The Camp Canadensis Reunion location has been changed!!

Well, not just yet, but my big trip is about a month away! I will be heading over to Boulder, Colorado (home of the Canadensis Groundhog!) for a few days of my own CAMP, called CampMinder Camp. All of you guys get to spend your summers at camp, so why shouldn’t I get my fun time. It’s only for 2 days, but 2 is better than nothing! CampMinder is the web-based system we use for campers, staff, alumni, photos, videos, etc. It’s an amazing database and so much more and by attending this “camp” session, I will have a chance to collaborate with the owner, support people, programmers, and a hundred other camp directors who all use the same system. We will brainstorm ways to make the system more efficient and learn some of the new features that will be unveiled in the coming months. Of course while I am in Boulder, I will have a chance to catch up with Groundhog and see the town a bit, although I will be heading out pretty quickly to AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND!

I will be interviewing staff from New Zealand and Australia for about a week before returning home to PA. Looking for the best staff for Canadensis is a big job and we find it’s important to try to meet all of our staff face-to-face. Things like Skype make it easier to do remote interviews, but in person are always the best. As is with Boulder, I will have a chance to see many of our former staff members from last summer and from years ago…many years ago!

Which brings me to the reason for my blog post today. I woke up at 6AM to an email from Groundhog with just a picture attached (no message). Usually that means spam, but I opened it and found the picture below.

So, I guess this is proof that yes I was a camper/counselor back in the day at Canadensis. The kid standing behind me is none other than Joel Wiseman, who came from Australia for one summer, along with his mom who was a nurse and his older brother who worked at our lakefront for many years! A few other observations:

• Camp still uses the same brown dining hall trays. Of course since then we have replaced them, but it’s funny that they are the same style!
• That birthday cake looks amazing!
• This picture was taken on our “old back deck” of the dining hall and you can see a tree in the background. That tree was taken down just last winter after getting damaged in a storm. Pretty cool that we built the deck around that tree so many years ago and then rebuilt a new deck around it again! Too bad it’s gone.
• I am wearing a NJ Devils shirt. Anyone who knows me, knows that I really don’t follow sports, so why aren’t I wearing my favorite shirts of all- Canadensis?!
• And the funniest, most ironic thing…is that my birthday is in SEPTEMBER, not the summertime! So, I can’t remember why there is a cake in front of me. Perhaps I just like cake and Silas remembered that back then and made one special for me? Or, maybe it was one of camper’s birthday, haha.

Anyway, just thought I would share this photo with all of you.

I also want to take a moment and wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year! I will try to pop back on here/Facebook before the holidays, but if not, please enjoy Chanukah/Christmas and New Year Celebrations and of course the best part of this time of year, is that we enter the new year, which means we are even closer to Summer 2012!

Hi Everyone,

It’s December which means it’s the holiday season, but it’s also the time we get busy doing home visits. At Canadensis, we continue a tradition which began decades ago in which we visit all new campers who are enrolled for the upcoming summer in their homes! These home visits give us a chance to get to know our future campers in their own environment and we prepare them for the upcoming new camper events, including bowling, etc.

So myself, Pam, and Brian have been visiting with campers throughout the months of November/December and will continue to do so all winter long. We have also been traveling to colleges and universities to find the best staff for Summer 2012 and of course the International “Where in the World” trips will begin in January.

Robin and I had a chance to also see campers Ryan & Jake Garfinkle with our now annual dinner over there! I also had dinner with camper David Brucker. Everyone is doing well and really excited for the summer!

Here in the winter office, Jcal came to visit! Of course he brought us snacks, including our favorite Crumbs cupcakes! We are busy filming a new episode of Canadensis Today, our annual holiday card, and a few other surprises for all of you.

Hope everyone has a great week and check back soon!

Baby Forti! Robin and I in May will be welcoming the newest member to the Forti Family and even more importantly the Canadensis Family!

We are unsure yet if the baby is a boy or girl, but he or she will definitely be up at camp spending the summer with all of us. And all of you are the big brothers and big sisters. Obviously, our entire family is so excited and we are beginning to prepare for the lack of sleep now (by going to sleep at 10PM!!)

Facebook went wild with the news. We posted it on Sunday night and on my personal page there were over 100 “likes” and over 50 comments, ranging from good luck to “Eric, you better wait on Robin hand and foot with whatever she needs!”. On the Canadensis Today page, tons of shout-outs from alumni, parents, and campers, so thanks to all of you who sent in your well-wishes. And, to save the best for last, don’t forget to visit the BRAND-NEW Official Facebook Page for Camp Canadensis at http://www.facebook.com/campcanadensis

Changing gears, it was great to see everyone at all of our Canteen on the Fly Events! It seems like it is now an “annual tradition” to hold these and it was such a great turnout at all of the locations. We got a chance to hear about all of the great things our campers are up to, details about Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s, take pictures, and eat ice cream!! Cara will be uploading the photos from Canteen on the Fly to Facebook in the next few days, so don’t forget to check back there often!

