I can’t believe tomorrow will start the month of December!  Time is just flying back, and within a week we’ll have less than 200 days until we kick of summer 2017!  It’s been an exciting fall, and there some fun announcements we’ll be sharing soon about facility updates around camp!  We’ve also been interview a lot of fantastic returning staff members and of course meeting our awesome new campers!!  Here are some of the new faces coming to Canadensis for the first time this year!

Meet Devyn!  She lives in Maple Glen, PA and is a current 2nd grader who will be a new Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She sometimes goes by the nickname “Devy”. We had a lot of fun hanging out a few days after Halloween (which explains her fun multi-color hair!) and she is so excited for camp!  Here’s what you need to know about this cool, funny and happy new camper: After school she likes to play on the computer (she showed me some great slideshows she makes with photos!) and this summer she’s thinking about taking fishing, art, soccer, cheerleading and swim team electives.  Her favorite food is mac & cheese, she loves the color turquoise, and her favorite animal is a puppy!  Her favorite TV show is “Thundermans”, she rocks out to Taylor Swift and she was really excited to see the movie “Trolls”.  She really loves to play soccer, hang out on the playground and enjoys reading the “Diary of a Whimpy Kid” books.

Devyn’s big sister Jordyn is heading back to camp for her 3rd summer (WOW! How’d that happen so quickly?!).  She’s currently in 4th Grade and will be a Lower Inter Girl – she’s in touch with so many camp friends and is ready to make the upcoming summer her best yet!

Meet Emerson!  She lives in Penn Valley, PA and is a current 3rd grader who will be a new Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She often goes by the nickname “Eme”.  I got to crash a “girls night” with her and her mom while her dad and younger sister were at a basketball game (after I left she had a movie date with mom) and she is so ready for sleepaway camp!  Here’s what you need to know about this funny, happy and joyful new camper: After school she likes to read, play with her sister and have a snack.  This summer she’s going to use her elective periods to do more soccer, tennis. dance, lacrosse, swimming and gymnastics!  Her favorite food is noodles & red sauce, she loves the color purple, and her favorite animal is a dog!  Her favorite TV show is “Lab Rats”, she rocks out to the song “Closer” and her favorite movies are “Monsters vs. Aliens” and “Goonies”.  She really loves to play soccer, create art and build legos.  She cheers for the Michigan State teams, and she’ll have a tough choice each time she visits the canteen because she equally loves Kit Kats and Skittles!

Meet Julia! She lives in Harrisburg, PA and is a current 2nd grader who will be a new Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She sometimes goes by the nickname “Jules” or “JJ Superstar”! We had such a fun home visit (she made me a Passport full of fun activities!) and I really enjoyed having lunch with her whole family!  She has two younger sisters and as we went around doing activities I got to see her play piano, we played barbies, read a book and rode bikes!  She’s very excited to join her cousin Max at camp.  She can be a little shy, so let me tell you everything you need to know about this funny, happy and creative new camper: After school she likes to draw or ride her bike and she’s looking forward to doing art and drama electives at camp.  Her favorite food is pasta with butter, she loves the color blue, and her favorite animal is a dolphin!  Her favorite TV shows are “Liv & Maddie”, “Casey Undercover”, “Sam & Cat” and she told me about the show “Bunk’d”…I had no idea there was a new camp show on Disney Channel!! She likes to play tennis, dance, root for the Yankees, and read the “Captain Underpants” books.  She’s not afraid to be up on stage, and she has a lot of drama experience.  Between all her after school activities, she also finds time to play basketball, go to dance lessons and attend Hebrew School.

Meet Ella! She lives in Penn Valley, PA and is a current 3rd grader who will be a new Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She sometimes goes by the nickname “El”. We had a lot of fun hanging out on “National Camp T-Shirt Day”, so she tossed on her newest camp shirt to snap this photo! Her mom loved going to camp, and now Ella is ready!  Here’s what you need to know about this brave, fun, happy and nice new camper: After school she likes to play outside with her dog (by the way, her dog is super cute!!) and she takes her gymnastics very seriously! This summer she’s thinking about taking climbing wall, windsurfing and gymnastics electives.  Her favorite food is pasta, she loves the color blue, and her favorite animal is a toss up between a dog or a cheetah!  Her favorite TV show is “Bunk’d”, she rocks out to Taylor Swift and her favorite movie is “Teen Beach Movie 2”.  Her favorite hobby is rock climbing and she’s really good…she might be doing competitions soon! She cheers for the Philadelphia Eagles, she loves snacking on “Kit Kats” and her favorite book is “Gold Medal Winter”.

Meet Zachary!  He lives in Blue Bell, PA and is a current 3rd grader who will be a new Upper Junior Boy at camp this summer.  He often goes by the nickname “Zach”. On the night I came over, his little brother was at a sleepover so I got to spend a long time hanging out with him, and he gave me a great tour of his house…I’ve never seen such an impressive lego collection! Here’s what you need to know about this cool and awesome new camper: After school he likes to play video games (he considers himself a “gamer”!) and this summer he’s thinking about taking lego, lake boats and fishing electives.  His favorite foods are steak, pizza and shrimp (I agree…but sadly no shrimp at camp!)  His favorite color is orange, and his favorite animal is an eagle!  His favorite TV show is “Thundermans”, and he gets down to the song “Starboy” and I hope we’ll be seeing his dance moves at our morning line up dance parties!  He cheers for the Philadelphia Eagles, loves snacking on Milky Way candy bars and reading the “Diary of a Whimpy Kid” books.  By the way, it was amazing how well his parents know him…they guessed ALL of his answers, but they didn’t know that his favorite movie is “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”!

