CHARLIE HAS A BROTHER

Stu is a grandfather for the second time and Grandson #1, Charlie, has a baby brother! Graydon James Lisbe was born this week to Mike and Paula. Before tasting his first Frito Pie, Graydon weighed 7 lbs. 15 ozs., and measured 19". Everyone is doing well and we're waiting to hear when Stu will be flying to L.A. to meet Graydon and console Charlie (just kidding!).

We're glad that mom is doing well, that dad has maintained most of his sanity, and that we now have another camper ready to play Ultimate Frisbee for our 2019 summer season.

Welcome to our world, Graydon. We can't wait to meet you.

Tom


P.S. -- For those readers new to CK-NJ, Stu is our associate director. He's been part of our camp family for 20 years.

P.P.S. -- See more commentay and a photo of Charlie here: http://www.campuskids.com/njblog/campuskidsnjblog2011_04.htm

Take Off Your Mittens

One of the amazing things about this past winter was that all that snow and ice side-stepped our camp tour schedule. We didn't have to postpone any of our appointments with the many families who came out to learn about camp and talk about the warmer days of summer.It seems like we can finally take off our mittens and say that spring weather is here to stay, though we've had a few false starts and I think the snow removal crew at Blair Academy may still have their plows and shovels at-the-ready just in case.Most of us, though, are ready to stow the mittens and scarves and even try on our t-shirts and shorts to see if they're ready to go for the summer. In the camp office, we've been having the great T-Shirt Color Debate and we think we've finally decided on the colors for this summer's camper and staff CK-NJ shirts. It's still a secret, so I can't tell you yet (though you might be able to bribe me with some authentic Fig Newtons or homemade Frito Pie).Camp tours are fun because every family has different questions and every prospective camper brings his/her unique combination of curiosity, excitement, nervousness and anticipation. Some have never been to sleep-away camp before, others have tried it out. Some already know other campers at CK-NJ, and others don't know anybody at our camp yet. Some are obviously going to be playing sports all day, others will be dancing and singing and acting, and still others will be doing lots of lanyard, ceramics, painting and tie-dyeing. Most, though, will have some kind of mixture among their activities. And since all of them will be able to pick their own activities every day (because they go to Campus Kids!), they will be able to easily try out new activities, which some people think is the best part of camp (next to making new friends).Let me catch you up on our Weekend Tours photo gallery: (to see all the photos from our website blog, and entries that don't appear here, go directly to our website:
http://www.campuskids.com/njblog/campuskidsnjblog2011_04.htm

And the tours continue. I had a really fun day of tours yesterday. Today Stu, Mandy and Mitch are doing tours. As you can see from this photo, Mother Nature has finally decided that it can be spring at Blair Academy. Let's all enjoy it while we get a little bit more excited because camp is just around the corner.

Tom

Second Favorite Time of Year

You can easily guess what this camp director's favorite time of year is, but you may not know what comes in second place. It's right now -- these first weeks of Spring. Why is that? Because, just like the awakening of the flowers and trees, camp families come alive with excitement about camp. For me, that means that I get to talk to lots of moms and dads and kids as they write or call with questions about the summer, or just to say how excited they are for camp.

I love to answer the many questions that come up about camp, the big ones and the small ones. Whether it's about the bunk groups or the activities, the packing list or the bus stop, Settling In Day or a Weekend Adventure, medical concerns or food allergies, missing home or making friends, choosing activities or evening programs -- it's all fun to talk about.

In addition, I (along with Teri and Jeremy) get to talk with parents about their kids. We love these conversations because it's fun to hear how exited the kids are for camp and also to help address their individual concerns. The more conversations we have the better, because then we know our campers better and can help make the summer an awesome one for them.

Add to all this the conversations we have with our staff, and Spring is a hectic, enthusiastic time around here . . . second only to the summer itself.

