Uncategorized Archives - Page 13 of 32

Reminders from PFC!

Posted on June 16, 2016 by PineForest

It’s that time of the year! You forget what your living room floor looks like under all of that camp gear, you’re constantly hearing the most up-to-date countdown to camp (8 days, 21 hours, 43 minutes!), and you miss them already. Take a deep breath. We are here for you as always! Below are some last minute tips as you make your final preparations for PFC 2016!

What to pack:
Plenty of underwear
A good flashlight
Lots of socks
Bug spray
Sunscreen
Stationary and stamps
A favorite stuffed animal
Hopes and dreams

What not to pack:
Homework
Electronic devices (Kindle, iPod Touch, screens that play games or shows, cell phones)

Important dates:
First day of camp: Saturday, June 25
Visiting Day: Saturday, July 23 @ 11:30AM
Last day of camp: Saturday, August 13

Important contact information:
PFC summer office: (570) 685-7141
Mountain Baggage: (570) 775-0556
R&B Baggage (for Florida families): (603) 536-2197
CampRx: (877) 302-3881

PFC mailing address:
185 Pine Forest Road
Greeley, PA 18425

Policy reminders:
-Phone calls are not necessary, but one can be scheduled before Visiting Day and one after Visiting Day. You can schedule your first call once your camper arrives at camp.
-NO packages, please! If a necessity is inadvertently left behind, please call the camp office for a pre-approval code so that your package will be accepted and delivered to your camper. We do allow birthday packages, so please clearly label these as birthday packages with your child’s birth date. Remember: NO food is allowed!

Photos:
Photos from the day will be uploaded to CampInTouch almost every night. You can access them using the same login you use to fill out forms.
https://pineforest.campintouch.com/v2/login/login.aspx

Expert tip: Mail a letter to your camper a few days before camp starts so that there’s one waiting for him or her on the first day of camp.

We Love Our New Campers!

Posted on June 7, 2016 by PineForest

What a weekend!

New Family Weekend is an amazing Pine Forest Camp tradition: we invite all first-time campers and their families up to camp to spend their first weekend at PFC together! Families stay overnight in their own bunks before camp starts, and future campers participate in activities in their age groups to get to know one another. Think ziplining, canoeing, gaga, arts and crafts, basketball – you name it, we do it! It’s a good thing we lucked out with the weather! We end the day the best way possible: at a campfire! A big campfire highlight for us (besides the s’mores, of course) was Mickey leading a round of his famous “Fish and Chips.” We also loved watching the awesome talent show that included dances, jokes and gymnastics. You’d never be able to tell that these campers just met that day! We ended the campfire the only way we know how to: with “Taps and Friends.” After the campfire, there was a wine and cheese party for parents so they could get to know each other, too!

The next morning, families enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the Dining Hall, complete with hot chocolate and whipped cream. After breakfast, many families took advantage of the fields and courts being open and all new campers left with an exclusive new PFC sweatshirt and a great deal of excitement for what’s to come.

We want to extend a special thank you to our outstanding staff for making New Family Weekend 2016 one of our best yet. It really is all about the people! Being at PFC with new families each year confirms what we already know: Pine Forest campers are awesome because Pine Forest families are awesome.

As we sing when you visit:
“WE WELCOME YOU TO PINE FOREST, WE’RE MIGHTY GLAD YOU’RE HERE!”

And now, the big show! We can’t wait to see our new campers again in 18 DAYS!

New Family Weekend 2016!

Posted on June 1, 2016 by PineForest

New Family Weekend is just three days away! The comfort and excitement of our new campers and their families is a top priority, so PFC opens its “doors” just three weeks before opening day! It’s our official start-of-summer!

To truly experience camp life in all its glory, each new camper family gets a cabin to stay in overnight. It’s really a perfect way to see the facilities, experience the activities and get a taste of bunk life. This weekend is also a wonderful opportunity to meet new friends, their families and our awesome camp leaders.

There is nothing like these first sounds of summer: children’s laughter echoing throughout camp, balls bouncing on the courts, crickets chirping at night and even the sound of the cabin doors opening and closing. It’s a right of passage for all PFC campers to smell a campfire and taste a s’more. And there is nothing that brings the day to an end like breathing in fresh mountain air, gazing up at millions of stars in the sky, singing arm-in-arm with incredible children and adults, all with the same goal in mind: becoming acclimated and excited for the best summer ever.