Meet Alexander!  He lives in New York City on the UES and is a current 3rd grader who will be a new Upper Junior Boy at camp this summer.  We hung out the day after Thanksgiving and played some “Battleship” which was really fun.  He had just moved to a new apartment and gave me a tour of his room, he sleeps on the bottom bunk and has a younger brother who sleeps on the top.  Here’s what you need to know about this kind, funny and energetic new camper: After school he likes to go to taekwondo lessons and this summer he’s very excited to spend time in woodworking so he’ll definitely be signing up for elective periods up there!  His favorite food is penne pasta, he loves the color red and snacking on Sour Patch Kids.  His favorite animal is a dog and he likes the song “Rockin Robin”.  He tunes into the “Dan TDM” YouTube Channel, which gives you inside tips on Minecraft.  He’s currently reading the “Dinosaur Boy” book, and his favorite movie right now is “Astro Boy”.

Meet Rylie! She lives in New York City on the UWS and is a current 2nd grader who will be a new Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She sometimes goes by the nickname “RyRy”! We also hung out on “Black Friday” and her older brother Jonah was at a basketball game so she showed me a video they had recorded (Jonah will be spending his 3rd summer at camp, and will be a Freshman Boy!).  Let me tell you everything you need to know about this crazy, silly and ncie new camper: After school she likes to go to “Play House” and also play house with her friends.  Her favorite food is sushi, she loves the color orange (and wants to paint her new room that color!), and her favorite animals are elephants, horses, cats and dogs!  Her favorite TV show is “Liv & Maddie” and she’s a little bit like both characters! She crazy about playing soccer and doing gymnastics and she’s a big fan of the NY Red Bulls, NY Yankees and the NY Giants.  She loves M&Ms, the song “Shake It Off”, reading the “Diary of a Whimpy Kid Books” and he favorite movie is Zootopia…although she was going to see a movie with cousins after our home visit so she may a new favorite!!

My husband Dave and I also had a movie date after my home visit with Rylie.  We went to see “Moana” with new 2nd grade camper Sydney (on the left in the picture above).  Full disclosure…Sydney’s mom is my friend so this wasn’t “official” camp business!  But, when we got in the theater, Jonah (on the right in the picture above) was one row in front of us!  Jonah will be spending his 4th summer at camp, and he’ll be living on Senior Boys Side with Dave this year – so great to see him!

After the movie, we met Sydney’s brother Aiden (far left, also a new 2nd grade camper!) for some Mexican food and at the table next to us was another Canadensis family!!  Julia was rocking her favorite Canadensis t-shirt and she is looking forward to an upcoming bunk reunion!  We can’t wait to have her back for her 3rd summer as an Upper Inter, and this year she’s bringing younger brother Ryan (far right, also a new 2nd grade camper).  It was wonderful to have so many unexpected Canadensis Reunions while we were in NYC!

On our way back home to Philadelphia, we stopped by Brian’s house to spend a little time with his growing family.  It was so good to see his older daughter Emerson and get to play!!  She just became a big sister last week, we loved getting to meet Rylie Blu…I’m admit to being a baby hog so we got a lot of good snuggle time…and it was hard to let her go!!  Congratulations Brian & Jaime – so happy to welcome Rylie to the Canadensis family!

Meet Samantha! She’s a current 3rd grader and will be an Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer!  She’s from Denver, Colorado but her mom grew up on the East Coast, and she’s excited to share a very similar camp experience to her mom.  Samantha is very active and loves to play sports, on the day I visited she had just won a soccer game and had scored 4 goals in the same game!  She’s also an advanced bike rider, she likes to take advantage of the many local bike trails in her area and go for long rides with her dad, the longest bike trip to date was 17 miles!  Her perfect day after school would be a mix of hanging out and playing tennis, and her top choices for electives this summer will be tennis, soccer and dance.  Here’s what else you need to know about this sporty, friendly and kind new camper: She loves to eat sushi, her favorite color is blue and her favorite animal is a dog (see a photo of her dog below!).  She cheers for the Super Bowl Champions, the Denver Broncos and she loves singing along to Taylor Swift songs.  Her favorite TV show is “Liv and Maddie”, she recently saw “Free Willy” and liked the movie a lot, and her favorite books are in the “Land of Stories” series.  She’s really enjoys reading, and is doing a book challenge at school right now!  Her favorite hobby is knitting, she likes to make hats and scarves – it’s really impressive!  Her favorite candy is a twix bar, so I told her all about the canteen and told her she has to try a frozen twix this summer.

I had a really nice time hanging out with Samantha and her whole family!  Her little sister Alexandra (age 3) wanted to join us for a photo, and so did the family dog Riley!  I can’t wait for Samantha to see Camp Canadensis on the first day of camp, it’s going to kick off the most amazing summer ever!

Just up the road from Denver, we visited Levi in Boulder, Colorado.  Levi is currently in 4th grade, and will be a Lower Inter boy this summer.  Remarkably, this is going to be his 5th summer at camp (5 year jacket time!!) and he’s finally out of the Junior division!  Dave and I had a great visit with him, and he’s been really busy this off season.  When he got home from camp, he learned how to wake board, and he’s been playing different sports every season.  Right now, he’s on a baseball team and having a great time playing all the different positions, but pitching is his favorite.  He’s also advanced his skiing skills this winter, and has been going down some really steep chutes!   We decided to take our photo outside so everyone could see the absolutely gorgeous setting Levi calls home, and make everyone just a tad bit jealous!

While in Colorado, we checked out the Red Rocks area and went on a nice hike.  Our dog Annie loves being outside, and even on her little legs she managed to keep up with us!  The amphitheatre is absolutely incredible – although we didn’t catch a concert, it was awesome to see everyone working out and using the amphiteatre different ways, just like we use ours at camp for line up, zumba, evening activities, fitness, etc!  I joke that our Camp Canadensis amphiteatre inspired theirs, but there is definitely a resemblance…and both Red Rocks Amphitheatre and Camp Canadensis were established in 1941!  Coincidence?

