camp, Blair has a lot more to offer us. 

There is so much to look forward to.  I can’t wait for our athletics program to soar on synthetic turf fields, beautiful new tennis courts, and an awesome running track.   The performing arts has always been a popular activity area at Campus Kids-NJ.  I personally cannot wait to see our drama and dance shows in an amazing theatre that seats 500 (as in, the whole camp at once)! We’ll have practice rooms and a black box theatre for music and drama games as well.  This summer, at Blair, we’ll have a whole complex dedicated to the fine arts.  We’ll have all the great activities like we did before, like ceramics, arts & crafts, painting, rocketry, silk screening, candle-making and jewelry making.  But now we have more room to have our arts activities in REAL art studios.  Blair gives us so much more space to be Campus Kids in!  As I said before, I CAN’T WAIT!

I assure you we have a fantastic summer ahead at our new home.  It is going to be a fun year deciding exactly how we will use the facilities at Blair and making all the plans for CK-NJ ’09.  Tom, Stu, Teri and I are going to meet there tomorrow and make some preparations for next weekend’s open house.  We’re also going to be doing some more planning for the summer.  I can’t wait to pick out an announcement tree.  I can’t wait to put up our new sundial.  I can’t wait to plan our evening programs.  It’s all so exciting!!! 

I hope we see lots of you out at the open house next weekend!  If you can’t make it, though, make sure you take a tour at some point this year.  Take care!

Jeremy

Friday, September 12, 2008

It's time to move

I'm not the kind of person who likes moving.  In fact, I hate it.  It's even hard for me to pack up each spring and move out to camp, though you'd think I'd be used to it after all these years (and I really do love camp).  Sometimes, though, an opportunity to make a change comes along that you know is exactly right.  It is so perfect that you have no doubt in your mind that you should make the move.

Such is the case right now for Campus Kids-NJ.  We have been at our same Hackettstown location for 18 years.  That's longer than the lifetimes of most of the people in our summer camp community!  So moving is a very big deal.  It is a decision that has come slowly, starting with the realization that our host campus, Centenary College, has some significant changes coming up for the next several years that will create massive construction projects and leave the campus facilities improved for the purposes of the college, but not so ideal for our camp.  So we have been looking around and have found what is an ideal new home.

Blair Academy, one of the most distinguished private boarding schools in the country, is a perfect setting for our camp and the timing is great from the school's point of view for them to host Campus Kids-NJ.  So we have been talking and planning and answering lots of questions for each other and, finally, have agreed that this is a good match.

It's a huge pleasure today to make this news public and to announce the move to our extended CK-NJ family of campers, parents, staff and alumni.  I can barely describe how excited we are to spend this year preparing for the '09 summer (and beyond) at Blair.

I have always said that camp is not just a particular place or a set of activities.  It is a community of people with a common set of values.  True, what we do and how we structure our day-to-day living is dictated in large part by our physical setting.  But the essence of our camp -- who we are, how we treat each other, what we value -- is separate from a particular place.  It is defined by our friendships, our experiences together and the choices we make.  Theoretically, we could be the same type of community almost anywhere.

But when you have such a special and wonderful community like our camp, our CK-NJ family, you want the physical setting to be just as great as you can make it.  Welcome to Campus Kids-NJ at Blair Academy.  You'll be seeing more photos as we add them to our website, but from the fields and woods to the architecture of the buildings to the dorms to the sports and arts facilities to even the surrounding countryside, this is going to be the right place for our camp.  I can't wait for you to see it.  Please come on out to our Open House (9/28 -- see details on this website) or just schedule a Saturday or Sunday tour with us when you get a chance (bring your family or some camp friends if you want).  We'll be glad to show you around and tell you all about our plans.

Jeremy and I will be using this blog to share our stories as we move through fall, winter and spring and head toward Summer '09.  Our directors, leadership staff, counselors and many more people will be sharing ideas and creating the best summer ever at CK-NJ.  So I hope you will come back for a visit and will also share your questions and suggestions.  We'd love to hear from you.

Tom
 

Friday, September 5, 2008

Charlie and Grandpa Stu

We always get to see the photos at camp that Stu takes, but we don't often get to see photos of Stu himself.  So I thought you'd enjoy seeing a couple of pics from grandson Charlie's (and his parents') recent visit to NJ.  Thank goodness someone grabbed the camera away from Stu so we could have at least one shot of him with Charlie.  We hope Stu slipped a Campus Kids brochure into the diaper bag before they returned home to California.  Maybe by the time Charlie is camper age we'll have a bus run from LA to camp.  Probably the better possibility is for Charlie to convince his parents to move out East.  I know Stu would like that.

Tom 

Monday, September 1, 2008

Back to School

Tomorrow it's back to school for most of our campers.  That really means that summer is over.  Lots of kids complain about the start of school, but I think most of you actually look forward to it.  The start of a new school year is always exciting and it's great to see friends again and talk about what you did during the summer.  You should have plenty of camp stories to share.  Best of luck to you for a great school year.

Here in the Campus Kids-NJ office, it's more like "back to camp" for us.  Sure, there's a whole lot of days to go in the countdown to CK-NJ '09, but some of the most exciting planning for summer camp take place in September and October.  We've already been reading the feedback forms from campers, parents and staff, which have lots of good suggestions and ideas for camp.  Combining those with some of our own good ideas, we are starting to put together the best ideas that will help make next summer another amazing experience.

So while you are concentrating on school, we'll be concentrating on camp.  And months from now when you're getting Spring fever and wishing it was time for camp already, we'll be ready for you.  It will be "back to camp" time before you know it!

Tom

September 2008
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