Weddings and Power Outages

So I don't have any really big news like I'm having a baby but I do have some updates for you.

First of all, like many of you out there our home lost power on Saturday and after five days we are still in the dark. The town is assuring us that we will have power restored by Friday. While it's not very convinient, it's by no means the end of the world. We've spent the last few evenings playing with our cats, reading books aloud, and playing cards. We were fortunate enough to have purchased a house with a wood burning stove so we've been able to keep warm. As you can see by the photo, our cats LOVE lounging by the fire.

However, for our family Saturday will not be remembered as the day the power went out. It will be thought of as the day Natalie & Kyle got married and the power went out. Hee hee hee. Vanessa's sister Natalie got married on Saturday at the lodge Schooley's Mountain Park (any old time CKers remember that place) and the power went out 15 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled to begin. As crazy as it sounds, we went ahead with the wedding and it was a blast! There was not really any music besides one of Kyle's relatives playing an acoustic guitar but we lit lots of candles, ate some delicious food and had dessert. Since the power was out, we did something we probably wouldn't have done if there was music and dancing... we talked to EVERYONE! It was so nice to meet so many people and have so many great conversations! We got to catch up with all Vanessa's relatives and old friends. Also, an amazing poem by Neil Gaiman called, "The Day the Saucers Came" was read at the ceremony. Check out this illustrated version of the poem.

The Saturday before the Saturday that the power went out and Natalie got married was the Saturday that Vanessa and I got together with all the other video game nerds in California for Blizzcon 2011. Anyone, who clicked the above link understands why the previous sentence was worded the way it was. Blizzcon is a convention put on every year by Blizzard Entertainment to promote their games like Starcraft and World of Warcraft. We went mostly to catch up with some friends as the event itself is not mind blowing. Typical of most cons, most of the cool stuff comes only after waiting in really long lines. That's not to say that there weren't any highlights. Watching the costume contest, seeing the stars of the web series, The Guild, and getting to demo the new games coming out were all pretty fun. The best part was the closing concert played by the Foo Fighters. They rock and it was no surprise that the show was completely amazing. Dave Grohl came out into the audience, right into our section to do his guitar solo!

Coming up tomorrow, we will be posting the details for this years Campus Kids T-Shirt Photo contest. Check back to see the rules for this year's contest. If you don't remember last year's contest, check it out here. Also, Teri is printing the Reunion invitations right now so be on the lookout for those.

Talk to you guys soon,

Jeremy

P.S. We got this hilarious fax today.

Future Camper on Board

It’s about that time to officially announce to the CK blog world that my husband, Jim, and I are expecting our first baby! Baby Hansen will arrive mid-January… our “due date” is January 19th if you are interested in the specifics! I think it’s so funny that doctor’s pick A DAY that the baby will arrive… I’m pretty sure that the baby (in communication with my body) will decide when the time has come to take the journey out into our world, and isn’t aware of the date circled in red on the calendar in our house. But, as January rolls around, I know we will be counting down the days to the 19th so that we can meet this little someone, face-to-face.

The process of becoming a mom has been enlightening. Of course, it is bizarre watching my body change and morph as this tiny guy or gal (it’s a surprise) grows. But it’s also amazing – who knew skin was that stretchy? My stomach is where now? That bubbly feeling is the baby moving? Holy cow! I also get hungry very quickly. It seems as if I’ve just finished one snack and am off looking for what’s next to feed me and the other human I’m growing. But those are the little things.

Accepting my new limits has been difficult but necessary. I’ve always been an “I can” kind of person; just ask my parents and they’ll recall that time 7-year-old me and my 9-year-old sister moved couches and televisions to make more space for our Legos and Barbies. The old me does yoga, goes running, and spends lots of time outside… and then is off to the next task without a break. Now, I get winded walking up a flight of stairs; doing simple gardening chores and bending makes me exhausted; getting up too quickly from laying down feels like I just ran a 5k race. “A little bit at a time,” I have to remind myself. Chores that used to take an afternoon now have to get broken down over several days if they are really going to get done. And I have to ask for help in doing them. Luckily, Jim has been up for the task and is really supportive and great about helping me (and reminding me) to slow down.

I’ve also seen my priorities change as I ask myself “what’s really important here?” I drive slower. I find myself being a lot calmer and taking more time to decide how I’ll react in the face of a situation that might have annoyed me before. The choices I make are not just for me, they are for me and my child.

