Campus Kids New Jersey Weblog - Find out what's going on at the Weekday Sleep-Away Camp!

July 23, 2010 Half Way Done or Half Way Begun? So I'm sitting here working on the schedule (that's one of my jobs at camp) and I'm realizing that half the summer will soon be passed. The time has been flying by and I can hardly believe all the amazing things we've packed into so short a time. But at the same time, I've got Monday's schedule open on another window and I have to think that the next four weeks will be just as amazing! So I say, we've half way begun the summer! There are so many exciting things still to come. Personally, I've had the most fun spending time with the campers on Weekend Adventure. On both trips so far, we've camped out at Fairview Lake YMCA. The first trip included a scavenger hunt day trip to NYC. That was pretty spectacular. On this past weekend, we spent our day trip out at Camel Beach Water Park. Other highlights included cooking an amazing dinner over the campfire and then building the most amazing bonfire ever to be seen on a WA! I'm looking forward to the next two trips. We'll be taking trips over to Mountain Creek Water Park and Point Pleasant Beach! By the way, you can see the WA pics from the first two trips here and here. I have to get out to the busses. For those of you leaving for the summer, I hope the rest of your summer rocks. For those of you staying or arriving for weeks 5-8, I'm looking forward to spending the second half of my summer with you! Jeremy July 17, 2010 The Third Week Time moves so quickly at camp that I thought I had time to write a blog last Sunday or Monday and before I knew it here it is Saturday, the third week of camp having been completed. We get so busy at camp, it's hard to step out of the flow of activity and sit down to write. You may have noticed that Jeremy and Teri have temporarily disappeared from blog writing, but if you could see how hard they are working at camp -- practically around the clock -- you'd understand. Don't worry, this is not complaining. We love being at camp, particularly after having spent the entire previous year planning for these eight weeks with our campers. I think we are very lucky people to be able to work with kids in the camp setting. We also love working with our staff -- 80 in total -- each one of whom has a specific job that makes this summer community function safely and with great amounts of fun. Of course, you know about our counselors, the heart of the staff. This week they had the challenge of keeping spirits up in the heavy rain and then the return of the blazing heat while also helping 117 of our campers begin their 2010 summer with us. I often wonder how our counselors do as much as they do. Their days are long, their tasks multiple and varied, yet they are happy, energetic and focused on their campers. They serve as both parents and older siblings to their bunk groups and as instructors and coaches during the activity periods. They handle the various needs of individual campers, the challenges of group dynamics and the deadlines of shows, tournaments and art projects. From one minute to the next, counselors aren't quite sure where their attention will be needed, but they are always ready and their love of the campers is obvious. Our counselors couldn't do their jobs without an amazing support structure of office staff, staff assistants, directors, head counselors, activity coordinators and nurses. This "other part of the staff" provides planning, support and coordination while being flexible enough to "turn on a dime" as new needs arise. Back to Week 3, which has been amazingly fun. We did have a lot of rain over the first three days, but it was actually a relief to see the grass starting to turn green again. Our programming does have to be adjusted somewhat in the rain, but since we have an indoor pool and extensive indoor sports and arts facilities, it's not too bad. We started our very popular Ultimate Frisbee tournament. We also swung into full rehearsal mode for "Grease", which will be performed at the end of this next week. There were acting rehearsals, dance and signing rehearsals, preparation of sets and props and tech rehearsals -- all of which involves campers. The beautiful DuBois Theatre in Blair's Armstrong-Hipkins Performing Arts Center makes putting on a musical like this lots of fun. Of course, the Week 3 Talent Show was fun and had the special touch of being hosted by our 15 staff assistants, who brought lots of creativity and energy to the project. Other highlights of the week included fishing down at the Blair Lake waterfall, the start of salsa dancing, the expansion of meditation as an activity (called "meditation journey"), a very successful girls-only soccer game, the 2010 debut of our CKNJ-designed RobLouJen (a rugby-soccer-ultimate combination game created at our camp many years ago by three Irish counselors -- can you guess their names?). We also had a girls session of longboarding, some golf on the 9-hole course, and lots more. That "lots more" is a long list of regular activities that our campers choose from every day. No two days are alike, which makes no two weeks alike, so Week 3 had its own personality. It's now the weekend and most of our campers are home with their families, except for the Weekend Adventure kids and staff who are camping up at Fairview Lake and taking a day trip to Camel Beach. They'll return Monday morning, just like all the other campers, though smelling a little smokier. I'm looking across the bowl right now and the green grass looks beautiful in the hot sun. It's nice to take a breather, but it will be better when I look across the bowl Monday morning and see the campers and staff back here ready for Week 4. I wonder what this next week will be like! Tom