Speaking of Bar Mitzvah’s, Robin and I were at the nearby deli Pumpernick’s enjoying dinner and we ran into Max and Blake Rapoport’s mom, who sent me this photo from Matt Wiener’s Bar Mitzvah. Congratulations Matt!

Tonight, I will be having dinner with camper David Brucker in Plymouth Meeting. It has become our annual chance to catch up from the summer and hear all about his school, activities, etc. Looking forward to catching up with him!

Camp is looking great and remember there is a BIG announcement coming real soon about something new at camp! Stay tuned…

So when you become my age (I feel so old saying that) Halloween just isn’t that much fun anymore. It’s definitely cool to see all of the kids in costumes, make roasted pumpkin seeds, hand out candy, but come on…if you don’t get to go trick or treating and eat all of the candy that you get that how much fun is it really? So for years, I haven’t been the true grinch of Halloween (I happily give out candy), but I haven’t been so “into it”. Then we started Halloween at camp and that got me more into the spirit (in July though), but this year I got to spend Halloween with my niece up in Boston!

Emily Forti (now 1 year 8 months old) was dressed as Dora the Explorer. To try to get her to wear the Dora backpack was quite a challenge, but nonetheless she resembled cute Dora. We set out (with Robin in tow) around 5PM for a night of trick or treating. We even got Emily to say trick treat and she held a pumpkin pail in which she collected all of the candy. Now of course she couldn’t pick which kind of candy she liked from houses, so I had the unfortunate job of having to decide if she should take the Reese’s, Snickers Bar, Kit Kat or PENCIL. Of course, the pencil never got chosen! The ultimate is when you go to a house that gives out the FULL SIZE BARS! Anyway, we stayed out for about an hour and a half and of course snacks were enjoyed by all during the process. It really was a fun time!

I rarely take the time to talk about my family on this blog, but I figured it was appropriate to give my niece a shout out!

One camp related thing, how cool is this Indian Head Pumpkin?! Special shout out and thanks to the Mindy and Rachael Rosenthal for sending this in. Great job ladies.

Next blog post, all about camp and some of the new and exciting projects we have planned for this winter! Enjoy the warm up coming over the next week or so!

Last Monday, if you would have called in to WHYY (NPR Radio here in Philly) that’s what you would have heard! Camp Canadensis volunteers answered the phones and helped raise over $3,000 for the radio station. Our name was mentioned on the radio a bunch of times and you could hear Pam and Phoebe cheering/screaming/clapping in the background each time they mentioned Canadensis. Special thanks to the Starkmans and Calabrettas who called in while we were manning the phones. I should also mention we were fed really well from a donation by a local restaurant, Bistro St. Tropez and it was DELICIOUS. Who could ever pass up free food??!!

The highlight of the end of the week was of course our annual CANTEEN ON THE FLY EVENTS! We held 5 over the weekend and if I had to guess, I would say we had over 200 people in attendance. Campers running around, coloring in the Indian Head, hanging out with their friends, and of course eating ice cream! And how about our “groupies” who followed us to BOTH Philly area locations on Sunday. We love seeing that! It was also great seeing many of our campers wearing their TACS (dogtags) proudly around their neck.

Pictures of the entire event as well as a special Canadensis Today will be posted soon, so check back!

Hi Everyone,

I know it’s been a long break between blogs, but I am back! After camp, we had groups that came in to rent our camp. Marching bands, Karate Camps, and schools just to name a few. Matt Unger and I stayed up at camp through the end of September taking care of our groups, along with a few staff members who stayed with us to help out. It was a great postcamp, but there were of course a few challenges. Below is a list of the positives (and negatives) during postcamp.

