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:

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.

Hello Everyone!  I really need your help!

I want to start a new blog segment that will run every Monday, and it’s based on my favorite memory from summer 2010.  One day before any of the campers arrived, I was working in the pre-camp office with Cara Corradetti, and when she picked up her guitar to entertain us during a break, pure genius came out.  She wrote a song for my dog Annie, and called it “Annie the Dog”.  Check it out…

BeckyJ was also working with us in the pre-camp office, and Jason “JCal” Calabretta came up every weekend, so we all started to add verses to the “Annie the Dog” song during the weeks before camp started, and now we want to bring YOU in on the fun! This summer we’ll be making an “Annie the Dog” music video, and we want your help!

It’s very easy to do…each Monday, I’ll post a cute photo of Annie and you can add your rhyming lines as a comment below. Here is the photo for this week…Annie on a hike in Arizona

From JCal: Annie the dog on the hiking trail…
Annie the dog opening the mail

From Cara: Annie the dog hiking a mountain,
Annie the dog sips from a fountain!

From Pam: Annie the dog, walking on the trail…
Annie the dog, just a-wagging her tail!

From BeckyJ: Annie the do walking on the trail
Annie the dog learning braille

With the Snyder Girls – Sabrina on the left and Sage on the right.

Let me start off by wishing a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sage Snyder!!  She is turning 9 years old today, and I got to spend some time with her yesterday – and I saw the birthday presents and cupcakes all stacked up!  Sage is currently in 3rd grade, and this will be her first summer at Camp Canadensis, in the Junior Girls division.  As soon as she gets off the bus at camp, she’d like to go by her nickname “Sagie”.  Her big sister Sabrina Snyder (who will be at camp for her 3rd summer in the Upper Inter Girls division) has been telling her a lot about camp and getting her excited!  Sage definitely plans on being in one of the camp shows, she is pumped to go on the zip line and high ropes course, she can’t wait for the trip to Dorney Park, and she thinks that the hypnosis show is going to be one of the best evening activities!  She does a ton of activities during the school year – including gymnastics, Hebrew School, hip-hop dance, soccer during the fall and basketball during the winter.  She’s even taken voice lessons!

Sabrina was so helpful on the home visit – it was almost like she works for camp!   The Snyder girls plan to do “sister time” during the summer – she and Sage plan to write some letters home together, and to spend time in each others bunks getting ready for the big dances.  I’m sure they will miss their adorable dogs Buster and Trixie while they are away, but they have so many fun things and friendships to look forward to!  Sabrina sees her Bunk 6 – 2010 friends a lot, and they have a big sleepover party coming up!

With the Segal kids – Haley and Sam

Recently, I also got to spend time with another new Junior Girl – Haley Segal!  She is currently in 1st grade, and she will be in Girls Bunk 2 this summer (NOT Boys Bunk 2!!)  It’s a funny ‘camp quirk’ that we have at Canadensis, we don’t have a Bunk 1, so most of our youngest campers start off in Bunk 2!  Haley reminded me that she had a birthday before camp, so she will be 7 years old when it starts, and she is totally ready to do all the activities we have at camp…especially art!  She takes art classes at Handworks, one of the projects she made was an incredible crochet snowflake – I told her that crochet was one of my favorite hobbies too!  Haley has two dogs named Hobie and Dexter, she likes to ice skate, she has been practicing writing good letters home and believe it or not…she loves to eat salad!  She is excited for the COALS camping overnight trip – especially the s’mores for dessert!  She is a good climber, so she’ll climb up our rockwall with no problem, and she’s great at gymnastics too – she can even do tricks on the high bar!

Haley is an alumni of camp, which means she has family members who have gone to Canadensis before her.  Last year, her big brother Sam Segal (currently in 3rd grade) was in Boys Bunk 3, and this year he will be back in the Junior Boys division. Their dad Alan Segal also went to camp, and showed me some of his alumni photos during the home visit.  Because so many Segals have gone to Canadensis, Haley has some awesome vintage Canadensis gear.  Check out the photo above where Haley and Sam are holding up t-shirts that are nearly 30 years old!

Also, check out the photo below of Sam in front of his house.  He has the largest hill in front of his home, he can actually snowboard down it!  I call it the “Segal Ski Slope” and I would be way too scared to go down it, but Sam says it is super fun.

Sam traded his Phillies t-shirt that he liked to wear during the summer for a much warmer Phillies sweatshirt!