July 7, 2010 Keeping Cool at Camp We all know that camp is the coolest place on earth, but we must admit that keeping cool has been challenging this week. However, with some amazing facilities here at Blair Academy and a creative, hard-working staff, we are keeping things both cool and safe. First, it's all about water. Lots of it all the time. That means being sure that everyone is carrying a water bottle and that our water filling stations are out on the fields. In addition, this year we have brand new water coolers in every dorm, which makes filling water bottles quick and easy. The water isn't only in bottles, though. Come on out the "the bowl" (our main gathering place at camp) and you'll see the underground sprinklers spraying large sections of the lawn along with campers and counselors who stroll through the cold mist. Then, of course, of the slopes of the bowl we have our giant slip-n-slides that get us wet and keep us laughing. And don't forget our beautiful indoor pool that keeps us out of the burning sun and lets us enjoy swimming, no matter the weather. Second, we slow things down, particularly those sports and outdoor games that we usually play vigorously. That means taking more breaks from playing, sitting in the shade and drinking water. We still do many of our outdoor sports, but with great care. Third, we have air conditioning. Not everywhere, but in enough buildings to make a real difference. Those include the dining room, health center, performing arts building (theatre, gymnastics, dance, music), the fitness center, squash courts, aerobics room, and a few other places. This means we can get everyone into some AC for at least parts of each day, which makes a big difference when the heat and humidity are this intense. Fourth, it's all about attitude. Our staff has an amazingly upbeat, happy and energetic attitude that keeps things fun instead of grumpy. We know we're hot and sweaty, but we make the best of it and have a fun time at camp. We're going to be glad when the heat wave breaks, but until it does we're still keeping cool at camp. Tom

July 4, 2010 Weekends at the Weekday Sleep-Away Camp Some people think that nothing happens at our camp on the weekends. True, it's very quiet because all the campers are home with their families, but there's still stuff going on. First off, we keep our office open Friday night until all the buses have arrived at their final destinations and the counselors have reported that the last campers have been picked up. That's just the beginning of the return trip for most of the bus counselors, who ride the buses back to the bus company headquarters in West Orange and then take our chartered school bus back to camp, arriving some time after 9 PM. On some weekends, like this one, we have one of our Weekend Adventure trips taking place. This means that Jeremy, Sara, Vanessa and probably Ryan (along with a few other counselors) are camping out with our Weekend Adventure kids at a nearby camp and taking them on special day trip. The trip this weekend was a scavenger hunt in Central Park, Manhattan. The Weekend Adventure kids and staff won't be back in Blairstown until Monday morning when the regular camp buses also arrive. On the other weekends, we have a "settling in Saturday" for the campers who will be starting camp that following Monday. Our campers may be home on the weekends, but many of our parents have questions or want to give us some information, so I usually am answering phones and e-mails Friday night, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon and evening (and often times in between). There are a wide variety of topics parents may want to talk about and it's good to have these conversations before the start of camp on Monday. Often, I send e-mails during the weekend to our Leadership Staff and nurses to give them a heads up on questions that need to be answered and any problems that should be addressed right away Monday morning. Weekends are also the time to catch up on lots of office paperwork that gets set aside during the week because we are so busy with camper bunk groups, activities and special events. There's definitely no shortage of paperwork and it could fill the whole weekend if we let it. But I try to get myself off campus for at least part of the weekend, usually going back to my Madison home Saturday afternoon. This weekend I drove into Astoria, Queens to help my son Jon move some stuff out of his apartment because he's heading off this week for a summer job in Paris. Lucky guy! I'm back on campus Sunday afternoon and many of the counselors arrive during the afternoon and evening. The bus counselors will need to get up around 4 AM tomorrow so they can take the yellow school bus back to West Orange and start the whole bus procedure again so we'll have our campers arriving at Blair Academy between 9:45 and 10:00 AM. The weekends definitely aren't as fun as the weekdays here at Campus Kids, but we get a lot of important work done so things will run smoothly during the week. It's Sunday night now and time for some rest. Another amazing camp week is about to begin. Tom P.S. -- Oh, I almost forgot! On Friday Vanessa brought us homemade cupcakes for our 20th camp anniversary. I was able to snap some photos before they were gobbled up by the staff. And, we had a visit from Andy Michaels, who proudly displays his #1 Visitor Badge.