Category: Mitch’s Column

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F-A-K-E O-U-T

We are still in the after glow of Visiting Day!  The siblings that stayed over had a great time, our alumni that came for the Alumni Day BBQ were very nostalgic and it was another beautiful day.

Sunday night, our Staff All Star Basketball Game was a great evening activity; a capacity crowd filled the field house. The pre game show included Mitch & Stephanie dancing center court as the camp serenaded and kicked off their shoes (a la another scene for our new and improved American Pie lip dub… you know: “…. Can you teach me how to dance real slow?… You both kicked off your shoes- man I dig those rythym & blues…”)!

The game was the perfect setting for a Mitch vs. Jared Reiter half court backwards shot showdown contest (that the young Reiter foolishly thought he could win).  The two teams (Red Counselors vs. Blue Staff) entertained the audience with Globetrotter-like prowess, but the real excitement happened at halftime! Our gymnastics department put on an impressive show which was followed by the Club’s early FAKEOUT!!!! That first got the crowd excited, pumped and even more spirited as the Blue Gymnasts and the Red Acrobats faked out the crowd!  Try going to bed after that!

Monday was a thunderstorm day; major booms, claps and downpours.  But nothing could stop us from a jackpot Casino Night!

We said au revoir and bon voyage to the Club & Dorm and Seniors as they left for their trips to Montreal and Martha’s Vineyard today!

Another great week underway here at Towanda!!!

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Girls Sing/Oh We’re Half Way There!

Yesterday marked the halfway point of the summer; 95 degrees and it was Girls Sing!

If there was ever an evening that  could define the sprit, tradition, legacy, love and respect of everyone who is part of our 2012 Camp Towanda Family, it would be last night! Camp is electric! Camp is unified!

Girls Sing was quite the event. The pride, effort, support, time, energy and devotion from the campers and counselors as well as all of the hard work that went into sing was nothing less than magical for all of us here.  No staff went off duty; everyone was part of it..

And oh, the boys; I wish you all could be flies on the wall. Their decorum and appreciation flowed in a burst of love and incredible pride and respect of their camp sisters. The cheering and applause; as well as the hugs and the tears.

From scenery to songbooks to themes and costumes; what a night! We had the “Debs and Dillies Down the Red Carpet”, “Tweens & Juniors in Emergencies”, “International News Network”, “Seniors Hit Route 66” and “Dorm Cartoon” (after they faked us out with their “Pretty Little Dorm” scenery).  In the end, the Dorm Girls won but it was EXCEPTIONALLY close.  Only 10 points separated first and last place.

The support from one group to the others was overwhelming; Stephanie and I had tears while watching.

It exemplified what an incredible experience this summer is for all of us here. I realize that parents are often interested to hear about sports and activities, that is all great here; but the life skills and the inter-personal growth without a keyboard or an electronic device is priceless. I think this is what makes us unique. You should just see how polite, respectful and appreciative our kids are here!

We’re still smiling in the glow of last night.  Can’t wait to for you to see more of it on Friday Nite Flix later this week!

Until then…

-Humming Mitch and Singing Stephanie

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S’more Tour and Fun in the Sun!

Excitement; that is what is going on here at camp! So much so I haven’t had a chance to even blog!  Actually,  it has been sooooo hot and by the time I came into the office, I actually had to lie down!  I never thought I would say this, but we wouldn’t mind a day of rain! Can you imagine?

The Water Carnival was a blast; Smorgasbord Dinner was fun; comedy improv night was very entertaining;  late Yogurt Nite was yummy;  Friday Nite Flix was awesome as always! And our Inters made us proud, doing our Shabbos service at the Honesdale Temple.

Saturday was our Rookie Day S’More Tour with lots of new campers checking us out for next summer.  We loved seeing second and third generation kids as well as meeting lots of new faces and their families! Thank you for all of the amazing responses…it really was a terrific day!

Saturday night we had a Square Dancing hoedown; Sunday The Inters went bowling while the rest of camp had an extended indoor rainy day BBQ when we were teased with a thunderstorm that ended up missing us. Regardless, we all danced to the Woodstock  rain dance and Santana’s Oye Como Va in the mess hall!  We probably had only about 20 minutes of rain, but ended up having an all-camp ETB (early to bed) to catch up on some rest; as the humidity level has been hovering at 97% for a few days.  The Seniors-Dorm-Club and LITs ordered in Chinese Food !

Yesterday our activities and intercamp games continued while we ended the day with an all camp Dutch Auction and then surprised everyone with McDonald’s as a special treat on the main soccer field.

So that’s a little of what has been going on here in addition to regular activities, inter camp games and general swims!

Today  is Picture Day, Banana Splits, Haircuts and GIRLS SING; a very powerful day!  We hope to be giving some exclusive reporting from Girls’ Sing on Twitter @camptowanda…so stay tuned!  You never know with our internet connection, but we hope to pull it off.

As you can see, even I’m getting in on the water fun in this heat!