So, sticking to the blog topic of ‘birthdays’…I’m looking forward to the upcoming weekend!  I’ll actually be spending it in Manhattan to celebrate my favorite person’s birthday.  We’ll be going to a concert and out to some great restaurants.  On Saturday, we’ll be going to Max Vorcheimer’s Bar Mitzvah!!  His birthday isn’t until February, but the Bar Mitzvah celebration this weekend is similiar to a birthday – he is celebrating becoming a man!  Best of luck to Max, can’t wait to celerbate tomorrow!

Hi All,

Well I hope you enjoyed Round 1 of Where in the World is Eric Forti! If you missed out on the fun, I went all the way to Australia. I had a crazy itinerary to get there (Philadelphia – San Francisco – South Korea – Thailand – Melbourne, Australia) and a not so crazy trip back (Sydney – Los Angeles – Philadelphia)! As many of you know, I am an airline fanatic and so while I will admit the routing there was absolutely ridiculous, it was sort of fun as well. I met a few random people along the way, ate tons of food, saw tons of movies, and perhaps the best part was 12-hour flights with NO CELL PHONE AND NO BLACKBERRY ACCESS. In this always connected, always-on world, it’s sort of cool to be disconnected (for a limited time only). You see even at camp, I don’t carry a cellphone or blackberry, but people can always bother me (did I say bother, I mean call me!) via walkie talkie. So, airplanes are one of the only places to go. Actually, I don’t know if this is true, but a flight attendant (yes I spend lots of time in the galleys talking to the flight attendants) met a very senior executive at a large corporation who claims to take flights to Hawaii and back in the same day sometimes, just to force disconnection from devices. Now that’s a bit extreme, even I admit it!

Australia was absolutely amazing. I know I sound like a broken record every year, but it truly is such a great place. The people are so friendly and cool and will go out of your way to make sure you are comfortable and happy. Speaking of people, I got to see tons of staff:

Chad Raines- an outdoor adventure counselor (back when we hired staff for whitewater rafting trips- now we use an outside company) as well as groupleader from 2000 – 2002 (I think!) When he was at camp, I was a counselor for B-2!

Jim Price– lake director EXTRAODINAIRE who was with camp from 2002 until 2008 with a few years off in between. Him and his wife Tracy (who has worked pre and postcamp at Canadensis, but worked at her own camp in Maine during summers) have an adorable 1-year old baby Ben. Happy Birthday Ben and I hope you enjoy the Canadensis t-shirt. You may remember Jim as the person who TRIED to teach me how to surf last trip down under. This year, thankfully, there were NO attempts at surfing.

Lauren Berry– horseback riding counselor in 2009 and groupleader in 2010. She will be returning as a GL this summer and it was great to catch up with her. She of course knows all the chocolates and biscuits (cookies) that I like and so she brought me some amazing goodies

Justin Winch– 6 years at Canadensis as a counselor, groupleader, and now as programming director. He will most likely (fingers crossed) be returning for his 7^th summer in 2011.

Phoebe Gurrrrrrrrr– OK, a few less RRRR’s! Phoebe has been at camp for a LONG time and only skipped one year. She is doing awesome, says hello to everyone, and will be returning as groupleader for Summer 2011. She helped organize a FUN dinner outside overlooking the beach with tons of staff from the past (see below)! Thanks Phoebe for always being a gracious host!

Dale Jamieson– Dale only worked one summer, but will hopefully be coming back in 2012 for another round. He worked at the lake as was co-counselor with our very own Jcal. Dale lives on the water and every year has arranged to take me out on his boat (you all know by now I love all transportation methods).We actually took his boat into the city of Melbourne and got “stuck” there due to high seas. Always an adventure! We had so much fun and I can’t wait to see him next year.

Jye Freer– Jye was a lake staff member last year and will be returning again. Really excited for his second summer and it was great to catch up with him. He will be arriving in May for precamp!!

Steph Jenkins– Steph worked at camp as a GL a few years ago (I forget the exact years) and a few years ago introduced me to the Tim Tam Slam at Maccas (McDonalds!) with a cookie dipped in hot chocolate and “slammed” into your mouth…yummy!

Nicola & Edwina Harvey– They worked at camp Summer 2008 and I call them the “twins”! I wonder why. I was introduced to them by Phoebe and we met at Boost Juice. I think that’s where I discovered Boost…amazing fruit smoothies and they know I am obsessed with Boost! They have done tons of traveling sine their summer at camp, but are back home in Melbourne now working retail. It was awesome to catch up with them.

Allie Hassenger– Allie spent her last 2 summers at camp working at the pool and is now studying abroad in Adelaide (small country city type place in the Southern middle of Australia). I am VERY jealous that she gets to live there until August.