Tom

Woot! Camp Conference

Teri, Tom and I just got back from the Tri-State Camp Conference which is held every year.  It's a gathering of people from all facets of the summer camp profession.  As you can imagine, most of the attendees are directors like us.  But there are also camp counselors, professional speakers, child psychologists, camp nurses and administrators from the American Camp Association.  There are also plenty of vendors who sell specialized products and services to camp.  The people who sell us our sports equipment, the company we buy our skate park pieces from, even the guys who take care of our insurance needs were among the many in the exhibit hall.

Most of what we do at Tri-State is attend sessions on various topics of professional development. This year I went to some of the best sessions I'd ever participated in. I went to one that fit the Campus Kids philosophy particularly well. It was all about alternatives to intense competition. The speaker, Rick LaVoie, has a special needs background but his message was aimed at all camp and school programs. He stressed that competition could be excellent when the sides are fair and when people get to choose to participate. But if you're forced to compete or have to compete in situations where you don't have a chance to win, it can be a negative experience. He taught lots of ways to promote cooperative activities where working together makes them fun. Rick challenged the idea that classrooms and camps should be competitive to get kids ready for the "real world" which appears to be obviously competitive. We talked a lot about how hard some companies work to increase the cooperation among their employees in order to make that company more successful in a competitive marketplace. Interesting stuff, eh?

Now this may be more interesting to the parents out there than the campers, but the keynote speaker of the conference was Seth Godin. Seth is a best selling author and successful entrepreneur. He was the founder of several companies including Squidoo, one of the most popular websites in the world. On www.squidoo.com you can basically find user-designed pages on any topic of interest or make your own page. It's pretty neat stuff. Seth talked about how it's good to be different - "You've got to be worth talking about if you want people to talk about you and promote your business". To this, I say, is there anything better that telling people about Campus Kids?

One more thing, before I go away on a week's vacation! WOOT! Remember when I was telling you about the CD Mixes we made for the staff retreats? Here's a video that highlights the mix from the staff assistant retreat and the songs they contributed:

 Hope you liked the video! Talk to you all when I get back!

~Jeremy

So right now I am sitting at my desk furiously burning 19 copies of a CD Mix in preparation for our upcoming Staff Assistant Retreat. While my computer hums away, I’m wondering if we ever told you about our now-famous CD Mixes.

For the past few years, whenever we have a staff retreat, we prepare a CD mix that everyone contributes one song to. The exciting part is that no one knows who contributed which song (well, I know because I make the mix but I stay quiet about it). At the retreat itself, we play the CD and everyone tries to guess whose song is playing. It’s lots of fun! Also, every CD has a theme. At the leadership retreat in January, the theme was “Songs I liked when I was a kid”. Here’s the playlist from that CD and list of the leadership team members (in a random order). See if you can guess who picked each song:

1. Steely Dan, “Reeling in the Years”                                                                     
2. Paul Simon, “I know What I Know”
3. Rolling Stones, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
4. Mya w/Blackstreet, “Take me There”
5. Bruce Springsteen & Bob Dylan, “Forever Young”
6. The Beatles, “8 Days a Week”
7. Aretha Franklin. “Respect”
8. Modest Mouse, “The World at Large”
9. The Turtles, “Happy Together”
10. Soul Asylum, “Can’t Even Tell”
11. Spice Girls, “Wannabe”
12. Cyndi Lauper, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”
13. Jimmy Eat World, “Futures”
14. David Bowie, “Rebel, Rebel”

a. Brooke
b. Abe
c. Sean
d. Sara
e. Jeremy
f. Kim
g. Teri
h. Todd
i. Dave G
j. Katie
k. Tom
l. Rose
m. Stu
n. Devon

Click here to see the correct answers!

The other big news of the day is that the most current issue of the "Sundial" is being collated by a CK Veteran you might remember! It’s Charles Cook! Charles was a long time counselor and aquatics coordinator with us. He also attended several weekend adventures. Charles is often remembered for his love of hot dogs and for being a HUGE JETS FAN! Yep. Jets, Jets, Jets! That’s all he ever talks about.

Until next time,

Jeremy

PS. Charles is actually a Giants fan and specifically NOT a Jets fan. But it was really fun to mess with him!