Mitch

P.S. Okay, I take it back. I do not want rain. Especially on Visiting Day!!!!!

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Electionality 2012!

Dear Constituents,

What a great evening we had last night!  Our annual Electionality convention was fun, exciting, cute and terrific. Electionality is an event where we vote for our Camp Presidents (a co-ed ticket from upper and lower camp) and also where our campers (aka “Delegates) of all ages get to show us their creativity, making up their own “States”! The different States (or groups) campaigned for their favorite ticket as the camp presidential candidates presented very entertaining (laugh out loud, belly hurting laughs) speeches.

In the end, it didn’t matter who won, everyone had a great time. To view a small segment of the campaign trail, check out this live news report: http://vimeo.com/45484781

We hope you enjoyed our live tweeting of the “2012 States” on Twitter (twitter.com/camptowanda).  But in case you missed it, here is a complete list.  We promise more “live tweeting” from future events!

Debs – State of Jay Fray
Jets – State of Men in Black
Dillies – State of One Direction
Cadets – State of Being Really Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking
Tweens – State of 80s
Middles – State of Late Reveille
Junior Girls – State of States
Junior Boys – State of the Hashtag
Inter Girls – State of the Alphabet
Inter Boys – Sean and State Plus 28
National Girls – State of the National Hippies Sugar Magnolia
National Boys – State of Orange Juice
Senior Girls – State of Yaz
Senior Boys – State of Quailman
Dorm – State of Prancing
Club – State of Superheroes
LIT Girls & Boys – State of the IWA

…..and that’s the report from Camp Towanda!

Mitch

Posted on by camptowanda

Camp Towanda Has Talent!!

We’ve got the fever, we’re hot, we cannot be stopped!  The spirit and the weather is hot!  We are sweating and energetic!   Our weekend activities were full of talent.  We had an awesome (and cute) Talent Show Saturday inside the Field House; the kids were great, the crowd enthusiastic and the cheering and hugs ecstatic!

Sunday night the entire camp enjoyed the Upper Camp Presentation of “N.C.W. Yankees” (aka Damn Yankees; as in NON CAMP WORD YANKEES)!  Then we all enjoyed milk and cookies as the moon rose over the main soccer field.  Late night ended with Upper Camp Parties in the Canteen for the Dorm & Club, and L.I.T.s.  The C.I.T.s partied on the Mansion Patio.

Our staff are enjoying their quality down-time as well. After a busy week of work (and play!), they enjoyed relaxing on the zip line under the lights and a staff basketball game;  we cancelled the staff campfire (as no one wanted additional heat)! Our off-duty staff even enjoyed inter-camp basketball games last night.  Camp is really fun for everyone!!

The spirit around camp is very positive and high; smiles, comfort and friendships is what we see a lot of! One can feel, smell and see how appreciative the campers are of being here; soaking in every bit as they grow, experience, try; all while genuinely being grateful for their time here.

This morning reveille called at 8:00 AM; breakfast with the Beatles and then it is Electionality tonight! This Camp Towanda tradition always promises to be a creative night of fun and spirit for all campers and counselors!!!  We will attempt to report on Twitter (@camptowanda) the “States” and their Delegates (you never quite know how the internet will behave at camp).

And just a side note regarding some of the emails we receive but never have the time to properly respond. Thank you!!! We appreciate the feedback and accolades….

Dear Mitch,
There is not a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars we sent the kids to Towanda and in particular to you, Stephanie, and your amazing team. All I can say is thank you! Looking forward to visiting day.

And as phone calls begin, we want to share with you a wonderful letter we received from a parent:

We just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to listen to our son and know exactly what he needed to get past his “homesickness”…we always believed Towanda was a magical place and that we trusted you and your staff…but the way all of you handled this just confirms  Towanda is all that we knew it was and so much more…

Happy Monday everyone! Here’s to another great week at Camp Towanda!!!!

Posted on by camptowanda

Happy 4th of July!

Hot summer days full of fun!!! Yesterday we enjoyed intercamp tennis, intercamp play date and water-skiing!  Last night our 5 year club took their annual trip to the Binghamton Mets (a good game plus a bonus fireworks show) while the non-5 year clubbers played “human games” and then “UTL” for  Lower Camp (Under The Lights).

Human Games are charades, dizzy bat, gigantic twister, anagrams, parachute tennis, human bingo  and relay races; good silly fun (by the way, with no electronic or digital assistance!). UTL was a special bonus before milk and cookies. Everyone smiles as we live, play, learn and grow together!

This morning we plan to skirt around the weather and sleep in till about 8:45am (well at least the campers will sleep in!) and have a outdoor buffet breakfast with a carnival planned for tonight.

Of course, here at camp we celebrate the 4th of July on the 5th with a day full of coed activities, which we call COEDING, then an elaborate fireworks show and luau and… a Camp Towanda favorite!