After a good hike, we deserved some ice cream and I had the best ice cream buddy around…Groundhog!  Jared is his “real name”, but at camp he’s always gone by Groundhog although not too many people know why!  He grew up in Allentown. PA and attended Camp Canadensis as a camper before becoming a fixture on staff for many years – he doesn’t even know how many summers he’s spent at camp!  He currently is a department head at Colorado Academy, but he still comes back every summer to capture our “official” camper photos by the tree!  When you see him this summer make sure to flash him your best smile!

On the subject of treats, I have to show you this photo I took at City Pop in Denver.  I love POPCORN, but they took it to a whole new level with almost 80 different flavors!  It’s wild, and you can ship it to anywhere so if you are tempted by the photo above click this link to see more: https://www.citypopdenver.com/ (Dave and I both recommend the birthday cake flavor!)

One last photo to share with you today…does anyone remember this guy from camp?  Brad was up at camp last year with his video crew capturing all the Canadensis fun and spirit!  He’s working on our new camp video, and it should be ready for you to see in the next few weeks!  While I was out west, I met up with Brad in Phoenix, Arizona to do some on site editing, and I even got to do a little recording in a sound booth (headphones, microphone, the whole deal was very professional!!).  Can’t wait for you to see the result!

I had a great visit in Northern NJ with Jessica!  She goes by “Jessie” and she’s a current 5th grader who will be spending her first summer at Canadensis as an Upper Inter Girl. She is the youngest of three siblings, but is the first one to go to sleepaway camp, and she’s so excited!  Jessie’s looking forward to all the activities, but especially the sports (soccer, lacrosse and basketball are her favorites) and the lake activities (kayaking, sailing and the water trampoline!).  After schoo, she likes to go outside, get her homework done and hang out with friends.  She’s sweet, mature and very “humorous” – here’s what you need to know about this funny, creative and easy going new camper: she loves all varieties of the color blue, the TV Show “F.R.I.E.N.D.S.” and the NY Mets.  Out of her many hobbies and sports teams she plays on, soccer is her favorite.  She loves dogs, moneys and horses (friendly ones) and pop music, especially Adam Levine hits.  Her favorite food is chicken noodle soup, her favorite book is “Out of my Mind” and her favorite movie at the moment is “Daddy’s Home”.  Can’t wait to have her at Canadensis, hopefully she’ll split a Hershey bar with me at the canteen this summer!

On the Mainline, PA I got to hang out with a new set of siblings coming to Canadensis!  On the left is Julian, a current 5th grader who will be a new Upper Inter Boy this summer.  He sometimes goes by the nickname “Jules” and he is looking forward to so many different things about Canadensis, including playing soccer, doing the Today Show elective and trying out Parkour.  Here’s what you need to know about the awesome, fun and nice new camper: his favorite food is sushi, he likes the color gold (go gold team!) and he likes dogs (he has two…you can just barely see Honey in the photo at the bottom right, but Sugar is not in the photo).  His favorite TV show is “Family Guy” and he likes listening to Kendrick Lamar and the song “Swimming Pools”.  He is going going to be playing a lot of soccer at camp, and he’ll look forward to snacking on some twix bars at the canteen!

His sister Lila is a current 1st grader, and will be a new Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She’s very enthusiastic about camp, she’s been ready to pack her bags since she was about 5 years old!  Here’s what you need to know about this kind, cool and nice new camper: She loves gymnastics, dogs and remote control cars.  Her favorite color is super awesome…she loves tie dye!  Her favorite TV show is “Lost” and she’s loving the song “Stitches” right now.  She likes the “June B. Jones” book series and the movie “Little Monsters”.  She cheers for the Eagles, and would love to eat noodles and chocolate all day.  I know she’ll be flipping for camp as it gets closer!!

Also on the Mainline, PA, I got to spend a fun night catching up with Sloan!  She’s a current 2nd grader who will be a new Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer – and she already has so much camp spirit because her mom is an Alumni, and she’ll be joining her two older cousins at Canadensis!  She goes by a few nicknames, including “Sloanimal” and “Sloanie”, and she is a big sister.  A perfect day after school for her would include playing soccer, making up games with her younger brother, and getting to eat a hamburger and ice cream for dinner!  She’s excited for a ton of new activities at camp, and the top of her list is sailing, fishing, archery, glass fusion, gaga and the ropes course/climbing wall!  Here’s a few other things you should know about this creative, playful and sporty new camper: her favorite color is red, she loves dogs and she cheers for the Denver Broncos.  Her favorite movie is “Hotel Transylvania 2”, her favorite TV show is “Gravity Falls” and she loves the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series.  She loves listening to “Fall Out Boy” and we are both loving the new Justin Bieber songs, including “Sorry”!  Her favorite hobbies are playing soccer and reading, so we’ll be seeing her do both at camp…but not at the same time!!

In Suffolk County, NY I got to spend more time getting to know Brooke…I had gotten to meet her super quickly this fall, but it was soooo cold we didn’t spend much time talking!  Brooke is a current 4th grader and will be a new Lower Inter Girl this summer.  She’s the first one in her family to go to sleepaway camp, and she’s going to really enjoy all the activities.  She stays busy during the school year by performing in shows at “Take A Bow” and she’s had a lot of really huge parts!  She’s also currently on a basketball team that has practices and games every week.  We talked as we snacked on some freshly baked cookies (she loves to cook, even though she didn’t get to help make these!) and then she gave me a tour of her newly redecorated and very cool room.  Here’s what you need to know about this awesome, funny and crazy new camper: Her favorite food is California rolls, she loves the color neon green and puppies!  She loves the TV show “Full House”, the new Star Wars movie and the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.  She cheers for the Knicks, likes all types of Pop music, and her favorite candy is Twix (the frozen twix are the best canteen item in my opinion!).  Can’t wait to see her up on the stage acting in one of our camp shows this summer!