Our First Guest Blogger!

(Editor's note: We are pleased to present our first blog entry from a guest writer! Thanks, Matt Lurrie, for being the first. We encourage other members of our camp family -- campers, staff, parents -- to become guest bloggers too.)


I've been traveling a lot recently. I just finished my penultimate semester of college in Shanghai, China, and after a month home, moving up and down the east coast visiting and hosting friends, I arrived in Manchester, England for my final semester of college. But with all this, one of my favorite trips to make is between my house in Queens and the CK winter office in Madison, NJ.


I've rarely been on a New Jersey-bound train with some form of camp not waiting for me, and this cold January day was no exception. I hop off my 11:46 train and meet the winter staff - Tom, Jeremy, and Teri - at the station. Tom enjoys the new, double decker trains, and asks me if I'd sat on top (I hadn't), and we get to the important task of catching up.


Our beverages come slowly at 54Main, but we're in no rush. We catch up on everything. We talk about my time in China (real Chinese food is very different), about world events (we, too, know nothing about North Korea), my inter-term break (in which I run a Hostel for visiting camp friends) and campers and staff of yesteryear (a number of years back for which I almost needed a third hand to count).


Then, as it is a business day, we galavant (drive in a minivan) around Madison for errands. Tom has made good on our promise to watch my favorite show (The West Wing) after I did his (The Wire). Both results are positive.


I'm put to work when we arrive back at the office, rekindling my roots collating policy forms. In between work, as I imagine happens a lot, we continue to talk about this (plans for next summer) and that (NPR). And though I was far away for the reunion, I am nevertheless given my reunion gifts (CK Drawstring bad, sweatbands).


Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. And in his nuttier years, he began to write himself and his own situations into the story lines. I guess that's what I'm about to do.


Teri gets an idea. "You should write a guest blog post!" she tells me. I tell her I'll think about it. It's been an awful long time since I hung up my CK Website hat, so I might be awful rusty. (And in editing this, realized that it took on a feeling of the old web photo journals). But I told her I'd give it a shot.


Benjamin Franklin said that visitors and fish smell in three days, so adjusting for inflation, my time was running out. We all said goodbye (clap) and I headed back home.


I hope you've enjoyed this guest blog post. I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.


Matt Lurrie

Soggy Groundhog

I don't know about the groundhog in your neighborhood, but the one over here is pretty angry because he's soaking wet and cold. Supposedly, if he saw his shadow we'd have six more weeks of winter. There's definitely no shadow today, but it's hard to imagine that there's going to be an end to this winter any time soon. Looking on the bright side, you could probably get a great deal now on that sunscreen and water bottle you'll need for summer camp.

Winter doesn't stop the conversation about summer camp, that's for sure. Last weekend we were out in full force meeting families who are getting their kids ready for their first camp experiences. Pretty exciting! On Saturday, Stu ventured out to Blairstown for our campus tours. While he was showing off the Blair Academy campus, Zach B. and I were at a camp fair in Woodcliff Lake. On Sunday, Jeremy and Ryan took on the camp fair duties, this time in East Hanover. Stu headed out to camp again, joined by Caroline, Jared and me to show quite a few families around camp.

This is "Sundial" week, so if you haven't found it already click this link to read the latest edition of our camp newsletter. We're in the process of mailing copies to our camper families and will soon be mailing out special welcomes to our 2011 campers, packets of information to our families (health forms, etc.) and a special mailing about our Ultimate Frisbee program and Weekend Adventures!

Did you know that we have an online newsletter (different from the "Sundial") that we send out about every six weeks? It goes to families who have expressed an interest in our camp, but if you'd like to get on that mailing list just let us know. Each issue features a different topic about camp.

Well, Jeremy has managed to slide into the office and I think Teri is not far behind, so I've got to get going. Stay safe, have fun and take pity on your local groundhog.

Tom

P.S. -- Here's one of the photos from this blog entry on our website.  You can see all the photos and their captions at this page.