Hello Canadensis!

I was at the Plymouth Meeting office yesterday and Eric asked me why I haven’t blogged in a while.  Obviously, he is a big fan of “Bloggin’ With Brian” and could not go another day without reading.  I apologize for neglecting my online fans.  Ha Ha!  Anyway, it will not happen again!  I am back on the blogging train.

The past week since my last blog has been good.  First off, I think it is so cool that the Phillies and Yankees are in the World Series.  I am sure there are a number of bunk mates who are in a friendly rivalry over the next week and half.  I can even picture bunk mates video chatting with one another as they watch the game.  In our office, things are definitely in favor of rooting for the Phillies as me, Cara and Aunt Terri are all pulling for Philadelphia.  Matt is backing the Yankees and is even going to Games 1 and 2.  Eric is remaining neutral.  Boo, Forti!  Pick a side!  Ha Ha!  I think the series has the potential of going six or even seven games.  Good luck to all those Phillies and Yankees fans out there.

Speaking of getting back on the train, my home visits for the off season have officially begun.  As many of you know, my favorite part of the fall, winter and spring months is visiting as many campers as possible.  Last night, I got a chance to go visit new camper Eric Miller, his sister Ilana and parents Robin and Larry.  Eric will be a Lower Inter in Summer 2010 and is super excited to be coming to Canadensis!  When I got to their house in Rydal, PA, the family was decked out in Philadelphia Phillies World Series attire.  While there, Eric told me that he is having a lot of fun playing on his travel ice hockey team which keeps him busy most days after school and on weekends.  This season, Eric has been playing mostly right and left wing.  I’m sure at camp next summer he will enjoy playing in the CHL.  His sister Ilana loves the art classes she has been taking and even showed me a dry erase board she made at her birthday party.  She is very talented.

After my home visit, I got to have dinner at Bertucci’s in Plymouth Meeting with Hondas Director Howard Waxman.  Howard sends his best to everyone at Canadensis.  Howard and I talked for hours about how great Summer ’09 went.  I must say how impressive it was to see so many of campers riding this summer.  It is Howard’s goal for next summer to see many of our Senior campers to switch to clutch bikes.

So, while I’m writing this, the phone rings.  Who is it but Erica Carey, calling me from Istanbul, Turkey!  Erica sends her love to everyone at camp, especially the girls of Bunk 21 from Summer ’09.  In our reminiscing of the summer, Erica, who works in the COALS program (for those not in the know, COALS stands for Canadensis Outdoor Adventure Living Skills) mentioned how wonderful the overnights went this summer and how so many groups enjoyed them.  In fact, she said the Freshman Optional Overnight was one of the best nights of camp she has had in her ten summers at Canadensis!  Pretty cool stuff.  She also mentioned that many Seniors came to her this summer, wanting their own optional overnight.  Erica can’t wait to get back to camp next summer!

The other day, I needed to go through the Summer 2009 photos that Groundhog takes each day at camp.  Tons and tons of photos to look at!  So, I got this idea to post some of my favorite pictures each day from the past summer on this blog.  I will try to go in chronological order with each blog.  Here are some from camp’s first few days…

Congratulations to Carly Fleischer, who sent in her guess from a past blog that “Every Picture Tells A Story” is a song sung by Rod Stewart.  Great song, too!  Carly…your color war bands are on their way.  Can you guess who sings the subject of today’s blog?  First one to reply wins color bands!  And, no googling!

I will be back tomorrow for a Halloween Blog…Until then…Have a great day…Brian.

Today was a wonderful day in the office! Of course, when you are working for camp and everything you do is about making camp better, everyday is fun and dandy, but today was extra special. Actually, step back to last night, when I got to speak to Will Armon! Farmin’ says hello to everyone and he is doing well. Basketball reffing season will be starting within a month or so and he is really looking forward to that.

Today, Brian came to the office for a few meetings. We started the day off with Matt, Brian, and I meeting with our web designer company who created our Canadensis.com website. We love Lisa as we believe she did a wonderful job capturing the fun we have at camp and helping us put our vision of a scrapbook website on paper to the online world. As a side note, she also designed our new prospective brochure which is a box complete with a Canadensis pad, brochure, and DVD. You can look back to a blog in May all about the “box”. Anyway, we met with her to discuss Phase II of our website which is for our pre and post camp groups. As regular blog readers know, during the off-season (May – June and August – September) when camp is not in session, we host schools, temples, marching bands, etc. It is a very important part of our business and Matt Unger is in charge of it. Groundhog and I designed the current website for our groups using a stock template and putting text/pictures together. It is very primitive as you can see if you click on “Rent Our Facility” on the right side of our webpage. It has outdated information, ignores the brand-new amphitheatre/canteen area, etc. So clearly, it’s in need of an overhaul! We are very excited that we will be upgrading that site to look similar to our current award-winning Canadensis.com site. (I say award-winning because our site was actually recognized last year as one of the most innovative websites from an online agency!)