Even for parents, having this inside perspective and first-hand experience of what camp is truly like is incredibly valuable. The weekend provides parents and campers alike with that extra bit of confidence and comfort.

Created so that each new camper’s first night at camp is not actually his or her “first night at camp,” this weekend is truly such fun and so very special.

We can’t wait to welcome many of our new families on Saturday!

Signs It’s Almost Time for Camp

Posted on May 27, 2016 by PineForest

1. You begin almost every sentence with, “at camp I…”

2. You have a pile in your room for “camp stuff.”

3. You’re having dreams about that amazing moment on the first day of camp when get out of the car or the bus and smell the Greeley air for the first time!

4. You are doodling “18425” on your papers at school.

5. You and your camp friends have started guessing Color Days themes and breakout options.

6. You’ve already made your Visiting Day list in your head.

7. You’ve already made a playlist of potential songs for MTV Night.

8. The smell of bug spray makes you happy.

9. You know exactly what you want for your first canteen.

10. You check the weather in Greeley daily.

11. You post weekly countdown photos of your camp friends.

12. You sing camp songs and cheers at the kitchen table (sorry, moms and dads!).

13. You check the camp website or app every day to see the countdown to camp number get smaller and smaller!

14. You already know what you’re wearing to the first social.

15. You’re making room on your arm for friendship bracelets! That camp arm will be here before you know it!

Never Lost

Posted on May 18, 2016 by PineForest

It’s a time honored principle. Military leaders tell their elite troops. Indian Chiefs tell their scouts. Parents tell their children.

“If you ever feel lost, go back to the last place where you knew where you were. Start from there and you will find your way.”

For some of us, alumni, counselors, campers, Pine Forest is that place that we go back to. For many it may be the last place where we really knew where we were. Who we are. Where we are headed.

I’ve seen and heard about it many times from former PFCers at every age. After all, in everyone’s life there are times that we feel a little lost, in school, in our careers, in relationships. How do we get our bearings? How do we know where to go? What to do? “Go back to the last place where you knew where you were.”

Surrounded by friends, fresh air and fun, for many of us that place is camp. We are our true selves. We know where we are and where we are going.

Let camp be your North Star, your compass, your launching pad.

If you ever feel lost, start here.

–Mickey

Nurse Appreciation Week

Posted on May 10, 2016 by PineForest

Happy Nurse Appreciation Week to all of our nurses and health staff!

With summer approaching, we look forward to welcoming an all-star team of 18 nurses to Pine Forest and our brother and sister camps, Lake Owego and Timber Tops. Please join us by welcoming them for summer 2016! They will be an extension of home to take care of all the campers when they need extra TLC, from a belly ache to a sting. Our health center has a great collection of skills; it’s made up of nurse practitioners, ER nurses, school nurses and professionally trained military nurses. Your children are in great hands! You are welcome to call the health center and speak to our nurses anytime when camp is in session!

A big thank you to all of the 2016 nursing team, this week and every week. Camp is lucky to have all of you this summer!

Also, a special thank you to the team of doctors we will have at camp this summer. Our doctors are so dedicated to camp and we can’t thank them enough for all that they do.

In good health,

Rachel Waszczak and the rest of the PFC family

Packing Tips for New Counselors

Posted on April 27, 2016 by PineForest

You’ve just scored this AWESOME job at Pine Forest and you’ll be turning onto Pine Forest Camp Road before you know it. You can practically hear the campers singing and see the bright Greeley stars. Before you leave for the best summer of your life, we want to provide you with this “unofficial” packing list. These are items that past staff members have found to be “essentials,” and most can be purchased at a low cost near camp!

Gear: Your favorite hoodie (hooded sweatshirt), lots of socks (when you think you packed enough, pack more!), rain boots, comfortable athletic shorts, blue and gold gear (think Color War!), white T-shirt for tie-dye, sunglasses.

Bedding: Warm blanket or comforter in addition to a light one. We know, we know- it’s summer! But we are in the rural mountains and the nights and mornings are cool! If you’re coming from overseas, don’t worry. We’ve got you!