Not surprisingly, this experience has given me a whole new outlook on camp. I think of how every one of our camper’s parents went through what I’m going through now: shifting priorities and accepting change to welcome a new person into their lives. Years later, they’ve now come to the point when they make the very big decision to hand over their child to someone whom they have never met and ask them to take care of that child. Whoa! That’s a big deal. We are asking parents to trust us, and we have to deliver on the promises that we make to those families.

The fall is the time of year in the camp office when we get to think about what we’re promising, intentionally plan the work we do, and prepare for following through and doing an even better job than we’ve done before. How do we do it? Well, we’ve got our meeting to go over feedback and brainstorm how we’ll put those suggestions into action in the planning and preparation for 2012. We’re already organizing our Leadership Team and hiring counselors. From there, we must take those fresh-faced staff members and train them in our CK way of working and playing. We teach and model ways to keep kids safe, physically and emotionally. We have a strong philosophy and we share it and talk about it so that everyone buys-in. That way, no matter what set of counselors a camper has, they will be provided a similar experience to everyone else, while being free to celebrate the unique differences that each individual brings to their bunk group.

I look at all we’ve done already, and plan to do, to fulfill the promises of a CKNJ experience for the 2012 season, and I’m excited for our campers and their parents. And to see where we are now and know that I have a future CK camper is awesome! All the hopes I have for him or her, and the benefits I know camp will offer, are really endless. I wonder who will be my child’s first counselor… it could be someone who is starting camp for the first time this summer as a “freshmen” camper! The cycle of camp continues!

Teri

Our 200th Blog Post!

It seemed not too long ago that we barely knew what a blog was, much less did we imagine that blogging was something we'd be doing as part of running our summer camp. But here we are, writing our 200th blog! Congratulations to us, and particularly to you, our readers. If you'd like to take a trip down memory lane, here's the index to our archive.
Our first entry was Jeremy's welcome to the CK-NJ Blog on Monday, March 17 2008. On that day we had just returned from our annual trip to the Tri-State Camp Conference and were entering the most intense phase of our year-long preparations for another summer camp season, our 18th. Blog topics included Chicken Dance Elmo, our announcement tree in Madison, staff assistant orientation, snowboarding, website problems, international counselors, and the first of our annual April 1 blogs. 2008 was also the summer of our weekly blogs from the corn field. Little did everyone know that this would be the last of 18 summers at our original Hackettstown, as we announced in our September 12th blog that we were moving to a new camp home at Blair Academy.

We blog for two reasons. First, we hope that what we write makes camp more fun for our campers, staff and parents. There are aspects of camp that not everyone sees and this is our opportunity to share all of that. Second, writing the blog makes our jobs more fun. We love what we do and it's fun to come up with creative and interesting ways to tell the amazing story of our camp. So thanks for reading (particularly if you've read all 200 blogs).

To help commemorate this blogging milestone, I thought I'd share some of the camper artwork that is on the walls of our year-round office (using blue tape, of course). These are fun reminders of summer days past and more great times to come.

Tom

Unpacking

I’m back in the office! Woo hoo!! I commented yesterday while unpacking one of my three boxes labeled “Teri Desk” that each of the boxes seemed like a time capsule. Four weeks ago I had packed those boxes and the contents have been untouched since then.  Pencil cup, ruler, stickers, bobble head, file folders… yes of course I remember packing those things, and they made it back to the same spot on my “home desk” that they occupied in May. But there are lots of things that got packed in the boxes at the end of camp that weren’t brought to Blair at the start of the summer, and I really haven’t thought of them since camp ended.  Here are some of the more interesting things that I’ve pulled out of the moving boxes.
One (overflowing) file folder opened to reveal a cache of summer Sundial submissions; a drawing by counselor Jamie, a poem, a story, and a set of haikus written by campers. Lots of good stuff in there… glad that came back to the office with me! We have some new office decorations.
My orientation binder; still organized with tabs to separate the topics we needed to cover with the staff. Returning staff meeting notes, new ice breakers, a camp tour, our camp philosophy, a session on age group characteristics, and homesickness.  A set of prompts for acting out role plays on homesickness that Sean, Devon and I never got to use… better save those for a future summer’s use and to reflect on how orientation went.
A list of “First Bunk meeting groups” with the names of the counselors, people we are now all VERY familiar with, broken up into 6 groups so they could experience a bunk meeting on our first night of orientation. But when that list was first handed to me, it was before any of the counselors had even arrived on campus for our 2011 summer. What will Marc be like? And this Celil guy? How about Kimmie and Michelle? Those feelings from before the start of orientation come back… will they like camp? Will they “get” what we’re trying to do here? What will they take away from orientation? Have we planned enough? Looking back on the summer, I know we did.
The Campstock booth schedule, the Staff Assistant schedule for Week 7, an evening activity schedule; man, do we schedule a lot at camp!
Several notepads scrawled from first page right up to the cardboard backing with lists. At first, I think, why did I pack this up? The lists are completed, checked off, “done-zo”. Ahh, but the knowledge in those lists becomes clear as I read through them.