Across the county line in Nassau County, NY I got to catch up with Abigail.  She’s a current 4th grader, and will be a new Lower Inter Girl at camp this summer.  She goes by the nicknames “Abby” and sometimes “Cocoa”, and the night I visited she was working on Valentines for all of her classmates.  I loved seeing how crafty she is, and I’m sure it made all her her friends so happy to receive the cards the next day!  While she really loves art, she equally loves soccer.  She also likes to dance, write songs, sew clothing and sometimes after school she is a TAG mentor.  At camp she can’t wait to go fishing, play soccer, dance and work on projects in the art shack, fabric arts and ceramics!  Here’s what you need to know about the awesome, cute and all around amazing new camper: her favorite colors are black, pink and blue and she loves the “Thea Stilton” book series.  She couldn’t pick a favorite food or candy, but she likes sweet hearts, all types of chocolate, pasta, donuts, pizza, cupcakes and french fries.  Her favorite animal is a dolphin, and she loves the songs “Shut Up And Dance” and “You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful”.  Some of her favorite TV shows are “Bunked” “Austin & Ally”, “Liv and Maddie” and “Cupcake/Cake Wars”.  Can’t wait for Abby’s first summer!

In North Jersey, I had fun getting to know Alyssa!  She did our Tour & More Sleepover Weekend last year, and this will be her first full summer at Canadensis.  She’s a currently 4th grader and will be a Lower Inter Girl this summer.  She’s got an older and younger brother, so she’s looking forward to making a whole bunk of camp sisters!  She really enjoys playing basketball, softball and doing art…any of those would be her favorite way to spend an afternoon!  This summer she’s looking forward to zipping around on the Quads, trying new recipes at cooking and getting up on waterskis for the first time (she’s a snow skier, so I bet she’ll have pretty good luck!).  Here’s what you need to know about this nice and silly new camper: Her favorite food is mac and cheese, her favorite color is blue and she loves dogs.  If she’s in charge of the remote control, she’s going to put on Disney Channel, and she really liked the song “Singing in the Shower” right now.  Her favorite hobby is art, and she’s thrilled that our canteen has nerds ropes because that’s her favorite candy!  Her favorite team at the moment is “Team Mustard” – it’s the basketball team she’s on, and they renamed themselves based on the color of their shirts.  Can’t wait to see her shooting hoops at camp this summer!

Alyssa’s big brother Josh is a current 6th grader, and he’ll be back for his second summer at a Freshman Boy – there a lot of big changes for him this year, including more electives, no more swim instruction and a big overnight trip to Cooperstown!  It was great to hear about all the sports and activities he’s been up to this winter.  The day after I saw him, he was heading to a bunk reunion/sleepover.

We love seeing photos of #CanadensisReunions, including this one of Josh’s bunk, B12 2015 catching up after a basketball game.

Back on the Mainline, PA, I got to talk camp with with Reed!  He’s a current 2nd grader, and will be a Lower Junior Boy at camp for his first summer – and he can’t wait!  His big brother Wyatt started camp last year, and will be returning as a Lower Inter, and Reed can’t wait to join the fun.  He’s especially looking forward to riding the quads, planying basketball, gaga, soccer and zipping down the waterslides (although, he’s not quite as excited about swim instruction!!).  He is currently on a basketball team, but he plays sports year round.  His perfect afternoon would include a little bit of xbox, a little bit of basketball and a lot of football!  Here’s what you need to know about this fast, funny and awesome new camper: his favorite food is pizza, he loves the color red, and likes sharks.  He cheers for a ton of sports teams, but his number one team is the Eagles!  He likes to listen to Drake’s music and watch the TV show “Thundermans”, and some of his favorite movies include “Creed” and “Revenge of the Nerds”.  He sometimes goes by the name “Reedo Dorito” but that’s not his favorite snack food…if given the choice he’d go for Mike & Ikes!  Can’t wait to see him having a ball at camp!

As I’ve been doing home visits this year, it’s been interesting to see how many kids list the Denver Bronco’s as one of their favorite teams…and how many kids liked the Seattle Seahawks last year!  I get it…everyone likes a winner, but above is a camper who is truly dedicated to the Denver Broncos, and can’t wait to wear her team colors at Canadensis this summer.  Samantha lives in Denver, and will be an Upper Junior Girl spending her first summer at camp.  I can’t wait to meet her in Colorado in a few weeks!

Visiting Day is known in part for all of the delicious food, and one of our camp mom’s is known for her outrageously delicious homemade challah.  She was amazingly generous with her time this week, and taught me how to perform the mitzvah of making challah – and as a newly wed I know that Dave hopes I put the new skill to use often!  I had so much fun hanging out with Kami, and catching up with her two girls.  I’m forgot to take a photo, so I only have a picture of the challah to post…but look how amazing it turned out!

A few days later, I went out to Millersville University for a day of interviewing new staff.  It was wonderful to meet so many talented new staff.  While on campus, I got to catch up with our former woodworking director Jay to hear about his student teaching, and get his insight on the new recruits.  It was awesome to see him!

And finally, in todays blog I wanted to share some exciting news about a new addition to our high ropes course and climbing adventure area.  Above is your first view of the newly installed “Vertical Playground”!  This element will take you to new heights in camp, and can be used for team building, races and more!  Campers will get to experience it during their ropes course activity periods, in addition to the zip lining and other challenge activities they’ve loved in the past.  Race you to the top!

