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!

You should definitely get in your car, and come meet me at a Canteen on the Fly this weekend!  We’ll be eating ice cream and giving out camp t-shirts…which sounds like the most perfect day ever!  Check out the locations below:

And now, for your visual enjoyment…some pictures for my weekly “Frame Worthy Friday”:

We are so excited for this weekends CANTEEN ON THE FLY events. We hope that many of our campers, staff, alumni and future campers will join us for some free ice cream. All those that attend will receive a T-Shirt as well. The dates and locations are as follows…

After a crazy camp wedding weekend you didn’t really think we could all just return to business as usual, right? Of course not! Instead of our typical Monday in the office, the Canadensis winter staff met in Philadelphia at the WHYY studios to volunteer and lend our support to public broadcasting. Here’s the photo diary:

It wouldn’t be a Canadensis event if we didn’t go out to FroYo afterwards!!!

As always we had a great time just being together, and it was made all the better knowing we were supporting public radio and television! Since we haven’t had enough yet, next weekend we’ll be hitting the road for TWO DAYS of Canteen on the Fly! Hope to see you there!

The past few days have been super fun and packed full of Canadensis goodness!!  This weekend, a large crew of Canadensis folks headed up to Holyoke, Mass to celebrate the wedding of Alyssa and Mike.  They met at Canadensis more than 5 years ago, and have continued to return year after year.  They were both Head Counselors in 2011, and their time at camp was mentioned quite a bit throughout the ceremony and reception.  They are truly a perfect and loving couple, and I wish them all the best!

The day after the wedding, we moved our Camp Canadensis office to the WHYY Studios – which is the National Public Radio station in Philadelphia.  We were trained and oriented as volunteers for their fall membership pledge drive.  We sat and answered phones for more than 5 hours, and just like everything we do…we made it a lot of fun!  It was great to hear from people connected with Canadensis, most notably, our own Jason “JCal” Calabretta – his father Peter – and Brandon Starkman’s grandma!  In total, we took pledges that summed $3,693…and we enjoyed it so much that we might be back for a televised fundraiser in the future…stay tuned!

This upcoming weekend will also be packed with Canadensis goodness because we are hosting our Canteen on the Fly, ice cream get-togethers in a town near you!  However, we love when camp friends host their own reunions and tell us about them!  I got an amazing email and photo from a great camp mom recently that simply said “These three girls live each other so much and are the best of friends. Thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of them.”  I thought you might enjoy seeing the picture too, so check it out below!

It was the weekend we’ve all been waiting for! Head Counselors Mike and Alyssa are FINALLY married! It was an absolutely wonderful weekend filled with the most amazing friends, and we were all so happy to see Mike and Alyssa officially become Husband and Wife. There’s SO much I could write about the wedding and so many great stories to tell, but instead I’ll do as I always do and let the pictures say 1,000 words!

These are only a few of the 600+ photos I took this weekend (yea, we got a little bit carried away!), but you can tell an amazing time was had by all. We danced late into the night until the DJ finally played the infamous “Hey Hey Goodbye”. Even though it was well into the wee hours of the morning, we couldn’t bear to be separated yet; everyone returned to the same hotel to sit and talk and catch up. When we were finally falling asleep in our seats, we all hopped cabs or in cars and made the journey to our hotels. The next morning we met for some brunch before hopping planes or trains or loading up cars for long road trips home…

It was the most magical weekend with some of my favorite people! A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Mike and Alyssa- I know your life together is going to be beautiful, and I’m so glad we are all a part of this big, loving, hilarious, crazy, silly, beautiful camp family 🙂

I have a long drive to work everyday, and when I discovered National Public Radio last year, it made the drive feel a lot shorter!  Some of us from Camp Canadensis will be volunteering today at our local NPR Station, WHYY.  It serves the Philadelphia area and South Jersey, so if you live nearby you can tune into 90.9FM.  If you’ve ever enjoyed NPR, and you are over the age of 18, please considering calling 1-888-345-9499 and pledging your support while we are answering phones on Monday, October 17th between 3-8PM.  You will have the chance to talk to with one of the Canadensis volunteers…”Aunt” Terri Saltzman, Don Cannon, Eric Forti, Robin Forti, Cara Corradetti, Matt Unger, Phoebe Gurr, Neil Sukonik, Dave Malter (my amazing boyfriend who took the day off to help us) or myself.

More great images from summer 2011…

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.