After that meeting, Brian and I sat in my office and talked “camp”. Of course we almost always talk camp, but it was nice to sit in the same room and just talk about things. We discussed returning staff members, contracts that had to be sent out, prospective families that are signing up, families for me to come and visit (if anyone wants me to come and visit them- let me know!), and many other camp-y things. Looked down at my watch and it was 1:00! We ran out to Boston Market because Unger found the deal of the century. Boston Market has a $1.00 meal coupon. Not $1 off, but the whole meal is $1 until Nov. 1. They are trying to woo customers from KFC bragging about their un-fried chicken. I have to say, it was a great meal. Of course only paying a buck helped! I hope Boston Market doesn’t get mad at me, but here is the link. (Yes it’s real, and yes they accept it at the stores!) It was quite funny because the lady was telling me that corporate didn’t warn the stores about the coupon and they almost ran out of chicken last night and would probably run out tonight. How does Boston Market run out of chicken??? Beats me!

http://www.bostonmarket.com/restaurant?page=coupons

After lunch, our new assistant director, Pam Levi, came in to meet with me and Brian about her job this year. It is invigorating and exciting having her join the team. Pam comes with a wealth of knowledge about the camping industry, from her career at overnight camp as a camper, to working at a nearby camp for the past several years. As many of you may know, Pam and I ran the evening activities program at Canadensis back in 2003 (yes, I feel old!). Anyway, Pam is so excited for the opportunity to work at Canadensis and can’t wait to get the ball rolling. She will be meeting with many families to get to know each of you, helping us with our camper recruiting, helping to plan our trips, summer calendar, staff hiring, etc. Essentially, a jack of all trades. I know that all of us at the office are really excited to have her around and can’t wait for her to start this coming Monday!

One more quick “exciting” thing- on Sunday, Matt Unger and I will be going down to DC and paying a visit to Sam Ginsburg and Jaycal. Naturally, Jaycal and I have already been planning all week what we will be filming while I am down in DC. We can’t wait to bring you new video clips, more info about the winter projects at camp, etc.

So, it goes back to my title- excitement is in the air. Camp is so special to each of us and to live it every single day is so exciting. I can say that I love my job and I love Canadensis!

Hi Everyone! The weather has been especially rainy today, and Saturday was really stormy as well.  I’m hoping it will let up soon, as I am NOT a big fan of  this weather. Over the weekend Dani and I went on an adventure in the crazy rainstorm to make our way to dinner with Rebecca Waxman (I bet you knew that was coming!) and Karen Sharir! We had a lovely dinner at (another typical response) The Cheesecake Factory and did lots of  “Shopping”… I put shopping in quotations because we didn’t really buy too much, we just walked in and out of our favorite stores while catching up and talking about our favorite topic… camp! We shared a delicious guacamole appetizer, which made me miss Erica Carey, who is currently abroad in Europe, because she always gets Guac with us when we have Cheesecake dinners. We miss you Erica!

In other news, I was 110% excited for last night’s episode of Greek. I never used to be a huge television fan, but now when I come home from work, and after I do all the other crazy work I have to do at home, I really look forward to that 9 o’clock hour when I can snuggle up with my puppy, Leopold, and watch some exaggerated teen drama. I must admit, Monday nights tend to be hectic for me, as Greek and Gossip Girl are on AT THE SAME TIME! I usually have to choose which one I’m more eager to watch (this week, Greek won) and I tape the other on the DVD recorder. On Wednesdays I look forward to Glee, and when January rolls around I will be utterly obsessed with watching LOST (Shout out to JCal!). So for those of you out there who watch Gossip Girl and/or Greek, what did you think of last night? And for everyone out there, what shows do you look forward to every week?

Well, it’s been busy in the office this week, with contracts starting to go out for 2010 Counselors, beginning to plan our cross-country college tour, and all the other business as usual, this office has been working hard. I hope everyone had a chance to fill out the camper survey we sent out last month, because we’re using those results to make summer 2010 the best one yet! If you still haven’t filled it out, feel free to email us for the link!

Alright, that’s all for now. I’ll leave you with a picture of my favorite television snuggle buddy, Mr. Leopold Corradetti.

Good day all from London England.

