New Head Of Waterfront Wakeboard Camp

Hello
Here are some pictures of Adam our new waterfront head.  He will bring a new and exciting set of skills to our adventure camp!

Is there an App for that?

So I heard the most remarkable thing the other day. There is an app being developed in Japan apparently, that tells you exactly how many calories and fat content are in your meal before you commit to a months worth of calories in one plate! All you have to do is take a photo of your meal with your phone and it calculates how healthy it is, making it possible to make the right choices…. or not, if you are just craving good old comfort food.

 Amazing…..mind boggling you might even say! It does make you wonder however, where the world is heading and whether we will have to make any decisions at all in the years to come.

With so many wacky apps out there, like the app that just tells you jokes about chuck Norris or quotes from the family guy or even an app that just throws out 50 different cat meows, why ever do we not have an app for summer camps? Should there be an app that tells you which camp you should choose and which one suits your personality? True, it would be so much easier than trawling the internet through hundreds of choices when all you have to do is type in your interests, your likes ,dislikes, how long you want to go for and possible location preference, press a button and there you have it! Simple, camp selected!

But seriously, if life was that simple and choices were that easy then the possibility of spontaneity would slowly and surely be eliminated, till we become a nation unable to think for ourselves. After all, choosing the perfect camp out there is not always necessarily about the activities but about the friendships. Connecting with like- minded individuals and the opportunity to learn new things from a variety of new people is equally important when making that decision. It’s good to be spontaneous sometimes and we have always prided ourselves on the fact that Long Lake is mainly about choices. An opportunity to be independent, to have a guitar lesson one day and ride the rapids the next. If we told our kids what to do every minute of the day then we would be stifling the very thing that make our kids so wonderful: the ability to be creative.

 However, important as that is some kids still need to be guided and that is a good thing. Rather than there being ‘an App for that’ we consistently remain true to that age old favorite, human connection. Helping them to make the right choices and steer them in the right direction will always be an integral part of Long lake, although having an app that said’ Follow your dreams here’, in every language possible, would be quite useful.

Slippery pavements and frozen silences...

Well the snow has hit us again, unloaded from the big dump truck in the sky! And of course the predictions were wrong…again… and instead of the 8-10 inches they said would hit us, we were graced with at least a foot of white fluffy flakes of goodness…or inconvenience, depends on how you look at it!

Oh how I long for the summer ahead, sunny days, blue skies and balmy evenings up in Long Lake. It’s actually quite hard to imagine being up there when all we can do is slip and slide along in our snow boots, gripping desperately onto walls, bushes and those unfortunate passers by(who happen to cross our path) as we try to prevent an embarrassing collision with the pavement……I’m sadly talking from experience here….

Saying that, have you seen how much snow is actually up at camp right now? You should all check out the web cam, it’s pretty wintery, so much so that you can actually drive a truck across the lake and go ice fishing! Imagine…ice so thick, you can DRIVE a truck across the lake!

It’s a completely different experience, walking out into the middle of the ice and looking back at the wintery landscape of camp, it’s eerily quiet apart from the distant humming of snow mobiles in the distance, and because it’s so stark white, it’s not unimaginable to see a bobcat or two darting out amongst the trees. Gone are the jovial shouts, bells ringing to signify another period, campers learning their lines on the South lawn, and the general hustle and bustle of life at camp, all replaced by a frozen silence, where the only life belongs to the hardy wildlife of the Adirondacks.

Whenever I go up to camp in the winter, I am always blown away by how beautiful it all is….I mean it’s gorgeous in the summer of course, but camp in the winter is a different thing altogether and something a lot of our staff and campers unfortunately never get to see. One of these days, it would be lovely to have a short winter program,  a week where kids can come and experience a Long Lake winter, do wintery type activities amongst working on their acting, monologues and audition pieces….. So watch this space, you never know…..

Long lake camp web camp..check out the snow.

oooo almost forgot...

We are very excited to let you know that two of our ex-campers, academy award winning actor Adrien Brody and Corey Stoll will star in Woody Allen's upcoming romantic comedy Midnight in Paris.

How can we all get warm and fuzzy inside?

Camp can make you all fuzzy and warm inside, we know this to be true, because so many of our kids come back year after year and the count down to the next summer starts the day kids go home,…it’s true…just look at our Facebook page. However, if you have never been to Long Lake or even been away to camp, how do you know where the right place is for you and if there is even a place out there, that’s going to make YOU all fuzzy inside!

We are all looking for some place to fit in, no matter what age we are. To be accepted for who we are regardless of our sense of style, taste in music, art, sports and friendships. I know how important it is to find ‘your people’. To find a place where you belong instantly and that offers you everything and more than you knew you were even interested in! To be honest with you, people continue to look for this place throughout their entire lives and I would like to think that everyone finally finds it sooner than later, but I’m sure there are people out there who sadly do not.

 Camp is probably the most important starting off point to finding those incredible people who touch and influence your life, giving you a push in the right direction, encouraging you to be who you go onto become. The place to discover what really makes us tick and to trip over what we might possibly want to do for the rest of our lives. Some people unfortunately don’t get the opportunity of such a wonderful beginning and maybe that’s why they never find exactly what they are looking for.  Wow….who knew camp could be so important, right?

