Busy Week

The last few days have been extremely busy ones for the Minisink crew. We attended a great workshop in the city on Wednesday. Brad and Tricia survived as commuters on the early morning trains. We don't know how people do it everyday. We went through a small container of hand sanitizer, stayed far away from a guy that we labeled "MR. Phlem and Germ" and managed to enjoy the scenery through Westchester which we renamed the "Croton Exit" area. The workshop dealt with growing up in a fast paced marketing world. The day was very informative and we will be including what we learned as part of our staff training week. Saturday we by passed the trains and drove to camp for tours. We met a bunch of really nice families and future campers. It was a great day for tours as the temperature was 65 degrees. We almost went for a dip in the lake, but we needed Melissa and Simon to lifeguard. Then we switched cars and went back to the city on Sunday for our first camp fair of the season. We really love attending these camp fairs because we get to talk about camp for hours. (They sometimes serve really great bagels, but they didn't have them on Sunday) We were on the Upper West Side near Central Park. The day was a success and hopefully the nice new people we talked to will join us for all the Minisink fun. We might have stopped at Levain bakery and picked up a treat for the ride home. Oprah loves the place and who are we to not listen to her wisdom. The cookies were super yummy.

We just mailed out our 2010 CKM reunion invitations. We hope you will be able to join us for all the festivities. The reunion is a great time to hang out with all your camp friends and staff. The party is from 10 AM to 12:30 PM, but it always feels like it is over in a matter of minutes. Everyone looks so different at the reunion in their winter clothing. Maybe everyone doesn't really look so different, but during the summer we are used to seeing everyone in shorts, all tanned, and with big camp smiles. So free up some time on December 4th, and join us for the big bash.

One of the tours asked how we market camp. We really do not place a lot of ads or buy many advertising spaces. We attend a few camp fairs and try to spread the word about our program. Mostly people hear about camp from their friends. So we basically use word of mouth advertising. So make sure you tell all your friends about Campus Kids. CKM is the place to be and we want to have all the bunks filled with great campers. If you do know of any friends that are interested in visiting camp, have them call the office soon. Some groups are already filling up and we want to make sure that people get their favorite weeks.

We are getting closer and closer to Turkey day and then the really big family holidays. Does anyone have a guess when we will see the first big snow storm? There was a little snow in Connecticut last week. It didn't stick to the ground so we are not really going to count it. No snow up at camp yet, but a usual Port Jervis winter brings 60 inches of snow or more. We will keep you posted. Have a great week and keep thinking camp.

Brad and Tricia

No political party at camp.

Tuesday was a wild election day in the US. Did you vote? Are you old enough to vote? We seem to be living in a very tumultuous time. The political ads were enough to drive anyone to a complete lack of knowing who to vote for. Sometimes the negative ads made us dislike the person sponsoring the commercial. So what does this have to do with the camp world? Well, every time we watched one of these political ads, it felt like the opposite of camp. At camp we choose to support each other and not attack those in our environment. We embrace different ideas and use disagreements as a springboard for learning and growing. We live at camp in an honest state of mind, where we trust our neighbors. And of course, Campus Kids has never been about winning or losing. It has always been about trying your best and being the person you are. Seems to contradict everything involved with the whole political process.

Winter is rapidly approaching. Don't forgot to adjust your clocks this weekend. We get an extra hour of sleep over the weekend. Of course the downside is a shorter afternoon. Nobody likes to drive home from work or after school practice in the dark. Less time to run around outside, and less time to get things done during the day. But as we move through the calendar week, we do get closer to some exciting times. The Campus Kids Minisink Reunion is happening on December 4th from 10:00 AM until 12:30 PM. The event takes place at Sportstime USA in Elmsford, New York. We would love to see everyone on that date for a morning of food, friends, laughs, and memories. We rent out the entire facility and play video games, laser tag, batting cages, and some fun indoor rides. This will be our third year using this place and each reunion has been very successful. Some years we have had staff members fly in from overseas. We are not sure if anyone is flying over this year, but we will keep our fingers crossed.

We are doing tours up at camp this weekend. There might be a staff member or two with a video camera up there. Although camp looks different this time of the year, it is still picturesque. Do you know what that means? More video and photo games yeah! If you are not sure what this means, well we had some fun last week with a new game on our facebook page. We had a great time posting obscure videos and having people guess where they taken at camp. So keep checking our facebook page to see if any more games appear. There might be some rule changes, but don't expect the challenges to be any easier.

We hope everyone in our extended CK family has a great weekend. Stay warm and we will chat again with you next week.

This is Brad and Tricia And We Approve This Blog.