I flew here overnight with my brother and mom for a family get together with some extended relatives for the weekend. Back in the winter office Cara is busy helping to organize our alumni reunion while Matt is finalizing the buses for trips, getting prices on promotional material, and holding down the fort while I am travelling!

We are all looking forward to Pam joining our team on Nov 2nd! Speaking of pam, the other night, she and another camp employee from a day camp on nj organized a young camp professional get together. About 7 of us met in a restaurant in Philly and talked about our common love for camp. We have another date picked already for a larger get together, which will hopefully become a monthly thing. There are so many young camp people in Philly, but we have never gotten to know one another very well! I am looking forward to sharing ideas, learning about other camps, and of course bragging a little about canadensis!

Well I am to meet the queen of England- just kidding, the queen of the Forti family whomever that may be!

Hello Canadensis!

Been away for a few days, so I feel like there is “So Much To Say” on this Tuesday.  And, in the spirit of Rocktober, “So Much To Say” is a song by whom?  First to answer gets Color War Bands!  You shouldn’t need Google for this one as it is a song from one of today’s most popular bands.  With so much to say, here it goes (in no particular order)…

So much going on.  Yesterday, I attended a wonderful American Camping Association event in New York City.  There were 75-80 different camps in attendance and we sat through numerous sessions on how to “spread the word” about camp.  I had a really great time.  It is always nice to meet other camp directors and workers to see what they are up to as well.

After the event was over, I headed to Long Island to have dinner at the Barefoot Peddler with Senior Boys Head Counselor Ken Ricken.  We talked about the summer among other things.  As many of you know, Ken is also a huge Mets fan.  While we were eating, the Yankees game was on and he was so rooting against them.  It was really funny to see how happy he was when the Angels won!  Ken says hello to everyone in the online Canadensis Community.

I also had a great talk with Mike Lindquist on Friday.  Mike, who is definitely planning on coming back to camp, is doing well at the University of Oregon, where he is finishing up his degree this year.  I always enjoy talking to Mike because Mike loves to talk camp!  He always refers to it as one of the best places in the world!  I couldn’t agree more!  He says that he has kept in touch with a lot of people, too.  In fact, Kenzie Gauthier, who also goes to Oregon, lives right across the street from Mike.  Cool!  Of course, Mike and I always talk about sports, too.  As we are both kind of sci-fi geeks, we also talked about our new favorite show on TV…Flash Forward.  I’ve been hooked on this show which is about the whole world blacking out for a few minutes and getting a glimpse of their future six months from now.

I have started to schedule some of my home visits for the winter.  This is definitely one of my favorite parts of my job.  Getting to see all of our campers and talking about Canadensis is what makes me excited for next summer to come even quicker!  For any new family that would like a visit in the next few weeks / months, give me a call at 973.842.0650.  Of course, I hope to see a number of returning campers, too!

I sent out an e-mail last week, letting our Summer ’09 Campers and their Parents know that our Annual Summer Reunion will be held on Sunday, January 10 from 1-3 pm.  It will once again be at the Carolier Brunswick Zone in New Jersey.  This is always a good place as it is centrally located for all of our families.  This event is only intended for those campers and staff that attended camp last summer.  For all new campers, we will have events scheduled in the spring for everyone to meet.

I got an e-mail from Nurse Betty Ashe, letting me know that her New Orleans Saints absolutely crushed my New York Giants this weekend.  Good thing I didn’t make a bet with her.  Anyway, congrats to your Saints!  They looked really good on Sunday.  At least there was some salvation for Giants fans this weekend after the Raiders beat the Eagles!  Sorry Philly fans; I just had to do it!  Ha Ha!  As for sports rivalries, is anyone rooting for the Phillies to play the Yankees in the World Series?  I’m sure there would be a lot of friendly rivalries going one between camp friends with that match-up.  Looks like we are close to that happening!

Hats off to Dylan Carruba (a new camper for Summer 2010) and Danielle Faden (who apparently must read my blog a lot, thanks D-Fade) for participating in the Sing Down of my last blog.  Of course, Danielle was quick to mention that both alma maters from Summer ’09 used the word “dream” in it. Dylan (and his mom Kristy) came up with a number of songs with the work “dream” in it.  Off the top of my head, I would have thought of River Of Dreams (Billy Joel), The Dream Police (Cheap Trick) and Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day).  By the way, who doesn’t love a good Sing Down!

Spoke to Eric for a long time today.  He just got back from his cruise.  I’m sure he will tell you all about it in his blog.  He said it was a great time!  Eric definitely needed to get away before our plans for Summer 2010 really begin to take off.  I’m glad he had fun!