• Positive- Mariam from the kitchen was our personal chef and made some amazing foods, some of which she will be making for all of you next summer. Some highlights: homemade Spinach Pie (Spanakopita), Potato Bourekas, Apple Slaw, Chocolate Fondue, Zucchini Quiche, Eggplant salads, and much more. It was amazing and after eating camp food for 5 months (how many hamburgers/hot dogs can one person eat!) it was a welcome change.
• Negative- Hurricane Irene, OY! It was terrible. Luckily, camp survived without too much damage. One tree fell in girls camp in between cabins and took down a power line, plus trees down all along the camp road. Aunt Terri’s basement flooded and myself and Matt were down there up to our waist pumping it out! The worst part was NO power for 4 days and we had a few groups there, with up to 300 people. Of course our backup generator kept the essentials going (the food!), but the dining rooms were dark, so we were eating by high powered light torch things. We got most of the water turned back on to camp so the groups had water (some cabins even had hot water through the gas heaters) and all in all they made the best of it. Everyone laughed, had fun, but of course bedtime was early because camp was PITCH BLACK at night. No area lights, etc. The best part was I figured all of the ice cream would melt, so we ate cases and cases of ice cream. Then I realized the generator ran the freezers (OK- that was just a joke!). Do you guys remember the power going out this summer on a Sunday morning for a few hours? Bagels and lox in the darkish dining hall.
• Positive- lots and lots of projects get accomplished. Without having all the campers there, we have days where cabins are empty and we can begin to do maintenance for next year. So, that’s what we did and will continue to do all winter. Can’t tell you some of the large projects just yet, but stay tuned because we will be announcing them soon.
• Negative- NO CAMPERS….BOO. It’s boring being up there without campers running in and out of the office, playing basketball and the ball banging into my office. No waterskiing on the lake, no color war spirit, eating meals in the peace and quiet (did I say that was a negative??!!). Anyway, we missed all of you up at camp.

After camp, I have a tradition where I usually treat myself to a cruise. This year, Robin and I went on a 4-day cruise around the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean and it was a blast.  It gives us both a chance to spend some time together and decompress from a loooonng summer. Remember, there is no such things as weekends from April – September, so it can get tiring! Spent some time with both of our families for the Jewish Holidays as well and now it’s back to the winter office.

I returned here on Wednesday to tons of mail to go through, bills to pay, and some emails about campers who are enrolling!! We will begin our home visits shortly and before we know it, it’s time for the reunion. Actually, as I type this, Pam is finalizing the reunion postcards. We have extended the hours this year, so we have extra time to have fun at Jeepers!

Before the reunion, don’t forget about CANTEEN ON THE FLY! Jcal will post the info on the blog next week, but Canteen on the Fly in NYC, Westchester, and North NJ is on Saturday, 10/22 and on the Mainline, PA and Upper Dublin, PA on Sunday, 10/23. Long Island we are coming to you in mid-November. So excited to see everyone again, although my new diet isn’t excited for 3 ice cream parlors in one day. Robin and I already agreed to limiting ourselves to ONE lowfat ice cream each day and she is going to pack healthy snacks, UGH. An apple vs. Ben & Jerry’s..hmmmm.

This weekend, we will be celebrating the wedding of MIKE LINDQUIST and ALYSSA THIBODEAU so a very big Congratulations to the both of them and we look forward to a great camp weekend up in Massachusetts. What are you up to this fall weekend? Pumpking picking, hayrides, haunted houses? All things I love to do in October (but hardly have the time for these days).

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year and look forward to seeing all of you at Canteen on the Fly and our Annual Reunion.

New Camper Bowling was awesome. Thanks to all of our new families/campers who were able to make it to north Brunswick, NJ and spend a few hours with us. We had such a great time getting to know many of our new campers and putting faces to the names! Everyone participated in Name Bingo, which allowed us to find out some unique things about people, like their dog’s names, which campers will be celebrating their birthdays at camp, and who has flown on an airplane in the past year, to name a few. Of course I was able to contribute to a few of the clues! Some of the groups also participated in a new game that I called Dance Introductions and each camper had to come up with a short dance to introduce themselves with. Assistant Director Pam now has to remember all of these dances for the first day of camp as the campers come off of the bus!

Of course not all of our new campers were able to join us, as some had Hebrew School and sports games and we have some campers from Florida who were enjoying the warm, sunny, beach weather (who could blame them!). So, we are looking forward to meeting with them as well up at camp and having the greatest summer with our new juniors and lower inters!! If Sunday was any indication as to their excitement about camp, then we are in for a blast.

In other news, I must make a PUBLIC APOLOGY TO CAMP MOM STEPHANIE, who was inadvertently left off of last week’s blog. I mentioned all of the staff who would be coming to New Camper Bowling and in a moment of tiredness (or jetlag, perhaps), I totally forgot about Steph. How could I do such a thing? I am so sorry Steph! Thanks for spending your day with the new campers and helping the parents begin to plan for a much quieter/boring summer back at home, while their kids are having the time of their lives!

While we are on the subject of Camp Mom, you might ask what does she do at camp? Well Steph is absolutely amazing for so many kids, especially if they are having a sad moment.Between helping out with the kids who have food allergies or have alternate meal requests, helping out in our health center, cookies and milk on the back deck with our younger divisions, cutting fingernails (ever wonder who does that at camp!), helping out with our camper phone calls, calling parents as needed, being a mentor to many of our staff, assisting during cleanup of the cabins, amongst TONS of other responsibilities, how does she have time to have fun at camp? Well, Steph can be found on the tennis courts playing a game with campers, up in the arts center working alongside them making projects, or anywhere out and about on camp with a camera taking pictures for all of the parents to see what camp is like! So, thanks Steph for all you do and sorry once more for leaving your name out of last week’s blog.

