I recently got to spend some time with Sydney, a current 3rd grader who will be a new Junior Girl this summer. She lives in Delaware, which was the very first state in the US, and as far as I know, she’s the first Canadensis camper from Delaware! She is so excited, and ready for camp. She had her first sleepover with a friend when she was 5 years old, and she’s loved it ever since! Sydney had tons of questions about camp, and even though it was late at night right after ice skating practice, she didn’t even need to write them down, she remembered them all!
She goes to Tower Hill school, and they run on a 6-day schedule…just like camp! Her favorite special subject is arts and crafts, and a big reason why she picked Canadensis is because of our art center. In her school art class, they are learning about the Van Gogh “Starry Night” painting, and making their own version in ceramics. Although she likes art, she is a well-rounded girl – and likes just about everything! Sydney’s favorite sports are soccer and tennis. She’s excited about being on the swim team at camp this summer, and he favorite stroke is backstroke. She’s taking piano lessons at home (maybe one day she’ll play as well as her dad!), and she also LOVES roller coasters – she’s not afraid to go upside down, or backwards…the bigger the better!
Sydney can’t wait to try horseback riding at Canadensis this summer. When we looked through camp pictures, she was also really excited to see the tent the campers use on the overnights – she can’t wait to sleep outside! (She’s a little nervous about where she goes to the bathroom and changes…but I told her we have a plan for that!) She will be turning 9 years old right before camp ends, and she thought the pizza party sounded great, but the Sprite soda will be the highlight for her! She was disappointed that we don’t have sushi or Indian food at camp, but she loves sloppy joes and Mexican food, so we’ll find plenty of options for her in the dining hall each day! Before I left, I gave her a copy of the 2013 Video Yearbook DVD – she was the very first camper to receive it this year, but all of your copies went in the mail this afternoon! 
Earlier in the day, I was on the University of Delaware campus interviewing new staff members. I very lucky to get a tour from the guy in the photo above…2013 Upper Senior general bunk counselor, Matt Bibby! Matt is a Senior, education major and he’s about to spend all next semester student teaching. In addition to being in Lamda Chi fraternity, he’s also a coordinator of the Blue Hen Ambassadors, the group of 200 students that give tours to prospective High Schoolers. It’s a very prestigious organization, and I was glad to have him show me around campus. It seemed like Bibby knew EVERYONE on campus -and he’s full of facts and info about the school, it was a great tour!
I also met up with Dana Aronowitz, a CIT of 2009 and someone who spent many years at Canadensis as a camper and counselor. She is now a Junior at University of Delaware, and is studying Engineering. She is also a member of AEPhi (LML to all my AEPhi’s out there!) and through them gets involved with a lot of things happening on campus. She hasn’t made it up to camp on a Visiting Day recently, but hopes to be back in 2014. She has been spending her summers working for a Engineering firm and last summer traveled to Israel.
Overall, it was a great to see all of the extended Canadensis family members in Delaware, and we recruited some new staff members to join us!