On a completely random note:  Has anyone else noticed that when you take-out food from restaurants these days that they either skimp or don’t give you napkins.  What’s up with that?  Maybe it’s just me, but I think someone should always get napkins with their meal.  Am I the only that has noticed this?  Am I the only one that cares?  Ha Ha!

Well, time to go.  More blogging later this week.

Until then…Have a Great Day…Brian

Hi Everyone! This weekend I took a trip up to Boston to see my sorority sisters and have some fun touring around the city. I had such an amazing time, and I even got to spend the afternoon with Rachel Waxman, and she took me to some awesome shops! It was supposed to rain, but we got very lucky and the sun stayed out to play all weekend.

It’s been very quiet around the office… literally! We all sit farther apart than we did in the old winter office, there’s been a lot less of my listening to Forti sing his B101 classics. I went on an adventure to find our new post office, and although it’s not within walking distance like the old one, it’s a lot bigger and I’ve already made friends with two of the employees.

That’s really all for now… camp gets closer every day!

What a terrific week it was! I spent an entire week sitting on the Carnival Cruise Ship Valor out in the Caribbean soaking up the rays. I “worked” hard on the ship- I worked on my tan, worked at the Blackjack and Poker tables, worked hard eating alot of good food, oh and worked out at the gym every so often:) The ship docked in Grand Cayman, Roatan Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel.

Most of the time, I really did just spend relaxing, but in Belize I got off the ship and went into the “mountains”, which were really just some low lying hills. The excursion was a tree canopy tour and after getting suited up in our harnesses and helmets (the exact brand and model we use at camp by the way!), I climbed up to the top of 5 sets of zip lines. They ranged from a couple hundred feet up to 500 feet in length and soared high above the tree tops. At the end, there was a rappel straight down a rope, which was really fast and really scary. Of course I had an absolute blast and it did remind me a bit of being back at camp!

As I told you in my previous posts, I always am thinking of camp. So when I saw a Burrito Bar on the cruise ship, I thought what a great idea for camp! They started out with a giant empty burrito wrap and you could add beef/chicken, beans, rice, corn, cheese, guacamole, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. Look out for this as a new lunch menu item this coming summer! I think it will be a huge hit.

On Sunday, Robin picked me and a few friends up from the Port of Miami and we walked around South Beach. Unfortunately, there was a cold front on Florida (65 degrees) so it was chilly, especially after being in the Caribbean, but we had a nice time. This morning, I flew back on good ol’ Southwest Airlines and here I am at my desk! Alot of work to still do to try to get caught up just in time to leave for my next trip. On Thursday, I will be flying out of JFK to London until Sunday. Less than 48 hours in London, I am definitely, certifiably crazy! Anyway else going to London this weekend? Let me know.

I will be back tomorrow to update you on camp things and projects which are happening right now as you are reading this. So, stay tuned. Oh, and thanks to all of the guest bloggers last week for doing an excellent job filling us in on their lives. Remember, if you want to be a guest blogger, email editor@canadensis.com so you can fill in for me while I am overseas in London this weekend!

What have I been up to?  Since leaving camp on September 22^nd I’ve been pretty busy.  I’ve seen a lot of friends that I haven’t seen since before camp, saw a few baseball games, saw my family, and RELAXED.  For those of you who don’t already know I am up very early everyday during the summer to either accept a food delivery, check on breakfast in the kitchen, or for one of million other things that I do.  During my vacation I went to a Mets game with my father and ran into a few Canadensis counselors.  I saw Alex Steele, Kaelah Gasperotti, and Lauren Berry.  Although I had just seen them a few days earlier it was nice to catch up.  I was really excited to hear they were having a great time traveling all over New York City with Shawn Bolton and Alex Dean.  Over my two week vacation I also happened to go to two Yankees games and a Blink 182 concert at Madison Square Garden.  I was expecting to see at least someone from camp there, but I didn’t.

The next week I spent a lot of time with my family and Kelly and moved into my new apartment in Lansdale PA.  My commute from my apartment to our winter office takes about 25 minutes.  I break up the drive by stopping at Wawa for a coffee.  The first two days I got a 20 oz coffee but have since decided a 16 oz is more then enough.

I started working again in the winter office last Monday and have been very busy ever since.  Actually, two minutes ago I was just on the phone with Werner, (one of the bus companies we use to bring everyone to camp) and booked the buses for June 26, 2010.  June 26 is also known as opening day.  I can’t believe that in just 8 months everyone will be back in their second home.  It seems like it was just yesterday that everyone was getting off the buses.

I can’t wait until its summer 2010.  One thing about working year round for camp is I get to breath camp every single day.  Shout out to Sam Ginsberg, J-Cal, and the entire support staff!  I’ve decided I like blogging.  I have no much to say but I don’t want to write about everything right now.  I’ll have to do this again one day.