Matt Unger and I are headed up to camp on Thursday and we will be checking on many of the winter projects, which should be wrapping up soon. The water is also going to be turned on any day now, once the snow melts! So, alot going on at camp to get ready for Summer 2011.

Let me set the scene: I had been overseas for almost 6 weeks in 2 months time. That’s alot of time sleeping in random hotel rooms, eating international “cuisine”, and tons and tons of airline flights/miles. So, it’s my last day in Paris before flying home. It’s the last international trip until after camp and I say to Robin (who I so graciously took along to Paris and Milan with me) how much I have enjoyed being overseas and seeing the world, but that I was looking forward to returning home to the good ol’ USA.

The camper fair went great at a private American school in Paris and ended around 8PM. By the time we cleaned up and got back to the hotel, it was around 9PM, so we decided to grab some Chinese food quickly for dinner and call it a night before flying home the next morning. That’s when it all started…

The front desk recommended a Chinese restaurant right next door. The food was sitting in large plates in a trophy looking display case and yes, everyone says “that should have been your first sign”. We ordered our food, which they put into plastic tubs and microwaved (2nd sign) and ate dinner. Because Robin is a vegetarian, we don’t share very many things (I had beef and she had shrimp).

Fast forward to 3AM—I wake up, went to the bathroom, and the rest is history. I will spare you all of the details, but let’s just say it wasn’t pretty, the hotel was sold out so they couldn’t switch our room, and we were both up until 7AM, when we were to leave for the airport. I skyped with Continental Airlines and without any argument (I was shocked!) they rebooked me on the next day’s flight to Philly, while Robin continued on the original flight to Newark. I officially had food poisoning and couldn’t fly home, literally hours before my final trip came to an end! Talk about jinxing it…

All ended OK as I took a day to recuperate at the airport hotel in Paris and flew home the next day. I think my body was just telling me to slow down, stop flying so much, and just RELAX! Of course when I arrived home I went right back to fast paced environment, but it was good to rest for a day.

Highlights in Paris and Milan include:

Amazing pizza, pasta, and gelato. It was nice in Milan to be able to walk into ANY restaurant and order pizza and a calzone and share it with Robin. Yummy!

We did a pastry/baking class while in Paris and that was so much fun. We went to a working Pattiserie and had a tour of the back of the house operations. Afterwards, we had a chance to bake our own croissant (think TONS OF BUTTER, OY) as well as our own baguette (a long French bread essentially).

We had a chance to meet some of our new International campers for this summer! We will be having a few campers from France throughout the summer, and it will provide a unique opportunity to learn about different cultures and what it’s like to grow up in a different country. Last summer we had 3 international campers and they loved the Canadensis experience. Their bunkmates also enjoyed getting to know them, so we are looking forward to yet another positive experience for Summer 2011!

Back here in the US, it’s camp, camp, oh and Passover. Robin decided that we should host 23 people this Passover at our house…that’s TWENTY THREE PEOPLE! Wow. Our first time doing a holiday, did I mention 23 people??

Anyway, like I said, camp, camp, camp. Matt Unger and I are taking weekly trips to camp at this point to check-in with things there. The weather a few weeks ago was great, nice and warm, and outdoor projects were going on. Unfortunately, 8 inches of snow dumped on camp and now we can’t work outside. So, it’s back to the inside projects…which by the way are coming along nicely. I will have more info on that shortly.

New Camper Bowling is coming up this Sunday! Our year round winter staff will be there, along with Robin,  Peter Tarnoff, and Jcal!! Looking forward to a fun day with all of our NEW campers for Summer 2011!

That’s all for now, but check back soon.

Hi All,

Quick blog post to remind everyone that Where in the World Part 2 begins tomorrow! I will be heading overseas once again and hiring some of the best staff for Summer 2011.

Back here in the US, things have been busy. Well when you are “home” for only 2 weeks in between world trips, a lot happens! Things have been busy in the winter office sending out camper mailings, visiting with first time campers in the evening, and working with Matt Unger on purchases for 2011, to name a few things. Speaking of home visits, I have had the chance to meet tons of new families and I hope to see many more in the coming months.

Besides all that, I was honored to attend Max Vorcheimer’s Bar Mitzvah, spend a little time with my wife, visit my Great Aunt, and drive my mom to JFK for a 3+ week trip to Australia and New Zealand. See, the Forti family never rests and I am so excited for my mom to be on the trip of a lifetime. Of course, it would have been nice sponsored by Oprah, but Australia is Australia!

So stay tuned to twitter (www.twitter.com/whereisforti) and the facebook page entitled Camp Canadensis- Where in the World is Eric Forti for updates over the next few weeks!

See you on the other side of the world.