|
May 31, 2009
The day before June
In a few hours
we'll turn the page (or click the mouse) to the June page of our calendars.
Children everywhere seem to be excited about that because June contains the
last day of school. But the real reason to celebrate is that is also
contains the first day of camp! For us, that day is June 29 this year,
but we'll be at camp sooner than that.
The first step is to move our office operations from our main office in
Madison up to our summer camp location on the Blair Academy campus. We
take over the first floor of Annie Hall for our reception area, offices and
all that other administrative stuff we need to have to keep camp running
smoothly. Our moving days are June 8 and 9 (and maybe some last trips
back and forth on the 10th). We quickly get the basic office operation
set up and then our leadership team of 12 people (directors, head
counselors, activity coordinators) comes in on the 11th and 12th and starts
right in on a few days of planning meetings (finishing up staff orientation
plans, summer program details, etc.). Nurses Alan and Tina will be
rolling in that weekend (all the way from Utah) and we'll spend the next
week working on the physical stuff to make camp ready -- dorm rooms,
gymnastics equipment, skate park, art rooms, archery, etc. Our
returning counselors arrive on June 18 & 19 and all of our counselors will
be in Blairstown on June 21 for the start of the counselor orientation week.
We're joined later in the week by our staff assistants, which completes the
picture . . . except for the campers!
So the very best
day of all -- by far -- is June 29 when those busses come through the gate,
up the hill and around the curve in front of the theatre, where all the
staff will be waiting to greet our campers!
It's hard to wait for that day, but tomorrow we'll be able to say that camp
starts THIS month! In the meantime, we're working away on all of our
final "to-do lists". And we've still been doing tours; the final
ones for May were yesterday and we'll resume tours on the weekend of June
13.
 By the way, my two sons, Jon and Mike, hadn't yet seen our new site at Blair
Academy and, with busy schedules during the year, weren't able to visit
until two weekends ago when they joined me for a tour with one of our camp
families. I wanted to take some "normal" photos of them at Blair, but
being my sons, they weren't about to let me do that. So here's a
pic of them doing some kind of happy dance (I guess they are expressing how
happy we are to be at Blair Academy).
I hope you're happy, too, and that you're practically jumping out of your skin
with excitement for this summer. I know I am.
Tom |
May 22, 2009
Want to be a camp counselor? Read the instructions!
So this past week,
I've been working on an important project. It's time to revise the
camp's Staff Manual. In this document we try to describe all of
the most important details of the job our counselors need to know. It
really is almost like writing an instruction manual describing how to be a
camp counselor. But a great camp counselor has many different skills
and does so many different things. How do you write an instruction
manual on how to be a camp counselor?
The truth is you
really can't. We can write out the details of the schedule and we can
explain the rules regarding bedtime and how to fill out the activity boards.
Is that really all you need to know about being a camp counselor? No
it's not. No manual can describe everything the camp counselor needs
to be. However, it's helpful for us (the directors) to think about and
put our expectations into words. Our staff can refer to the manual and
know the criteria upon which they will be evaluated. If they are
unsure or don't remember, they can also use it to look up what our rules are
in certain situations that don't come up every day if they are unsure or
don't remember.
And all the while I
am writing this manual, I can't help but think being a camp counselor is a
lot of work and it's far from easy. A camp counselor puts in long
hours. They need to be a friend to the campers. They need to be
good leaders and role models. Camp counselors solve problems more
effectively and creatively than anyone else. They do all of this with
very little personal time and sometimes not enough rest. Somehow, they
always manage to exceed our expectations.
Here's an excerpt
from our staff manual where we begin to describe what a camp counselor is:
A camp
counselor is a very strange person who has decided to leave home and take on
the incredibly demanding job of being friend, teacher, pseudo-parent, role
model, and leader of children, 24 hours a day. These children sometimes
miss their parents and cry, fight with one another, and even wake their
counselors up in the middle of the night because they don’t feel well.
Counselors work hard all day and have little time to themselves. The
parents and friends of these camp counselors tell them how crazy they are
and ask them why don’t they just get a “real job”…
A camp counselor is a magical person who makes a hundred
children smile every day. Children feel safe even though they are away from
home for the first time, because of the time their camp counselors spend
with them. Counselors appreciate the nature of children, respect them as
individuals, and love them for who they are. The campers learn a lot from
their counselors (and they probably teach them a thing or two). These
counselors live and work with their peers in a community that respects,
values and appreciates all that they do. Camp directors, head counselors
and activity coordinators are amazed by the talents and ideas these
counselors contribute to the camp (and are completely baffled as to where
they get all their energy). Our campers will have the best summer of their
lives and leave thinking they want to be just like their counselors…
Camp is right
around the corner. I better get this done. In two
weeks we pack up the "winter" office and head up to camp. I can't
wait!
~Jeremy
May
20, 2009
A very cool weekend.
The weather has been
variable this spring and this past weekend was definitely on the cool side,
temperature-wise. It was also very cool that so many people came out
for tours, both Saturday and Sunday. We had a lot of new camper
families and some of our old timers who hadn't seen the Blair campus yet.
On Saturday, Stu gave a couple of tours with Adam and then explored around
by the dam of Blair Lake, as you can see from these pics:
  On Sunday, I had a full day
of tours. It's always fun to show people around the campus, first of
all because the campus is so nice and second because I never get tired
talking about camp, particularly answering kids'
 and
parents' questions. No two tours are alike because of the different
questions people ask. Dave Morgan was able to stop by in time for the
tour with Sam and Jack, as you can see from this pic. Later in the
day, the Blair students organized for their annual "Blairstock" music
festival and picnic. Sound familiar? It won't be long before
we'll be rehearsing for our 4th annual CampStock music and arts festival.
