I’m SO excited to see all of our adorable new campers next weekend!  New Camper Bowling is on Sunday, April 3rd, and we’ll be bowling the entire day with the different age groups.  Hope to see you there!

Guest Blog by Rafael Rodrigues

So I have been reading Eric’s tweets from across the globe and I am pretty envious. I am excited for the collaboration to begin between Eric,  JCal and I. I will be assisting in the production of the today show.

In my spare time I love to rock climb, play soccer, and challenge opponents in table tennis/ ping pong. I have a younger brother who is 17 years old. As far as my skills I have been interning at an video production studio in Providence, RI. This semester I am taking two fine art classes ceramics and old fashion photography. Yeah I am mastering the development and processing of film in the dark room. Film makes digital photography seem like a breeze. Ceramics is a fun course to as I have been making some pinch bowls, coffee cups, and vases.

Outside of school I ran a half marathon last May. I love crepes and sweets. I can make some delicious smoothies, shakes, and banana splits as I have made thousands of them at Ben & Jerry’s.

I am excited to meet all these new faces at camp from the campers to the staff. I can’t wait to engage in games, stories, and sports with your son or daughter this summer.

See you in June,

Rafael Rodrigues

Last week I told you about some of my favorite incoming Jersey Girl campers, and today I thought I’d introduce you to some awesome incoming campers from my home state of New York!

Jaynie is a current 4th grader at Birch Elementary in Merrick, NY, and she will be a Lower Inter Girl this summer.  She is a super fun, goofy and silly girl, who would be an awesome bunkmate this summer.  As you can see from the picture above, she was actually practicing decorating her camp bunk by decorating her bedroom door!  It’s full of pictures of Justin Bieber, she had just seen his movie and is a big fan!

Jaynie is an even bigger fan of basketball, dancing and gymnastics.   Her favorite gymnastics event is the bars, her favorite subject in school is reading, her favorite color is blue, and she loves to eat mac & cheese, which we serve about every week at camp!  She’s not a big fan of vegetables (which we need in order to get energized for all the camp activities!!) and she really likes to sleep late, so I’m going to prepare her counselors during orientation to drag her out of bed in the morning so she can enjoy all the camp fun we pack into a Camp Canadensis day!  When I was over her house, we watched the new camp DVD, and she’s excited for the first day on June 25th!  Jaynie can’t wait to make new friends, try the activities on the lake, learn how to water-ski, and go on hikes.  I told her all about the overnight program where we hike to the waterfall, pitch tents, and cook dinner and breakfast, and she’s totally pumped for it! When she’s not on overnights or swinging from the gymnastic bar, she promised to write really long letters home, and I’m sure that her younger sister and brother are going to be very excited to hear about her camp adventures!

Jamie is current 3rd grader from Port Washington, who will be a Junior Girl at camp this summer.  When asked to describe herself in three words, she said “Funny, Goofy and Loud”!  I know Jamie from the Tour and More Weekend at camp last summer, and I have to agree…she says the funniest things, and she promised that she is so super loud and will never lose her voice.  That never-ending voice will really come in handy while cheering during Color War this summer!  Her big sister Lauren is going to be a Freshman Girl, and luckily that means they are both on Lower Girls Side, so it will be a bit easier for their parents to find them in our online photo system this summer!

Jamie’s favorite color is hot pink, she loves to play tennis and basketball, and she’s a total thrill-seeker.  She has gone on all the crazy rides at the amusement parks in Disney World, so she is already sure she wants to be in one of our fast groups when we take the whole camp to Dorney Park this summer!  When she grows up, she wants to become a teacher – and she really enjoys reading.  Her favorite book is “Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer“, which I had never heard of, but might be worth checking out.  Jamie gets super hyper when she eat sugar, so watch out after you go to canteen at night with her!  She also loves to eat steak which gets served at camp a few times during the summer, and she’s looking forward to Chinese Food Night at camp, which is when we serve lo-mein noodles out of Chinese takeout containers.  She is super excited for the summer, she can’t wait for Glass Fusion and hanging out with her big sister and friends!