2016 has started off with a bang over here at Camp Canadensis!  There’s been so much travel and fun stuff in the works – but one of my absolutely highlights during the winter is going and visiting new campers before their first summer at camp.  First up, is Will from Bucks County, PA!  He’s currently in 3rd grade, and will be an Upper Junior Boy at camp this summer!  Although it’s his first official summer as a camper, Will is the 4th generation of the Saltzman family (he’s named after his Great-Grandfather, camps founder!) to spend the summer around Lake Lenape.  He’s had a taste of camp in the past through Tour & More and other visits, so he knows how much fun he’s in for this summer!!  At camp, you’ll find him in the middle of a gaga game, and he’s excited to choose it as an elective.  He’s also going to be on the courts playing tennis and can’t wait to help his bunk stay clean and will the Honor Bunk competition!  He is a big brother, and his family recently got an adorable new dog named Rogan!  Here’s what you need to know about this great, awesome and cool new camper: his favorite food is pizza, he loves the color blue and the TV show “Wander Over Yonder”.  He’s a fan of rock music, the Eagles (the football team, not the band!) and his favorite hobby is football.  He’s going to be packing a few books for camp, and right now he lives the “Humphrey” series.  It’s going to be a great summer!

Another new camper coming from Buck County, PA is Chloe!  Chloe is currently in 2nd grade, and will be a Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She love gymnastics, and during our home visit she was wearing her leotard (it was right after class!) and she showed me some of her routines and moves – I was so impressed!!  Here’s what you need to know about this happy, nice and kind new camper: her favorite food is spaghetti, her favorite color is “tickle me pink” and she loves to watch “Dance Moms”.  She loves pandas too, and we watched the recent YouTube video of the panda playing in the snow!  She’s into all types of music, and chocolate!  Her favorite thing to do after school is gymnastics – it’s her favorite hobby!  She’s looking forward to the gymnastics elective at camp, but also likes building legos and thinks glass fusion and ceramics will be fun.  She’s a good artist, and we drew a bunch of fun doodles during out time together.

Chloe’s the youngest of 3, and her older sister Brittney started back when she was a Lower Junior too.  Now, Brittney is in 6th grade and will be a Freshman girl at camp this summer – I cannot believe she’s getting her 5 year jacket this summer!!  We had so much fun catching up, and her enthusiasm for all things Canadensis is contagious – we even listened to old almas during the visit (and Chloe already knows some of the words from old marches!).  She can’t wait for Hershey Park, taking cooking as an elective, and so many exciting new things coming her way this summer!

In Ambler, PA, I got to hang out with Alana.  She’s a current 3rd grader, and will be an Upper Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She first came to Canadensis in summer 2014 for the Tour & More Playday, in 2015 she did the Tour & More Weekend, and this summer she’ll really get to experience all the fun of camp!  She goes by the nicknames Laina & Lai Lai, and she is a big sister to younger brother Shane.  She’s excited to do glass fusion, cheerleading and fabric arts as electives this summer and maybe be in our camp show!  Here’s what you need to know about this cute, silly and fun new camper: She loves pasta, the show “Gravity Falls” and dancing.  Her favorite books are the “Dork Diary” series, and the Monster High Movies, and the song X’s and O’s.  She also likes the song “Circus of Your Mind” (a Broadway show tune).  She loves making up characters and stories, and she loves lots and lots of pigs, lots and lots of unicorns…and did I mention she likes mustaches too?  Her favorite color is purple, and her second favorite color is “sparkles” so I cannot wait to see her purple/sparkly bed at camp this summer!

In Marlboro, NJ  I got to see Rebecca again (I met her this summer as her tour guide!).  She is a current 4th grader and will be a Lower Inter Girl at camp this summer.  She is the second oldest of 4 siblings (and she’s the only girl!) plus they have two dogs in their family – it was so much fun to meet everyone!  You can’t tell from the photo, but just an hour before our visit she was all decked out for a cheerleading competition.  They came in first place, and I was so impressed watching the video of the routine!  Here’s what you need to know about this funny, kind and cheerful new camper: Her nickname is “Bex”, and she’s excited for fishing, roller hockey, gaga and cheer electives this summer.  Her favorite food is spaghetti, her favorite color is blue and she loves the TV show “Master Chef Junior”.  Her favorite animal is a turtle, and she will often be seen eating skittles in our canteen this summer!  Her favorite hobby and thing to do after school is be practice her cheer skills for the Youth Supremacy team.  She also loves art, the Harry Potter Books, the movie “Legally Blonde” and her favorite song at the moment is “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”.  She’s incredibly well rounded, and I can’t wait to see her having fun at camp this summer along with her older cousin Ben!

In New York City, I got to have a pre-Super Bowl home visit with Julia.  She’s a current 4th grader who will be a Lower Inter Girl at camp this summer.  She had just come from her Sunday basketball league, and there have been days when she’s played up to 4 games, she’s in high demand from the other teams!  While basketball is definitely her number one hobby, after school she likes to have playdates, play video games and ping pong (they can transform their dinner table into a ping pong table!).  Here’s what you need to know about this friendly, funny and sport new camper: her favorite color is orange, her favorite TV show is “Sports Center” and she loves oysters and seafood in general!  She loves the Brooklyn Nets, NY Giants, NY Yankees and the Columbia Lions, and she has attended their basketball camps in the past.  She also loves dogs, gummy candies and this summer she’s planning to do the fishing, legos, basketball and quads electives, but might also give the ceramics wheel a try!  Her favorite book is “The Honest Truth”, her favorite band is “Imagine Dragons” and her favorite movie is “Big” – such a classic!  I can’t wait to see her again at the New Camper Event in April!

This summer, Julia will be joining her twin sister Rebecca (on the right), who will be back for her second summer at camp.  Rebecca recently had an amazing time catching up with friends at the Camp Reunion, and she’s planning to host a Bunk 5 sleepover soon!  She’s been having a great year, and showed me the telescope she recently got as a gift, and may bring to camp this summer – it’d be awesome to get a closer view of the stars at Canadensis!!  The girls are holding up the glued together puzzles they recently put together with their grandparents.   They came out so cool!  The puzzles were part of our Holiday Carewear Mystery Boxes!

