Tag: coed sleepaway camp

G-14 Found!

Posted on by PineForest

Today, every camper working on the home-made canoe signed it before the big launch. Back at Center Stage, it was Hip Hop Boot Camp with Kelli Moshen. Intermediate boys played a close baseball game on Mitchell Field and try-outs were held for “The Little Mermaid”, the first show of the season! Additionally, Big Brother/Little Brother match-ups are starting and Big Sisters and Little Sisters practiced their skits. Our TOP Cooks took a trip to the Culinary Institute of America in New York to take a tour and returned with cookies, eclairs, macaroons, cake, and croissants!

But the big news of the day was that girls’ camp bunk Cliff’s missing laundry bag, marked G-14,  was found in boys’ camp’s bunk Pine. Awkward!

Oh, and even bigger news: Costa Rica photos will be posted tonight!!

Dance

Dance, Dance.

Posted on by PineForest

Another eventful, sunny day at PFC! In addition to our plethora of daily activities, we kicked off several awesome week-long activities, including a dance workshop with Kelli Moshen (back by popular demand) and boat building. Our TOP Basketball program is off to a great start and our TOP Cooks programming continued at the Heron restaurant in Narrowsburg, where our campers learned how to make two different kinds of pancakes from scratch! Yum! We also participated in a 13 and under boys soccer Intercamp and sent our Hi-Seniors to a Scranton RailRiders game! Never a dull moment.

Don’t forget to check out our week 1 recap video!!

https://vimeo.com/132671804

Champions!

Posted on by PineForest

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Hi, camp families! We hope you’re enjoying your holiday weekend. Before we tell you about our exciting day, we have to give a shout out to girls’ camp who had their big sisters meet their little sisters last night. After a series of secret clues, big sisters were revealed and the girls got to make friendship bracelets and eat celebratory cake together! They also got to practice our new all camp dance to an original PFC song! We’ll be sure to take a video!

Today was an especially eventful day at PFC that started with an outdoor breakfast! We had campers practicing for the 5K Camper Scamper, held a climbing competition, had other camps come for an Intercamp basketball tournament (our 13 and under team won!), had USTA practice…the list goes on! Don’t worry, parents – we assure you that your campers are staying active! Oh, and the mac and cheese? HUGE hit.

Tomorrow will be one of those most exciting days of the summer! We can’t wait to tell you all about our 4th of July traditions in tomorrow’s post! Another thing to look forward to tomorrow is the big debut of our weekly bunk newsletters!! Each bunk has its own newsletter that will be distributed to you weekly through your CampInTouch account. That’s right, straight from the front porch of your child’s cabin to your screen. You’ll find them in the forms section of your parent portal, labeled by bunk. Awesome! Our campers had a lot of fun with these and we hope you will too.

Into the Wild

Posted on by PineForest

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Our 11th graders have touched down in Costa Rica and, back in Greeley, Intercamp games are in full swing!  There is currently an 11 and under baseball game going on at the field and the team is looking good in their uniforms! They’re playing against our brother camp, Lake Owego. Also on Mitchell Field, it’s lacrosse like PFC has never seen before! Two great counselors who are on their colleges’ lacrosse teams are teaching skills and fielding a team to play other camps. We also have our first overnight tonight! Venturing out into the wild (just across the road) are bunk Cherry and Elm. They’ll be sleeping in a yurt, cooking dinner, learning campcraft and blazing new trails. For those who are curious, there’s a portable toilet out there, too!

But the biggest news is, it’s laundry day! Time to empty your laundry bags, separate out the colors and send it to our trusty camp laundry company. Bunk laundry?! Let real camp life begin. Three words: count your socks.

Beach Party!

Posted on by PineForest

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“The problem is never the problem. The problem is our attitude about the problem” – Captain Jack Sparrow

Our attitude today was “act like it’s sunny and the sun will shine,” and sure enough it did! After two days of rain, today was the perfect day for a luau breakfast. Campers and counselors broke out their Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, and sunglasses. Amy even wore a wetsuit and snorkel gear! With Beach Boys music playing in the background, we enjoyed waffles topped with strawberries and whipped cream and, drum roll please, avocado toast! By the time clean up was over, the clouds parted and the sun came out for the day. The power of positive thinking! And now we’re off, full-tilt non-stop activities all day. Horseback riders went to the ranch and Superstar Golfers went to Woodloch. All courts, fields and beaches are open!

Next up: our CAs leave for Costa Rica very early in the morning!

Now We’re Cookin’!

Posted on by PineForest

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TOP Cooks began their culinary adventures today with a visit and demonstration by local baker, Marcia Dunsmore. Marcia provides homemade, hand-crafted bread to all of the finest restaurants and gourmet shops in Northeastern PA. Campers really enjoyed diving into dough-making with her guidance.

We had a few more showers in Greeley today, but that didn’t stop the action around camp. We had an intensive soccer clinic for boys and girls, basketball leagues in Hughie Hall, and boys 13 and under hoops practice. We also had sign-ups for the Marvin Black USTA tennis tournament (just in time for Wimbledon across the pond).

Chad unveiled the new “competitive choice” program, where campers who want even more team sports can choose extra play time. Now there are leagues, Intercamps and the all new, competitive choice. Whew! That’s a lot! And it’s not even dinner time yet!