o What to do to prepare for Rock of July.


o When to have the slip-n-slide (during the heat wave!).


o Supplies that need to get organized or purchased for Super Mario Day.


o Design a new dining room layout for weeks 3&4 when we had LOTS of campers.


o Add “slip bucket gets emptied” to the list of jobs for Team B Staff assistants on Fridays.


o Bunk meeting ideas based on new things we saw counselors trying this summer (“Glows and Glues”, fashion shows, talent competitions… you name it!).


o The sign-up sheet for presenting at the staff Farewell Banquet.


I look over these things and can hardly believe our 2011 camp season is over. Did it really happen? I know it did because, besides all of the new friendships and memories I have from the summer, I have three-boxes-worth of mementos to remind me of the work, and the fun, that we had. I’m sure you’ve unpacked by now, too. Do you have a few mementos of your own that remind you of the amazing time you had this summer? What are they?  Where do you keep them?  Drop CK a line on our Facebook page or email me at teri@campuskids.com and let me know!
'Til next time,Teri

What's a Hoosier?

Nobody knows the answer to that question, but if you live in Indiana you ARE a Hoosier. I'm about to spend a few days out there as a member of an accreditation committee for the American Camp Association (ACA). Since the committee is made up of people from across the U.S., there actually won't be many Hoosiers on the committee, but that mid-western friendliness will definitely set the tone for our deliberations.


Back here in New Jersey a lot of people are suffering greatly from the floods brought to us by those two angry ladies: Irene and Lee. I know that many of our camp families are in some seriously flooded areas and I hope everyone is safe, though I know you are dealing with a lot of damage. I drove through one of my former home towns the other day, Cranford, and was shocked at the extent of the damage there. And yesterday I couldn't get into Blairstown because the Paulens Kill had flooded the town a second time. Fortunately for Blair Academy, the main campus (and the part that we use in the summer) is high up on the hill. But many faculty residences, along with the school's maintenance facilities, are down on the flood plain. We are sorry to see so much destruction, but we know that the people in strong communities like Cranford and Blairstown are the type that pull together and don't stop working until everyone is back on their feet.


As New Jersey and other East Coast states recover from these floods, we reach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. We remember that day like it was happening right now, when we wondered how we ever would move on from there, much less be looking back ten years later. We published a "Sundial" shortly after 9/11/01 and here is some of what I wrote in that issue:


Between the last time you received a Sundial and today the world has changed. We know sadness as we had never imagined it, along with fear, anger and so much more. The world and each one of us has changed and we wish that this had never happened. Amidst these overwhelming feelings, though, is the growing understanding that not all of the changes are negative. We have learned, for instance, how precious and wonderful life is. We awaken to each day with a new sense of purpose, a greater urgency to use our time well, a stronger focus on caring for and about each other. I thought I knew how wonderful our 2001 Campus Kids summer was, how special each camper and staff member was. In this new reality, however, I am so much more grateful for the opportunity we had to live, play and work together. I cherish the memories more than ever. Each of you has been in my thoughts and I hope you have been spared the most painful losses of the September 11th tragedy. I know that for many of us, camp friends have been an important part of our support systems. That support will continue and will grow stronger every day. If there is anything we can do at Campus Kids to help you, please don’t hesitate to ask. I hope that your camp experiences, both past and future, help restore the happiness, friendship and hope that should be part of everyone’s life.


I still do gain strength from my camp colleagues and friends, from all of our campers and camp families, from the camp experience itself. And my trip to Indiana will reinforce the good things I know about camp because I'll be with a group of remarkable people who are doing good work in their camps across the country. Camp communities fuel optimism.


Families have already been setting up tour appointments for later this month, which is very exciting. Also exciting is that Jeremy, Teri and will will finally all be back together again in the camp office on September 14. If you've ever passing through Madison, please come visit. And if you figure out what a Hoosier really is, I'll buy you lunch.

Tom

Labor of Love

I write this as we come to the end of Labor Day weekend, the final official holiday of the summer and the unofficial end of the summer vacation season. Most of our campers start back to school this week, an exciting time to see friends and renew their "work" as students. Despite their protestations, I think that most students look forward to the start of a new school year.