Above is a peek at some of the other items that went into the mystery box, which almost 100 people signed up for, helping camp raise over $2,000 for Canadensis Cares Scholarships.  This years box had the jigsaw puzzles, bucket hat (it’s going to be a big trend this summer!), knit scarf, and other items like tattoos, a picture frame, balloons and other Canadensis swag!It was fun seeing so many of our 2015 campers at the Camp Reunion last weekend!  We love taking over Funtime America and having a full morning of rides, games, lasertag, pizza and of course camp friends!!  In the photo above, you’ll see some of our incoming CITs of 2016 – the reunion is the official kickoff of their CIT year, and they couldn’t be more excited to work with our younger campers this summer!

Speaking of working with younger campers…this is the time of year when we are busy meeting and hiring the very best staff!  We take the job of hiring the perfect “Mature Goofballs” very seriously, and we meet most of our staff in person!  That means we do a lot of traveling during the winter – about 15% of our counselors come from outside the US, and this year kicked off with a trip to staff fairs in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  Above, Dave and I checked out the sights in Sydney before heading to a staff fair.

We later met up with Josh, Lachie and Steph who helped us hire great specialists for the lake, mountain bikes and swim programs!

In Melbourne, we met up with Dale, Justin and Josh at the fair, and their passion for camp was contagious!  It was so fun seeing them and hearing more about why they love camp.  The next day we got to see Phoebe and hear all about the plans for her growing family!  I also had fun playing tourist with Justin and seeing the entire city…when we saw this adorable blue and golf beach cabin, we had to take a photo!

In Auckland, New Zealand, Jamie & Arnav came out to help recruit the new crew of staff, and share all about their experience!

In NZ, I found some people who love avocados as much as me!  It was on the menu everywhere…and I enjoyed one every day!  I’m sure my fellow “Avocado Aficionados” totally understand!  (Btw, the Avocado Aficionados is a club started at camp that meets several times during the summer to learn avocado facts, and how to prepare them a bunch of delicious ways, like in smoothies and guacamole!)After the fair, Dave and I spent a few days touring around New Zealand.  We loved it, and he wanted to stay!  Seriously, he would have been so happy to be stuck in Russell, NZ…luckily I convinced him to come home because I think the Senior Boys would have really missed him this summer.Straight from New Zealand, I met Carli in the United Kingdom, and we had a great time meeting staff at the London fairs!

We had so many amazing camp staff from past and present offer to help us out!  We ended up throwing a big gathering after the fair to spend some time with everyone who was in town – you are looking at staff members from 4 different years and 3 different countries (not including us from the US), and it was a great time!

Happy New Year Everyone!!  I hope your 2016 is already off to an incredible start.  My first home visit of the year was with Jamie, from Dresher, PA.  Jamie is a funny, cool and energetic new camper, who is currently in 4th grade and will be a Lower Inter Boy at camp this summer!  He’s really excited about all the activities at camp, he likes almost everything under the sun.  He’s particularly excited to spend his days at camp doing archery, golf and tennis – and will likely pick those as electives.  He’s also going to join our Rock Band program, which is awesome because he’s a keyboard player that goes to School of Rock afterschool.  He’s inspired by Billy Joel, loves “The Simpsons”, can’t get enough chicken tenders, enjoys reading the “Harry Potter” book series, and we both love penguins!  After doing the Tour & More Weekend program, we are so excited to have him at camp for the full summer.

Camp runs in Jamie’s family!  His brother Jason (at camp, he is known as “JP”) is in the middle in the picture above.  He’s currently in 7th grade and will be spending his 4th summer with us at camp!  This year he will be a Lower Senior, and he’s looking forward to it!  Their father is a Canadensis Alumni, and Jon also goes by the nickname “JP” – the whole family goes crazy for Canadensis traditions, including the Cornman on Open House and Visiting Day!
Right before the new year, I had a chance to hang out with Julia in Commack, NY!  She is currently in 4th grade and will be a new Lower Inter Girl at camp this summer.  She describes herself as spunky, adventurous and friendly – and I agree because it was a lot of fun getting to know her!  She loves being a big sister, and likes a ton of different activities including a lot of sports – she’s playing basketball this season.  You’ll definitively be seeing her up on stage at camp this summer, she’s involved with drama productions all year, and one of her favorite parts was being the lead character in “Oliver”.  She also loves penguins, the book “Wonder”, the color purple, and Italian food.  When she has free time, you might find her watching “Liv and Maddie” or listeing to Taylor Swift, pop music or even some classical tunes!  She roots for the Islanders and loves starbursts, skittles or anything chewy!  Check out the camp spirit she already has for Canadensis – I loved seeing her in her camp scarf, and she even has some camp stickers up around her room.

In Dix Hills, NY, I got to catch up with Sydney before her first summer at camp.  I first met her when she did the Tour & More Weekend last year, but she knows a ton about Canadensis from her close cousins Jack & Molly!  Syd (that’s her nickname!) is currently in 2nd grade, and will be a Lower Junior Girl at camp this summer.  She’s totally sweet, lovable and happy!  After school, she likes to do arts and crafts, read, build legos and ice skate (some mornings, she ice skates before school – so impressive!!).  She’s obsessed with hamburgers (yum!), loves corn and will probably get sour patch kids when she visits the canteen.  Her favorite color is pink, her favorite animal is a pig, and she cheers for the NY Giants.  When she’s not at a figure skating competition on the weekend, you might find her watching “Austin and Ally” or watching one of her favorite movies “Cheaper By The Dozen”.  I can’t wait to welcome her to Canadensis this summer!