The entire Ambos family has major Camp Canadensis spirit!  Before I left their home, Jamie and Lauren showed me their computer desktop…the wallpaper is the Canadensis Logo!  That means that every time the girls use the computer to check the camp blogs or do homework, they start thinking about the summer fun ahead in 2011!

Abby is a current 3rd grader from Briancliff Manor, NY and she’s going to be a Junior Girl at camp this summer.  I was lucky enough to meet her when she came up to take a tour of camp this summer, so I know that she’s going to be a fun, energetic and crazy (in an awesome way) camper!  She will be easily recognizable at camp because instead of wearing Yankees, Mets or Phillies gear, she’ll actually be showing her Chicago Cubs Spirit!  She loves the Cubs, Bears and Notre Dame, which is the area of the country where her parents used to live.

She is an all-around camper, the ideal Canadensis kid, who loves a little bit of everything we do at camp.  She loves sports, and plays basketball, soccer and lacrosse as extra curricular activities during the year.  She actually even played in the basketball championship, so she knows how to stay cool under pressure, which will come in handy during Color War!  She also loves Arts & Crafts, she goes to an art studio during the year, and she is very excited for Glass Fusion at camp, and she plans to make one of the pizza plates, which was a popular camp project last year. She really enjoys gymnastics too, and the balance beam is her favorite.  She is also a great swimmer, last year at Elmwood  Day Camp, she was a Blue Stingray.  And, it doesn’t stop there…you can also find Abby on stage, she loves to sing and has been in a lot of shows.  Right now she is preparing for a part in Annie, and she’s been in a long list of shows including Hairspray, Sound of Music, Wizard of OZ, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Bye Bye Birdie and Alice in Wonderland.   Even though she is super comfortable up on stage, she hasn’t been in a lake before, but she’s pumped to try banana boating and sailing on Lake Lenape!

Annie is a current 2nd grader at Village Elementary in Woodbury, NY, and she will be a Lower Junior Girl this summer!  She is going to be joining her two big siblings at Canadensis this summer – her older sister Rachel is going to be a Super Senior, and her big brother Matt will be a Lower Senior, which means that Annie is going to have Lower Camp all to herself this summer!  She is nice, funny and athletic, and her big sister says she’s aslo “crazy, artistic and lovable”.  She won’t be the only “Annie” at camp this summer…if you are a regular reader of the my blog, you’ll know that I also have a dog named Annie who comes to camp during the summer.  I brought a picture of my pup along on the home visit, and I’m excited to introduce the two of them in June!

Annie had just gotten back from a cruise when I came over, which is why she has super cute braids in her hair in the photo above.  She loved being on the beach and winning prizes in the arcades.  When she’s not on vacation, she loves to read, her favorite books are Amazing Days of Abby Hayes and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Not only does she like to read, but she actually writes books too!  She actually writes a book almost everyday, so I’m sure that is preparing her to write some awesome letters home!  She loves to play sports too, her favorite sport is soccer because she enjoys running and scoring goals!  She likes to draw pictures, loves to dance, and sing songs.  Because she has older siblings at camp, she has already learned some of the old Color War songs that we sing, so if Annie is in your bunk, she’ll be excited to teach you how to sing along!

The final New Yorker that I want to introduce you to today is Carly!  She is a current 4th grader who goes to Hewlett Elementary, and lives in Hewlett NY.  She is going to be a Lower Inter Girl this summer, and her big sister Lindsey also started camp as a Lower Inter Girl three summers ago, so she is following in really great footsteps!  Carly was a Tour and More Camper last summer, so she’s already spent a few days up at camp trying out the activities, lake and pool.  She’s very excited to go to camp this summer and make tons of friends…Lindsey has told her how close you get with your bunkmates, and it’s like making 10 new sisters!