Equipment: What will you be doing at camp? Will you need something specific for your activity? (Think baseball mitt, tennis racket, etc.)

Everyday Stuff: Sunscreen, water bottle, laundry bag, casual watch (you won’t have your phone with you to tell you the time!), headphones, pen and paper (to actually write letters!).

Fun: Theme-night clothes or wacky gear, clothes for a day off out of camp, bunk games like Jacks or a deck of cards.

Random awesomeness: Guitar (if you play), Diablo, juggling balls, playlist of music for your bunk, flag from your country, college gear, photos of your family and friends.

And most importantly, bring a camp state of mind: a sense of humor, enthusiasm, a great attitude, openness to try new things, excitement to meet new people and the realization that you are about to embark on an incredible, rewarding adventure that is truly life-changing!

Earth Day, Every Day

Posted on April 22, 2016 by PineForest

Every day is Earth Day at camp.

It starts when you wake up in the morning. You breathe in the fresh mountain air, smell the pines, hear the birds outside your cabin window. You open the screen door and feel that warm sunshine on your shoulders. Breakfast, like every meal, is prepared fresh using local ingredients, many from farms right down the road.

The day’s activities embrace the natural beauty around us. Dive into our natural lake, run on the fresh green fields, hike the trails that wander through towering pines. And at night, look up at the incredible, magnificent stars. You can see the Milky Way above your head, far from the lights and pollution of the cities. The view at night at camp is truly amazing. It’s breathtaking.

And we never take it for granted. We can’t. Every year camp, we take steps to lessen our footprint. Here are just a few things we’ve done recently:

-No more paper or Styrofoam tableware in the Dining Hall
-Fluorescent or CFL lights in every socket
-New special, high-quality pool covers to keep the heat in and lessen electricity demands
-Recycling in our trash system
-More environmental education activities

Did you know that PFC won the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) award for energy conservation? We’re a proud Energy Star Award winner!

But we can never do enough. So make Earth Day every day, all year round!

A Small PFC World

Posted on April 19, 2016 by PineForest

Pine Forest Camp makes our world seem a little bit smaller, no matter how many summers we’ve spent there. Recently, PFC alumnus, former Color War General and father of 3 PFC campers, Jon, spotted a man in a PFC hat at a deli in Westchester, NY. When he went over to say hello, Jon met 94-year-old Herman Slotoroff, who attended Pine Forest in 1934. Uncle Marv remembers Herman and his family from his camp days! Herman still wears his PFC hat over 80 years later because of how fond his memories of it were, even after one summer.

When you are part of the PFC family, you are part of something special. It stretches back 86 years and 5 generations, from Greeley, PA, to a deli in Westchester and around the world.

Warmest wishes to Herman for continued good health and happy memories of his summer at camp!

Herman at PFC in 1934!

How Camp Prepares You For College

Posted on April 1, 2016 by PineForest

As high school seniors are making their final college decisions, we’re reminded of how grateful we are for camp; there’s just nothing like camp in preparing kids for college! After all, embarking on a new adventure by yourself, without the comfort of familiar faces, is something you will have already experienced, survived, and become good at once you’ve been to camp! You’ll be great wherever you go!

College is all about new experiences and breaking out of your comfort zone. We do this every day at camp: on the zip line, on the tennis courts, performing in a play, in our bunks.

Sharing a room with a roommate in college? No problem! We know all about building a community! Our campers have shared a bunk with many more and for many years already! Living in a bunk with others strengthens social and communication skills and teaches campers effective strategies for conflict resolution with people who are both similar to and different from themselves!

Both camp and college require adaptability. Sure, the schedule is a little different than you’re used to. The food is a little different than you’re used to. The people are a little different than the ones at home. But that’s what makes it an adventure!

For many, college is a first real taste of independence. Not for you, campers! During the summer, you’ve solved problems that arise without your parents. You’ve formed meaningful bonds with peers and mentors. You’ve pursued interests on your own, straying from the beaten path.

In short, you’re ahead of the curve! So, PFC 12th graders, rest assured. This whole college thing is going to be a BREEZE! We wish we could take credit for those A’s in Advanced Calculus, but we’ll settle for the rest!

Good luck and best from camp!

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