Before returning to work, I did get a chance to travel and have some rest and relaxation!  Dave and I spent our honeymoon in Saint Lucia, and before we leave the beach we took the photo above with our relationship slogan “PAVE 4 EVA” – (PAVE is a combo of Pam & Dave…I’m sure you get it!).  

It was beautiful there!  Our hotel had a stunning view of the Piton Mountains, and our room only had three walls so we were very close to nature!  We had birds flying in and out of our rooms, and we got to enjoy listening to the rain fall overnight.  As pretty as it was, I’d take the views of Lake Lenape from the top of the Camp Canadensis Amphitheater any day!

I also had a chance to celebrate my amazing Grandma Lil’s 90th Birthday with some of my favorite cousins.  Everyone you see in the photo above went to sleepaway camp, so it probably doesn’t surprise you that we had special shirts made up for the occasion!  The front says “Grandma’s Girls” and there was a special back too!  Doesn’t she look incredible? She’s an amazing woman, she’s kind, generous, smart, gives valued advice and opinions and never ever misses an opportunity to send a greeting card for your birthday or another holiday.  I’m lucky to have grown up just a few blocks away from her, and no matter when I’d drop by she always had a snack and some good stories for me.  She’s seen literally every movie and TV show and give the best recommendations on what to watch!  She’s supported me 100% in life, even when my passion was to become a camp director and it means we don’t get to see each other at all for months at a time!  She’s also taught me the true value of friendship, she’s had so many wonderful and longtime friends in her life (someof whom she plays mah jongg with!) and it’s in part because she’s a great listener, and goes out of her way to be there for people.  I just can’t say enough great things about her!

I’m sad to be missing her bigger 90th celebration this weekend, but I’ll be traveling for work.  My next blog post won’t be for a few weeks, and by that time I will have traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom (with a layover in Shanghai!) to hire some incredible counselors to join our team at Canadensis this summer.  We take hiring very seriously, and want to bring the very best staff aboard, which is why the face to face hiring is so important to us!  I’ll be posting photos of the journey, and #CanadensisReunions on Instagram along the way, you can follow us there with username @CampCanadensis!

Meet Alexa!  She’s an artistic, happy and sweet new camper coming to use from North Jersey.  She’s a current 3rd grader and will be an Upper Junior Girl this summer.  She loves to ride her bike and is looking forward to glass fusions, photography and ceramics at camp…and of course the lake!!  Some of her favorite things include cucumber rolls, the color purple, pandas, the NJ Devils, Taylor Swif, art, tootsie rolls, and the “Ivy and Bean” book series.  She’s an amazing big sister, and will be an awesome bunkmate this summer!

Meet Chloe!  Carli and I loved spending time with this 4th grader from Lafayette Hill, PA and she’ll be heading to camp for the first time this summer and will be a Lower Inter Girl.  She’s a creative, sweet, and very friendly girl, and loves to be called by her nickname Coco!  She also likes to play piano and loves art, especially painting.  We loved seeing all of her cool artwork hung up on her walls! At camp, she’s looking forward to doing a lot of activities in the art shack, being a part of our rock band, and spending time with her twin sister Maya.  Some of her favorite things include pasta, Twix, the movie Minions, listening to Imagine Dragons, and reading her favorite book The Last Of The Really Great Whangdoodles.  Chloe loves the colors blue and green and is so excited to decorate her bed at camp with a lot of blue, green, and stuffed animals!

Her twin sister Maya (in the blue shirt above!) will be spending her second summer at camp and will also be a Lower Inter Girl.  She’s been in touch with her camp friends, and had such an awesome summer…especially at the lake!

Meet Gabby!  She’s a silly, crazy and smart girl who is interested in fashion, and lives in North Jersey.  She’s in 3rd grade, and will be spending her first summer at camp as an Upper Junior Girl.  She loves her family, playing with dolls and having dance parties.  At camp this summer, she’s looking forward to doing fabric art, drama, softball, playing tennis, going to the batting cage and of course going swimming!  Some of her favorites include cooking in the blender (she loves avocados like me, and tons of other foods like hamburgers, hotdogs, mozzerella sticks, sushi, cupcakes…), she roots for the Giants, Yankees and Islanders, her favorite TV show is Liv & Maddie, but she also loves the Goldbergs.

Gabby’s big brother Alex will be spending his 3rd summer at camp (wow, time flies!!) and will be an Upper Inter Boy.  He’s in the middle of basketball season right now, and has been loving going to Giants tailgates this year with his dad (they’ve joined Brian’s crew!!).  He also just hosted an amazing reunion with some of his camp buddies, let’s just say they were up kinda late…

Meet Mia!  She’s a fun, crazy and funny 4th grader from Livingston, NJ who is heading to camp for her first summer as a Lower Inter Girl.  She goes by many nicknames, including Meis and Mimi.  She absolutely loves dancing, and playing with her rabbit Coco.  At camp this summer, she’s looking forward to zumba, photography, and ceramics wheel.  Some of her favorite things include mac & cheese, sheep (love that answer for favorite animal!), the “Dork Diaries” book series, Selena Gomez, singing, playing softball (her team is called the Thunder), the color red, and Grumpy Cat.  She also doesn’t really love candy…she will gravitate towards chips at the canteen!

Meet Ruby!  She’s a 2nd grader from Livingston, NJ and she’ll be heading to camp for the first time this summer and will be a Lower Junior Girl.  She’s a creative girl who comes up with the best ideas, and likes to spend a lot of time upside down.  She’s also a very slow eater, and likes to laugh a lot!  When she gets home from school, she likes to get her homework out of the way and head to the basement to practice tumbling and her cheerleading moves.  At camp, she’s looking forward to continuing to cheer, doing gymnastics, art and ceramics.  Some of her favorite things include noodle kugel, chocolate, cheetahs, cooking (she likes to make cookies and brownies) and poetry.  She also likes the movie “Spaceballs” and the song “Party in the USA”!