And on a side note, although I now live in Philadelphia I am still from New York; let’s go Yankees!

Below is a picture of Sam and me with the entire support staff.  This photo was taken the last night of camp during the candle lighting ceremony.  I’m SO glad that a few support staff have already decided to return!

Hey Camp Canadensis!

It’s Brooke Appelbaum blogging from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York where the weather is getting colder each day. People are saying they expect snow by the end of October! I hope it stays warm a little bit longer.

Anyway, midterms are coming up so I have so much studying and reading to do. Right after midterms we have fall break so I get to go home (well, my other home) for a long weekend, which will be nice. I get to see my puppy too, who loves camp almost as much as me!

My major in school is television – radio so I get to take a lot of cool courses like Mass Media (we study the history of television, movies, books, and radio) and Media Production. The other day I even got to direct a commercial. At school I’m also a part of Habitat for Humanity and working on one of ICTV’s (Ithaca College’s television station).

Although things at school are good I miss camp so much! In fact, I was video chatting with Alyssa and Mini Max Kruman and JCal (who was so nice to let me blog today). We had so much fun singing color war songs together and talking about how great summer ’09 was and how much we can’t wait for summer 2010.  Summer seems so far away but luckily the reunion will be here before we know it. I can’t wait to see everyone!

Anyway, it’s time to get back to studying for midterms. Thanks again to JCal and Eric for letting me blog! Of course, I need to give a shout out to my bunk 9 gummy bears!

Can’t wait to see everyone at the reunion!

Brooke

Hello Canadensis!

I had one of those dreams last night that you think are so real only to wake up and you realize it was only a dream.  But, we were all back at camp on the amphitheater deck enjoying a Coffee House with campers and counselors performing.  Everyone was there!  When I woke up, I was kind of depressed that it wasn’t real.  Oh well.  Someone reminded me today that there are only 254 more days until camp.  Sounds like a long ways away, but I guess it is better than being 255 days away.

This week, I got to meet up with some Canadensis staff.  On Monday night, Brian Stern and I had dinner together at Pal’s Cabin in West Orange, NJ.  I always like getting together with Stern as he loves camp so much.  Next summer will be his 20th summer at Canadensis!  He shared with me some really good ideas that I think we can certainly but into effect next summer.  Brian is back at Montclair Kimberly Academy teaching middle school science and math.  He said his classes are going really well.  He also wanted to say hello to everyone in Canadensis cyberspace.

On Wednesday morning, I met Terri Konst for coffee and to talk about this summer’s evening activities and special events, a favorite topic of mine to talk about.  From the surveys, it looked like there were a number of favorites from the campers as well.  This information will certainly help us put together the events calendar for Summer 2010.  If you haven’t completed the survey yet, you can do so at:  http://tinyurl.com/canadensis.  Some campers and staff suggested that we do a Halloween day next summer.   I think that is a really good idea!  So, everyone should save their Halloween costumes this year so they can bring them to camp next year.  Let me know if you like that idea, too in the “Comments” section of this blog.  Terri also mentioned that her son and camper Sam is doing really well in the fourth grade, although he can’t wait to get back to camp.

When I was down in the Plymouth Meeting office on Tuesday, former Canadensis camper and now parent of a Canadensis camper Rob Novey stopped by the office.  Rob, whose daughter Jesse just finished her second summer, came in to say hello to myself and Terri.  It was great to see you, Rob, who let us know that Jesse has been busy with her dance classes.

Spoke with Senior Boys Head Counselor Ken Ricken last night.  Ken, Audrey, Dan and Greg are all doing well.  Ken was also at that Bruce Springsteen show last week.  The tickets were a birthday present for Greg and Dan surprised Greg by coming in from college to see the concert.  Very cool.  Ken said that all is well with him as he is back to teaching middle school social studies.  In fact, he mentioned that he has two Canadensis campers in his class…Bari Cohen and Caitlin Willner.  I thought that was very funny.  I guess they will have to call him Mr. Ricken until they get back to camp next summer.  Ha Ha!

We have been hearing from a lot of staff over the past few weeks, too.  Some have also let us know that they are already planning on returning next summer.  I will divulge some of these names in an upcoming blog.  After all, I need to create some suspense if you are going to come back and read this blog.

I will be back tomorrow for some more blogging.  For now, we can have a sing down to keep us all busy.  Since I used, “Dreams Be Dreams,” a Jack Johnson song for this blog subject, the topic is…How many songs can you think of that have the word “dream” in it.

Until then…Have a great day…Brian