It's also the start of a new camp year. Most people who aren't camp directors don't realize this. They are more focused on the fact that camp just ended and they pretty much stop thinking about camp for a while. From their perspective, there's camp time in the summer and after that it's just "the rest of the year".

Well, for me it's more like New Year's Eve and the feeling that we're launching something new and wonderful: Summer Camp 2012. You know how you sometimes make New Year's Resolutions? Well, here at Campus Kids-NJ we've made sort of the same thing, except we call it our "year-round office calendar", which is in a blue loose-leaf binder. Jeremy, Teri and I created it over the previous year because we wanted to be better organized about the work we want to accomplish month-by-month. What we do "the rest of the year" -- September to June -- makes or breaks the summer, so we've got to get it right.

We've divided our tasks into six major areas: Campers & Families, Program & Operations, Staff Recruitment, Staff Training, Marketing, and Miscellaneous Administration (also known as "other"). In any given month we can look at each of these categories and know what needs to be done.

For instance, we are beginning to read the many, many types of feedback we received about this summer, along with our own notes, and compiling all of this into a format we can use to make decisions about next summer. We'll be answering the questions, "How did we do?" and "What went well?" and "What can we do better?" and "What are the best new ideas for 2012?" We're also starting our 2012 staff hiring by updating our website, assessing staff performance for 2011, deciding what openings we have and if we want to change any jobs or job descriptions, and planning what recruitment we want to do through colleges or websites or international agencies. Of course, the fall is also when we do our staff assistant hiring as well as when we put together our leadership team. And we set up our weekend tours (starting again Sept. 24 and 25), speak to families who ask about our camp, prepare the next "Sundial" . . . you get the idea.

This is our work, our labor. I think of it as our "Labor of Love " because we love what we do so much. Camp directors are some of the luckiest people in the world. Not only do we have the most amazing experiences at camp every summer, but we get to spend the whole year getting ready for the next awesome summer. What could be better?

So as you head off to school or back to work, we'll be doing the same thing here at Campus Kids-NJ. I hope that you love your work as much as we do.

Tom

P.S. -- If you'd like to be a guest blogger, please let me know. Campers, staff, alumni or parents are welcome to share their personal perspective on camp.

Blog Lag

As August is about to leave us with the flip (or click) of a calendar page, we are facing the irony that we had the least amount of time to blog about camp during the summer itself. With all good intentions, we had hoped to blog along all summer and then, whoosh, we were so caught up in the constant fun of camp that we didn't sit down in front of our computers enough to pull it off. That's probably good, actually.

So you don't feel totally let down, however, I want to point out that the you could have been following our summer fun in great detail if you had looked at any of the following:

72 WEB PHOTO JOURNALS. Our terrific "Team D" staff assistants faithfully posted photo journals throughout the summer, covering all kinds of camp topics, both the expected and the unexpected. Here's the web photo journal index. Pick any article and you'll have a good time.

40+ DAILY PHOTO GALLERIES. Also from those same staff assistants, along with Stu and Jeremy, we have posted photos for every single day of camp and every Weekend Adventure trip. If, as they say, one photograph is worth a thousand words, then we've got millions of words here to explain the major awesomeness of our 2011 summer.

85 STAFF INTERVIEWS. Team D also managed to post a quick interview page for every staff member. Here's the index. This staff was awesome.

8 "SUNDIAL" NEWSLETTERS. Published at the end of every camp week, these issues are a great retrospective of our "outer space" summer.

So even though we experienced that unfortunate affliction called "blog lag", I think we did a more than okay job telling everyone in the CK World and beyond about our 21st summer camp season.

If you're a die hard camper, you probably are still experiencing that sense of loss that comes at the end of camp. It's so abrupt; we're suddenly without all those friends and activities that last from morning to night. Camp is a world without pause, and definitely without boredom, and some of us truly have a hard time getting back on our feet when it ends. Most frustrating can be the attempt to explain to other folks what camp was like. They listen and smile and they want to understand, but they don't seem to quite get it, and they definitely don't understand the crying and the non-stop camp stories.

It's at this time -- about two weeks after camp ends -- that I wish we all could get back together just to talk and share our favorite memories of the summer. A few hours of camp stories would make us feel great, wouldn't it?

We will be talking about our 2011 summer for a long time, but here at the camp office we've already begun planning for 2012 if you can believe it. So after a little bit of rest we'll be sharing with you the beginning of our new camp year and all that goes into planning for the 22nd summer of CK-NJ.

In the meantime, enjoy these final moments of your summer, don't forget to finish up your summer reading, have fun starting the new school year, and please put the December 4th reunion on your calendar (and your parents' calendar too!).

We'll talk to you soon.

Tom