Ruby’s big brother Steven is currently in 3rd grade, and will be am Upper Junior Boy this year.  It’ll be his second summer at camp, and he’s an awesome big bro who will be looking out for Ruby.  He was one of our MACHO Award Recipients last year (it stands for My Actions Can Help Others) and we watched the video of him getting this amazing award recognizing the fact that he makes the Camp Canadensis community a better place for everyone!

We celebrated the 4th night of Chanukkah together, and lit the candles – it was SO nice!  They both got amazing books that night.  Stevens was all about art and Ruby’s was full of inspiring National Geographic photos!

 Meet Sammy!  She’s a cuttent 5th grader who will be coming to Canadensis for the first time this summer, and she’ll be an Upper Inter Girl.  This active, caring and energetic girl lives in Lower Gwynedd, PA.  She’s pretty serious about dance, and totally loves it!  So, of course she’s looking forward to dancing at camp, but she’s also looking forward to getting creative in the art shack and ceramics.  Some of her most favorite things are bagels, challah (we have both at camp!), the color blue (like she’s wearing above), dogs, The Goldbergs TV show, soccer, listening to Meghan Trainor music, kit-kats, and both the old and new Annie movies.  She loves singing, dancing and doing art…and enjoys reading the “Harry Potter” book series.

Sydney is Sammy’s little sister, and she’s in 3rd grade.  This will be her 2nd year at camp and she’ll be an Upper Junior girl.  We flipped through an amazing book of photos from her first summer at camp.  She had an amazing time soaking up all the camp fun, and she cannot wait to see how we top it in summer 2016!

Meet Talia!  She lives in Lower Gwynedd, PA and is currently in 3rd grade.  This will be her first summer at camp, and she will be an Upper Junior Girl.  She’s unique, artistic and fashionable and goes by many nicknames…including T, Tal and TT.  After school, she loves to play on her iPad and chill, but at camp she cannot wait to dance, go to the art shack and play tennis.  She’s looking forward to doing waterslides and glass fusion as electives.  Some of her favorite things include pizza, dogs, the Phillies, Taylor Swift, chocolate and artistic pursuits.  She loves the show “Liv & Maddie” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and the “Victoria Foresters” Books (The Girl Who Could Fly), and all things hot pink!

Big sister Madi is in 4th grade, and will be back at camp for her 2nd summer as a Lower Inter.  Her first summer at camp was out of this world, and about two months after the summer she celebrated her 10th birthday with her bunkmate born on the same day, and all of their camp friends.  It was so much fun hearing about the bunk sleepover!  Now she’s looking forward to the camp reunion!

As I type this blog, I’m already starting to look ahead to the many trips I’ll be taking in the weeks ahead.  Although my typical trips bring me to the tri-state area to meet awesome new campers, soon In January, I’ll be heading abroad to Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and I cannot wait to see our past staff members, and have the opportunity to interview and bring incredible new staff members to Canadensis this summer.  In February, I’ll be in Western Pennsylvania and down in Maryland meeting staff applicants on college campuses, and in March we’ll be heading to training conferences in Atlanta and Atlantic City.

If we’ve emailed lately to setup a home visit for your new camper, talk about the packing list, or just catch up about camp, you probably noticed that my last name has changed!  I’ve gone from Pam Levi to Pam Malter, because I’ve recently been lucky enough to marry our absolutely incredible Senior Boys Head Counselor, Dave Malter!  My husband (still makes me smile to say it!) and I feel so grateful to our family and friends, and we feel like the luckiest people on Earth to have found each other, and to have been able to celebrate.

We loved having so many of our Canadensis family members at our nuptials.  We all gathered in New Hope, PA and although we’ve only seen a few photos so far, I wanted to share some of the special moments captured by our photographer Emily Wren.

Dave and I were so honored to be married by our dear friend Aaron Selkow.  He planned the most beautiful, meaningful and personalized ceremony.  Not surprisingly, he’s comfortable in front of a crowd because he’s the director at Camp Harlam!  (Shhh…Dave and I were actually married by a rabbi a few weeks before our “wedding date” at Dave’s grandmothers assisted living facility…but not many people knew that we were already wed!)

Did you know that I’ve been obsessed with RVs since I was a kid?  It’s always been my dream to have one, and we rented a VW camper van as our getaway car!

It was perfect!

We worked on our first dance a bunch before the wedding…but I got out there and totally had stage freight!  I’m so impressed with our kids who can get up in be in the camp show and dance competitions because I totally spun out of control during our dance.  But, our amazing photographer managed to get one good shot!

We had a kid bridal party!  5 flower girls, 1 ring bearer and 1 glass bearer helped make our celebration extra adorable!  If you didn’t already know that we LOVE kids, the fact that we had 30+ children at our wedding should tell you a little something about importance they have in our lives!

I love to get crafty – and putting the invitation together was a lot of fun!  In the top right of the photo above you will see the unbelievably special ring box that our wood working director Jay made for us!

Our wedding took place on a Sunday morning, so our programs were a Sunday Morning Newspaper!  Complete with a crossword puzzle and an ad for the best camp ever!

Instead of typical place cards, we thought giving out mugs would be more in line with our Sunday Brunch nuptials.   We had so much fun in the past few months searching for special mug for each of our guests.

Who doesn’t love to snuggle?  We got lucky with a beautiful winter day (it’s been SO warm lately!) but just incase we wanted to invite our guests outdoors so we had blankets at the ready!

There were so many fun details…I apologize ahead of time if I share even more photos once we get back pictures with our Canadensis wedding guests and amazing counselors who volunteered their time to watch our kid wedding guests!  This last photo shows some of the games we had out on tables during cocktail hour, our cake (with cannoli filling!) and our RSVP cards that were madlibs were so much fun to read!