Speaking of dinner, the campers aren’t aware of this before going to print, but there are onion rings on the menu tonight! Oh, and chicken patties, turkey burgers, AND kasha and bowties. Did we mention homemade marshmallow dream bars for dessert? BEST. DINNER. EVER.

Rays of Fun!

Posted on by PineForest

The sun came out today and so did the racquets, water bottles, and sunscreen. Superstar Tennis lessons began with Mr. Craig Wallace presiding. Chad announced practice for girls’ 13 and under basketball and 11 and under soccer. Tryouts for the 4th of July talent show extravaganza were underway, including the formation of our own house rock band. We also kicked off our personal training sessions and horseback riding lessons, and sent our first boats out for waterskiing! Our SAT Prep class met in Greeley Theater which was a WAY better setting than a high school classroom if you ask us. The Junior boys were the first to try out our brand new surf bikes this summer and we’ve only heard rave reviews! Meanwhile, another group was busy perfecting their vanilla cupcakes topped with marshmallow Peeps in cooking, and in girls’ camp, newcomb and dance were big hits. Can you believe that we managed to fit in a fire drill at rest period today amidst all of these activities?

In international news, our Spanish campers arrived from Madrid last night and have already been filled in on our cheers and songs!

Our in-house food critic gave today’s meals two thumbs up! We started with pancakes with whipped cream and fruit at breakfast, moved on to burritos, tortilla soup, tuna hoagies, and Greek salad at lunch, and we will end our Monday with meatballs, penne, garlic bread and, most importantly, fudgsicles. Don’t worry, mom and dad, the salad bar has been a big hit!

Tonight’s evening activity? It’s a surprise!

Let the sun shine, let the marshmallows roast, let the good times roll.

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Balloon Tennis in Banana

Posted on by PineForest

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What an eventful day. We don’t let a little rain get to us at PFC! In one Sunday morning, there was a high-energy game of “Crossfire” going on in Lee’s Rink, an around the world passport creation in arts and crafts, kickboxing lessons in martial arts, human Etch-a-Sketch in Marvin Hall, an athletic screening for basketball leagues in Hughie Hall, and a new interview show in media. But wait, there’s more! There were lemon cupcakes with butter cream frosting warming up in cooking, hip hop dance lessons to Ariana Grande in dance, a peaceful yoga class, rope jumping in fitness, and tumbling in gymnastics. Even with all of these activities going on, the boys in Bunk Banana couldn’t stop talking about a game they invented in the middle of their  bunk called “Balloon Tennis.” Apparently, if you tape the floor, blow up a balloon and hit it back and forth with your new camp friends, it’s pretty awesome.  Sometimes, even with all that PFC has to offer, it’s the simplest, least planned, homemade fun, that is the best of all. Welcome to bunk life!

The Final Countdown

Posted on by PineForest

It’s incredibly natural to go into apocalyptic mode in these next 24 hours.

You know what we’re talking about:

What do you want your last meal to be?
Do you want to see a final movie tonight or just relax and hug?
When would you like to take Rover for a final walk?
How about Grandma and Grandpa? Let’s give them one final call!
Give your sister one huge final good kiss goodnight! You won’t again till August!

We know you’re well-meaning, but we have some advice for what it’s worth: Stop. STOP! You’re freaking them out! Let’s all try to remain normal and happy and calm. Be cool! Let’s enjoy final pre-camp moments but not belabor them. Let’s focus not on what your kids are missing at home but what they’re about to embark upon at camp. In our experience, end-of-world conversations and conversations focusing on home breed anxiety for a number of reasons. Here are a few of those reasons, and here’s what your kids may be thinking: I don’t know what I want my last meal to be! Oh my gosh, but what if I pick the wrong one and I want mom’s mac & cheese tomorrow and I can’t have it! How can I live with that regret! I hadn’t thought about seeing a movie or walking Rover, and I’d sort of forgotten that I wasn’t kissing my little sister goodnight all summer. AH! That’s scary! Am I SURE I want to give all of this up?

Of course the answer is a resounding “YES!” The gifts of camp are immeasurable and what they’ll be experiencing in a few days is life-changing. So let’s not focus on a final tuck-in or that one last hug. Keep your kids happy and focused on moving forward towards camp. Will you treasure those final moments? YES! Should you talk about them with your kids? Probably not. We’ll say it again: play it cool.

Smile, keep calm, talk about the great adventure they’re about to have. “Goodnight, Honey. I love you, and I’m so excited for you” always works. It’ll make it easier for your kids to get on the bus, and it’ll give them the courage to get off that bus once they’ve arrived “Up Where the Sky Begins.” We’ll take it from there!

Greetings from Camp Health Center!

Posted on by PineForest

We look forward to welcoming your children to camp in just a short time. On the first day of camp, as we have in the past several years, our camp nurses will do a health check of each and every camper. Included in that process is a head check for lice.

This summer, to improve the process, we have hired Lice Be Gone, professionals in the field who will do each camper’s head check. They provide this service for many camps and schools. If a camper has lice, Lice Be Gone can treat it directly or our nurses can treat it with a medicated shampoo. The strategy is to find and eliminate it promptly, even before campers settle into their cabins, where it could spread. Of course, if lice is detected we will be sure to call you immediately.

Going this direction will allow camp to be free of lice and to ensure that we all have a happy and healthy camp season. We are doing our part and ask that you proactively check your camper for lice before they head up to Greeley for a summer of fun!

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out.

Healthy campers are happy campers!