It’s kindness day at PFC and our younger camp girls are enjoying
activities including mural painting, relay races and bunk competitions,
all centered around the theme of kindness.  It’s like a love bomb around
here! The younger boys are at Costas family fun park, while the Seniors
and Hi-Seniors head home from their trips today.

Speaking of kindness and love, here’s a good camp story, and it’s true.
There once was a married couple named Mike and Blanche Milligan who taught
nature and hiking to PFC campers for many years. When “Uncle Mike’ passed
away several years ago, his wife “Aunt Blanche” planted an apple tree in
his memory in front of the camp office.  Miraculously, a wild berry tree
grew up right next to it and their branches and trunks intertwined over
the years. Now it looks like one tree that grows both apples and berries.
Aunt Blanche turned 97 this year. May their trees and their legacy
continue to grow together here at Pine Forest forevermore.

It doesn’t get much better than this for lower camp! Our older campers are officially all away on their trips. Juniors and Intermediates have the run of camp. It’s a lower camp takeover! The highlight of the day was one of our all-time favorites: GOLD RUSH. There were hidden pieces of gold throughout camp and the campers had to run around and find them.  Junior boys had a special canoe voyage across Lake Greeley, past Blueberry Island, all the way to Senior Village led by the intrepid Lee Forest Black!

It’s SENIOR TRIPS time! Our 9-11^th graders look forward to this day every summer and it’s finally here! Our 9^th graders are on their way to New England and our 10^th graders are headed to Montreal. Curious as to what they’ll be up to? We thought so! Below are some highlights.

9th Grade Trip to New England:
-Quincy Market and Fanieul Hall
-New England Aquarium
-Freedom Trail
-Old Orchard Beach and Palace Playground
-Tennis Hall of Fame
-Touro Synagogue
-Brick Market Place

10th Grade Trip to Montreal
-Laser Quest
-Jet boating on the Lachine Rapids
-La Ronde Amusement Park
-Lake Placid Olympic Sport Complex
-Catherine Street

11th Grade Trip to Boston
-Newbury Street
-Boston University Tour
-Northeastern University Tour
-Tufts University Tour and Information Session
-Quincy Market
-Dinner at Fire + Ice

Tomorrow, our 7s head to the Adirondacks and our 8s head to Vermont!

We’ll post photos on our Facebook and Instagram accounts as we get them, but all of the trips are off to a great start.

It’s the day after Visiting Day. The tents are still up and so is our spirit. What a day it was, happy families, friendly counselors, and beautiful weather.  Thanks to every mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and uncle who attended.  It was a perfect day!  And thank you also for the record-breaking early enrollments. It was our best ever early registration. Amazing!

After the last car left Mitchell Field, we were all in the pools for general swim, ate a light dinner (after all that food from home), and enjoyed two incredible evening activities: MTV Night for the girls and a huge campfire for the boys. Even our Explorers got into the act!

Today it was back to “normal” with full-tilt activities.

Tomorrow, the 9^th and 10^th grade trips head out and before you know it, Color Days will be around the corner.  The second half of camp flies by (but hopefully not too fast!).

The tent is officially up, which means Visiting Day is just days away! We can’t wait to see everyone this Saturday, July 22nd!

Tom Thompson: Creator of the coolest Ninja Warrior course in all of Campdom with Ninja visionary, Lee Black. For the rest of time, this camper battleground shall be known as “Tom’s Dojo” in honor of our beloved maintenance hero.

(We’re not really sure what a Dojo is, but it sounded Ninja-like).

Thank you, Tom!

It’s not every day that a whole bunk who grew up together reunites at PFC.
Here they are, from bunk Cedar in 1976 to bunk Walnut in 1983, Mike, Sam,
Keith, David, Ken, Phil, Randy and Steven. 41 years later they are still
good friends. They stopped by to see what campers are up to these days and
to reminisce.  A few even have children, nieces and nephews here. Sure,
camp is about teams, adventure and fun, but at its core it’s about
friendship. The kind of friendship that last a lifetime, camp friends.
There is a lot that has changed in the last 87 years, but not that.

Arizona! UCLA! UConn! Miami!

Last night were opening ceremonies for College Day 2017. Campers and their high-energy leaders were decked out in Red, Blue, White and Gold and were hootin’ and hollerin’ as they cheered each other on! First there was the solemn opening ceremony with a  flaming Olympic torch and pledge. This was followed by some rousing competition in wacky relays, tug of war, freeze dancing, egg  tossing  and more.

It all ended tonight in an intense flaming rope-burning contest on Mitchell Field. Tomorrow it’s all day track and field competition, swim meets and an all-camp Steeplechase.

Let the college spirit soar! Let the fun and games begin!

There was hip hop, modern dance, lyrical and more at the inter-camp dance
showcase. There were small and large group performances, individuals,
and duets all showcased at colorful Center Stage. Professional performer
and dance teacher, Kelli Moshen, director of the Kelli Moshen Dance Project, is our artist-in-residence this week. She was the master of ceremonies for the event and choreographer for many!

Run, laugh, dance!

Today our TOP Cooks got a taste of ethnic traditional cooking when Barbara
Black, known as “Bubbe” (A Yiddish term for grandmother!) to Ruby and Hattie Black Morin, led a class in knish-making! The most popular type of knish were the pizza knishes that beat out potato knishes 2-1.

Move over, Chef Michael Solomonov, our TOP campers know how to whip up some Jewish soul food!