I can't wait. But actually I can because that's at the end of the
summer and I don't want that to come too soon!
We'll be at camp the next two weekends doing tours, so come on out and see
us if you can (make an appointment please!). It's a beautiful spring
at camp.
Tom
 May
13, 2009
It's not all fun and games.
We love our jobs here at
Campus Kids and folks often say how lucky we are to be able to work on camp
all year round. We agree. But it's not all fun and games.
There's a lot of paperwork and things that you wouldn't normally call fun.
For instance, at this time of year we get piles of paper falling out of our
PO Box and rolling out of the fax machine. It's all of those health
forms and other paperwork that we ask parents and campers to send to us.
Don't get us wrong, this is all very important stuff. But there's a
lot of it and we take the time to read it all so we can be sure that we are
prepared for a safe and fun summer. Sometimes the eyes can become
bleary and the brain a little muddled sorting through all this information!
There's also a lot of filing. We have a running joke here in CK-NJ
Land that filing is "Jay's Work". That's an inside joke that dates
back quite a few years when one of our head counselors, Jay from Texas, came
all the way to NJ for our annual camp reunion. He arrived safely and
then we had one of the biggest snowstorms of recent times, which meant that
we actually had to cancel the reunion! So there was Jay with time on
his hands and nowhere to go, which of course meant that we could take
advantage and put him to work. We had a huge pile of papers for
filing, so we quickly verified that they taught the alphabet in Texas and
put Jay to work. It was an enormous task, but he got it done!
For ever after, our manila folder of filing to be done is called "Jay's
Work". We now cajole other folks who live closer by to drop in to help
us, but if Jay's ever back in the neighborhood, he has dibs.
With all this talk about office work, I need to think about camp, so I share
the photos below that I took last weekend up at camp. Isn't it beautiful?
I can't wait for summer to begin.
Tom
 
May 6, 2009
State of the Garden State
 Every
spring we attend the annual State of the Garden State meeting sponsored by
the American Camp Association-New Jersey Section (ACA-NJ). Camp
directors from around the state gather to discuss health and safety issues
and listen to guest speakers from the NJ Dept. of Health, the American Red
Cross, the national ACA office and others. It's a great way to learn
what the most current health and safety concerns are for camps so that we
can be right up-to-date in this important aspect of our camp operation.
Amazingly, only about 70 camp professionals attend the meeting, though there
are several hundred camp programs in the state. Makes me wonder.
 Anyway,
as you can see from the photo, Jeremy and I were definitely happy campers
that day. Jeremy, in fact, is on the committee that plans this
program. We even brought along our famous "Announcements Sound
System", which all CK-NJ-ers know well from our daily camp announcements at
the end of each summer morning. Take a look at the speaker (that's
Barry Garst from the national ACA staff) and you'll recognize our wireless
microphone at work. Pretty soon we'll be using that to tell you about
tomorrow's art projects, special theme days, evening programs, tournaments
and, of course, to be sure you are carrying your water bottle.
Well, speaking of health, I better get back to work on updating our health
and safety plans for this summer. A lot of you have been telling me
about your final exams and the papers you have to write. This is like
my term paper; I won't get a grade on it, but it's important that we have it
ready for the start of camp.
Stay healthy and safe and get ready for an awesome summer.
Tom
May 1, 2009
Hot Weekend!
 It was still only April, but
last weekend at camp was summer-hot, catching us without our water bottles
and sunscreen. The weather was teasing us, making us think that it was
time for camp when we knew that opening day was still a couple of months
away.
Saturday was very busy. We started off with an early morning tour for
an 11-year-old boy and his family. Then Stu and I (joined by Paula!)
met with the fine arts and performing arts faculty of Blair to review the
set-up and for our summer camp activities: ceramics, painting, drawing, arts
& crafts, digital photo, rocketry, drama, music, dance and gymnastics.
If you've been to camp, you know how wonderful these facilities are.
We were very excited to think that our campers will be doing all of these
activities soon.
 Then
Stevey and Adam joined us and we got ready for our special orientation for
Paula and them, each of whom has a new job description this summer. Of
course, since we were hungry, we had to start with lunch, so we walked down
the hill to Main Street and had "gourmet sandwiches". This is where
Sharon, our summer camp office manager, found us. And then we all
walked back up the hill (steep) and began our formal orientation activities.
Adam will be Sharon's assistant in the summer camp office, so there was much
talk about the administrative side of camp. Paula will be the
assistant to two of our activity coordinators: Bex (fine arts) and James
(performing arts). Stevey will be the assistant to our other two
activity coordinators: Donald (sports and swimming) and Dave (sports and
evening programs). We had lots to talk about, but didn't want to
forget the required Frisbee Break to get the blood flowing. Stu
stepped away for a while to give another camp tour (this one for a
12-year-old boy and his family).
 Sunday I was back up at camp for an early tour. Courtney, Denver and
their folks hadn't seen camp yet, so we had fun and beat the heat. I
stayed on to take my first spring hike along the Blair Trail to the back
forest and around to Lake Genevieve, where we will be doing fishing, nature
study and even some sleep outs and campfires this summer. Along the way
I saw wild turkeys (too quick for my camera), turtles, ducks, hawks, turkey
vultures and some golfers and fishermen.
That was enough for me because it was getting hot and the leaves aren't
providing much shade yet. So I headed back home, even more excited
about camp this summer than I had been.
Tom
 P.S. -- Here are some spring photos of camp from the weekend of April 25 &
26:
Spring Photos,
Part 3
Spring Photos,
Part 4
|