Lindsey is going to be a Lower Senior Girl this summer, which means she’ll be going on a bunch more trips this summer and that she’ll be living on Senior Girls side.  That means that Carly will have a great place to go visit during the summer when she has free time during rest hour and shower time, and that she can visit right before the dances to have help getting her hair ready!  It also means that hopefully she’ll be getting some souvenirs when Lindsey returns home from her trips.  Carly is going to get so much out of camp this summer, she loves playing sports – especially soccer, which is what she chose for her elective last year!  She loves to swim, and is excited to have her chance to go on the Summit (huge inflatable slide) at camp this summer.  She will miss some things about home (including her cats) but she is pumped for an amazing first summer at camp!

Hi Canadensis! It’s been a long time since I updated my blog – things have been so crazy in the winter office this year! Between a road trip to Michigan and a Tri-State Camp Conference so much preparation for summer 2011 has happened!

Pam and I went on a fabulous road trip to Michigan to hire some amazing staff for you all!  Here are some pictures of the friends we saw along the way:

Bridget and Mike meet us at BGSU!

Hanging out with Sarah, Kayla, and Ricky!

Ricky and I take a break during interviews...

So Sushi at University of Michigan!

More to come!

I’m about to head down to Atlantic City, NJ to meet the rest of our amazing year-round Camp Canadensis staff team (Eric, Brian, Matt and Cara) at the annual American Camp Association Tri-State Conference. It’s my favorite time of the year, besides actual camp! Since I’m heading to Jersey, I thought I’d introduce you to two awesome Jersey Girls who are going to be coming to camp this summer, and who I recently got to spend some time with on home visits…

Jordan is a spunky 2nd grader that I got to meet during her tour at camp this summer.  She actually came during Color War, and got to see our super spirited end-of-summer tradition in action!  Jordan lives in Norwood, NJ and will be coming to camp for the first time this summer.  She will be a lower Junior girl, and she’d like to go by the nickname “DJ JJ Rock”, so I’m sure we won’t be getting her confused with anyone else!

Jordan loves to sing and act, and she can even do a few different accents.  I really enjoy her British accent, which she had to learn in order to play Verruca Salt in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.  She is also loves playing sports, doing arts, and she is very excited to test our our zipline at camp this summer.  I think she’ll be great on the high ropes course because I saw how good she was at climbing our small boulder when she was up at camp this summer!  Jordan has been helping her Mom make a bunch of adorable Canadensis clothing items for the summer, and in the photo above she is modeling a cute tye-dyed and studded example!  Lisa (Jordan’s mom) is very talented, and you can see some additional examples of her items here: http://handmadewithheart.phanfare.com/

Another awesome Jersey girl is Julia, who is a current 3rd grader from Tenafly, NJ.  She is going to be a Junior Girl, and she remembered so much about her tour of camp this summer!  Brian and I came over a bit early while Julia was still eating dinner, but once she finished, she had tons of energy and questions about camp, and I hope we gave her all the answers she was looking for!

She loves just about everything camp offers as an activity, including gymnastics, arts and crafts, soccer, and swimming.  Julia loves to sing and dance, so hopefully she will be on the Camp Canadensis stage this summer!  I had such a fun time with her and her little sister Casey (pictured above) and I can’t wait to have some camp fun with Julia in a few months!

I’m so embarrassed by how long it’s been since my last blog!! I will definitely be posting a lot in the next few days because I’ve met so many incredible new female campers in February and early March…Girls-Side 2011 is going to be the best yet!

I wanted to quickly post this picture I took when Camp Canadensis was at the Philadelphia 76ers last week, it’s a snapshot of Camp Canadensis Girls-Side of the Future! All of these adorable faces belong to siblings of current campers…all of the girls are in 1st or 2nd grade, and I had a really fun night hanging out with them during the game.

Eric went to Australia, Eastern Europe, France and Italy in the past THREE months.

How many miles did he actually travel?

E-mail Contest@Canadensis.com with your answers!

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Coming Soon: BRAND NEW Canadensis Today Show from Eastern Europe

Make sure to check out the Australian Today Show’s now ONLINE in the media room

Here are some pictures from our adventures so far…

Make sure to be following the Twitter for updates from @Canadensis & @WhereIsForti

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.