So….. what I’m basically saying is that for all of you out there looking for the right beginning point, to start the journey off properly and are currently wading your way through brochure upon brochure looking for the right fuzzy place, remember this; ask as many questions that pop into your mind, find out everything that’s offered and all the things you can do as a result, make sure the people teaching and encouraging you are the right people and are brilliant at doing it. Look for a diverse mixture of kids and call references, there is no beter way to find out than from the horses mouth…kids that have actually been there, experienced and lived it. Finally the most important or all….., be brave, it might be your first time in a new place, but just think it could be the place you actually discover yourself.

Where would we be without resolutions...?

Well the holidays are finally over, the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, frantic cookie making and strategic mistletoe placing is but a distant memory and the streets over the last week or so have been strewn with little bare Christmas trees, abandoned to the garbage men now their job is done.

I feel there is always a mixture of emotions once the festivities are over and a little of the post Christmas blues have settled in. The world seems a little less shiny, everything goes back to normal and life carries on. However, this is of course mixed with the excitement of a brand new year ahead. The New Year’s resolutions have been made of new accomplishments yet to come, new relationships to be established and new lessons to learn.

 I always find myself on New Years Eve, reflecting on the past year and frantically making a list of things I want to achieve, change and do differently in this next coming year. I think it’s so important to set yourself goals because when you can look back at all the check marks on that little crumpled list at the end of the year, the feeling is so satisfying.

This year for me is the year for, creativity, adventure and technology. I’ve always been a bit techno phobic, as my closest friends like to tease me about, fearing that with the wrong click of a button, I am bound to cause some kind of a computer melt down and lose everything to cyber space, a slightly alarming prospect especially in the office, where that probably wouldn’t go down so well!  This is a ridiculous fear I know but I’m working on it… because that’s what resolutions are all about!

Geoff has just put together our new and improved website talking of computers, which you should all check out as it’s fabulous! It’s been an interesting process; we are all learning a lot here in the office and would love to hear YOUR feed back.

Our adventure camp campers are coming in thick and fast, and everyone here is getting excited at all the brilliant activities we are going to throw at them this summer. I have decided to jump on the adventure band wagon and start training for a big event, can’t tell you too much about it yet as I’m working out the details but it definitely involves the great outdoors and positively oozes adventure! I have also decided that although most of my time at camp is taken up unit leader-ing, I am determined to go white water rafting and ride a sea plane…this is the year!

This leads me to my final Resolution for this year. Getting those creative juices flowing! Not only do I have ideas jumbling out of every brain cell, but can’t wait to try some of them out at camp this summer…why oh why is it so far away!!! The count down begins…..and I know some of you have already started!

So, if you haven’t made a list already, it’s not too late to sit down and write some New Years resolutions…..make 2011 the year to achieve big goals, learn new things and aim for the stars.

Dear Santa, do you know where I live?

Dear Santa,

Is it really that time already?  How is it, that this year has flown by so fast and I simply can’t believe it’s time to put up the tree, battle with the Christmas lights and think of cunning ways to stop the cat from climbing it and destroying everything shiny…..again.

I’m sure your year has also been very busy, working away with your Elves trying to keep up with the new and latest gadgets…I think you forgot to bring me my Wii Fit last year by the way….either that or you delivered it to the wrong chimney! Well, I HAVEN’T MOVED HOUSE, so maybe this year?

I have also been busy myself, mainly trying my best to be nice, keeping in touch with friends, helping old people across the street….. (sometimes, even when they don’t want to cross) and generally trying to be a good person. It’s exhausting!

It’s funny, as I look back and remember all the Christmases I have experienced so far ( I try not to think about how many really,that’s a secret only you and I share) and although I have spent many of them in different places and with different people- on beaches, up mountains, across the sea from my family, I always marvel that you are still able to find me,so I feel it’s important and try my best, to hold on to the traditions that make Christmas’ Christmas-y’ for me. Long gone are the days of waking up at the crack of dawn, feeling my way in the dark to the end of my bed to my pillowcase …. (well it was a makeshift stocking, improvised by my mother) blearily inspecting everything with glee, before running excitedly down to create chaos under the Christmas tree. I tend to take it easier these days, sit down have breakfast and welcome the day with my family…there may even be a Christmas Mimosa involved in there somewhere, when we are lucky enough to be in the same country and I really stop to appreciate each gift as its carefully unwrapped. Well I suspect it takes the Elves most of the year to wrap everything; seems a shame to rip it open so quickly.

 I also feel it’s important to reach out to those that I haven’t been able to keep in constant contact with all year, a little reminder that I’m still here and thinking about them. With the many friends and acquaintances we make throughout our lives, especially those I only see during the summers at Long Lake, there really is no better time than Christmas time to extend well wishes, greetings and salutations, to those you love, like or just want to say ‘Hi’ to. That reminds me it’s almost time to send out our Long Lake Camp Christmas cards, I already know there has been some anticipation as to when they are going out, but all I can assure you is, it’s soon. So be on the look out. I’ll of course be sure to include you Santa, along with the Elves and the reindeers, on our vast mailing list.

With warmest wishes,

Me

P.s. I know you must eat a lot of cookies and milk on Christmas eve, so I have decided to make you Sherry Trifle instead, Just a dash of sherry however, so as not to interfere with your sleigh driving.