Eddie Lewis– Eddie worked at Hondas for us the past 2 summers and ironically enough was hired in JUNE when we moved a staff member from Hondas to the lakefront. Eddie is awesome at what he does and although he wont be back at camp this summer, I have a feeling he is going to miss it a lot!

Jackie Page– Jackie was an awesome gymnastics counselor last summer and worked with the Junior Girls. She will be returning this coming summer as Gymnastics program director!

James Richardson– James worked in the woodshop the last 2 summers and has helped develop our woodshop program. He has come up with a lot of the projects you all made last summer and is very talented at what he does!

Todd James– Last, but certainly not least, Todd worked summer 2007 at our lakefront and did an awesome job. I am hoping he returns Summer 2012, which is a possibility! He has done tons of traveling since camp as well, including Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and now is in Japan! Very jealous Todd, I love to travel.

I think I got everyone (I certainly hope so). Well, there is one more guy I should mention because this is an awesome story, at least I think it is. Joel Wiseman. Joel is a record at Camp Canadensis, in that he is the only camper we have ever had at Camp Canadensis! You see his brother, Luke, worked at camp in the late 90’s as Lake Director and one summer brought his younger brother Joel and his mum (spelled the Aussie way) Gay to camp. Gay was an OUTSTANDING, compassionate, and friendly nurse who worked in our health center in Summer 1998, while Joel was a camper in Boys Bunk 2. When we met, he told me that he had the best counselor ever. Well maybe he didn’t say that, but I am, because I WAS HIS COUNSELOR! Hard to believe that I was a counselor? Well, I was for 5-years and lived in Boys Bunk 2 (our youngest campers). I distinctly remember tons of Joel stories, and at breakfast we discussed one where HIS NASTY, SMELLY socks were underneath my pillow. Boy was I angry with him and brought him to the camp director (it wasn’t me or Brian Krug in 1998!). He was crying and still to this day insist it wasn’t him, but deep down I know it was him. Oh well Joel, I put my nasty socks in your omelet at the hotel last weekend….haha.

So, overall Australia was a huge success. Because of the severe flooding in Brisbane, the fair was a little smaller than I would have hoped, but I (along with some staff above) interviewed tons of staff and only hired the best…we let the ones who were just under the best go to other camps! It looks like we will have somewhere between 15-20 Aussies/Kiwis this summer, which will enhance the Canadensis experience as it always does. Aussies are known to be fun and crazy at the same time.

So where am I now? Well, I returned home late Monday night (thanks Robin for picking me up at the airport!) and went to bed a few hours later. As an aside, Monday was the longest day ever…I left my hotel at 9:30AM Australia time, the flight left at 12:30PM Monday and arrived in LA at 7AM Monday. So, I traveled backwards in time. I still don’t get how that happens (the dateline has to do with it- not the NBC show!) Anyway, I went to work on Tuesday until 8pm (don’t feel bad for me…Robin cooked a nice dinner when I got home…my only request was no airline, microwaveable meal!). Wed AM I woke up to tons of snow and with a flight at 6PM to Florida, I was nervous about it being canceled. Luckily I switched to a noon flight (and yes my original 6PM was canceled) and flew to Fort Myers, FL to see Aunt Terri and do some work down here. I had a few meetings discussing the summer plans for our dining hall/kitchen and even better planned the menus for the coming summer. We met with a pro at camp food service and added tons of cool things to the menu. How about Whipped Cream at breakfast? (No, not every day!). Or, those cheese sticks that you all went NUTSO over last summer with dinner one night…should we have them more often? How about some sweet potato fries? And one more small thing….MORE FRESH FRUIT! We know you want more alternatives and more options and we will be doing just that. So, we have tons more ideas…I just mentioned the small ones to get you excited! The surveys you filled out were very happy with the food quality, but we heard some of your ideas and are excited to implement them this summer.

Right now, I am at 33,000 feet (I think it’s my second home)…camp is my first home clearly, 33,000 feet in a metal tube is my second, my car is my 3^rd home, and my house in Ambler, PA is my 4^th…I may or may not be kidding! Unfortunately, this aircraft doesn’t have wifi so jcal will post this for me when I connect to the internet next- thanks Jcal!

Over the next 2 weeks I have tons of home visits both in the Philly area and in NJ, so I hope to see many of you on the road. Then, in 2 weeks I head out on Round 2 of Where in the World is Eric Forti, this time with a special guest visitor. One who has a passport (which is required for our trip), but has NEVER left the country! Should be an awesome trip, seeing many of our staff members once again, oh and doing some work as wellJ For now, I think it’s time to put my seat in the upright, locked, and most UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION EVER!