And now for the part of my blog where I love to share emails we get from our parents who often say it best:

“I just received my fist letter from our son that said “THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE BEST SUMMER EVER!”  I have received this type of letter from him every summer…how do you do it?  Better than the best summer for 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008…?  All I can say is thanks for putting this all together.  He had a very crazy year in school filled with a ton of school work and he really buckled down and did beautifully.  I am more happy than ever that he is having a great, stress free, happy-summer.  He really loves the “Towanda Experience”.  The nonstop activities with his best friends are right up his alley.

We are also happy to hear that he is going to try out for the  Play.  We are very glad to see him venturing off the playing fields where he is most comfortable and  into new activities at camp.  You have an atmosphere established where he is not afraid to go out and try something new like this.  That is really great and I thank you for that.”

Okay and just one more letter from one of our parents about telling their friends about touring Camp Towanda:

“Dear Mitch & Stephanie,
One of our friends asked us what was special about Towanda; we told them to visit and they did.  After their visit, they told us they can see why  kids love Towanda! They said all the campers seem so well adjusted and in the groove (even after just a few days)!  They said our son said “it’s awesome” (which was confirmed on FNF)!!!  They also asked him if he had anything to tell his parents and he said, “Yeah tell them I am great and happy!”  What better endorsement?!

They said they had some concerns for their younger one who is only 6 and who does not really know what he likes yet.  He isn’t sports and they were worried that he wouldn’t have enough to do. The older one loves sports so they were thrilled for him but wanted the boys to go together to camp. I told her about cooking, gardening and pottery.

I told her that you and Stephanie think of things parents don’t even realize!  She couldn’t believe the camper to counselor ratio.  I also told them how we look forward to your nightly emails and how you don’t get this kind of communication anywhere else!  I explained how you are strict but with good reason and have the safety and happiness of our children in mind at all times. I always feel secure that my kids are in good hands!”

So on that note everyone, have a Happy 4th of July and make sure you are following us on Facebook and Twitter (@camptowanda) for bonus updates in real-time.

Uncle Sam Mitch and Bestephanie Ross


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2nd week stride!

Happy Monday everyone!  I didn’t intentionally take a weekend off from my daily blog (which is actually a reincarnated version of my nightly email that I send to parents).  It’s just that I am so busy at camp that I didn’t have a free second.  But let me tell you; all is great here; the 2nd week stride has begun.

We had Watermelon League for the boys, a singing bee for lower camp (that’s like a spelling bee, but you have to finish the words to the song), a Scavenger Hunt, inter-camp games, great activities, good jokes and even taking the time to walk the miniature horse and donkey (you remember donkey otie)!  The Club boys also returned yesterday from their overnight canoe trip; a powerful bonding experience for sure.

This weekend we enjoyed breakfast with The Beatles, banana splits with The Archies and of course, Sunday night BBQ with The Grateful Dead…classic vinyl all day long!

Now that a full week has passed, the kids are almost ready for me to start reffing their Ghost games (they must  be at level 2 for me to invoke grand master rule 123 point 5, sub-paragraph C…that’s the Tuesday rule of standing on 1-leg; not to be confused with rule number K-9; Casper’s slobber on the ball is part of the game! What a great game, Ghost is!

We had a beautiful Friday evening service lakeside with a spectacular bright red sunset followed by a great episode of Friday Nite Flix (so great that it took over 24 hours to upload via our gerbil powered internet service)! If you haven’t checked it out yet, click here.  Or set your e-dials to our Friday Nite Flix Vimeo Channel for weekly installments of our must-see TV. https://vimeo.com/channels/ctfridayniteflix12.

Today is our winter birthday party and Big Brother/Sister ice cream event; Tuesday is the 5 year club trip to the Binghamton Mets; Wednesday is another relaxing porch breakfast (and we celebrate our independence on Thursday for the annual camp Towanda 5th of July celebration featuring fireworks to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture and a luau! We also will continue our tradition of breaking a Guinness World Record on Thursday as we create an epic version of everyone singing American pie (a camp favorite and the perfect way to celebrate Independence Day)!  More on that later in the week!

Tours have begun as families interested in next summer visit; our campers are singing, cheering and engaging the visitors while the counselors instruct and lead; it is very powerful to watch.

Last night during freeplay I was sitting on the hill above Stephanie’s garden when a group of younger campers (boys and girls) decided to sit next to me and just go on and on about how much they love it here, can’t believe it has been only a week and they feel so lucky.  (my keyboard is smiling)!!

Okay, before I go, I wanted to share this wonderful letter we received from parents of a camper that needed to arrive late……

“….I want to tell you how touched to my core I was with how thoughtful and caring the welcome for our daughter was. As I’ve been asked by many since yesterday how the drop-off was and I have had trouble putting the proper words on my feelings without getting choked up. Taking the ENTIRE group away from their activity to make sure she felt comfortable when she arrived was just an incredible touch. Screaming her name with a huge sign to welcome her was magical.  She was instantly swarmed by the kids and the counselors. Amazing!! But I guess that is what sets Towanda apart. I want to believe a similar arrival at another camp would be handled so perfectly but I just don’t  think it would be so. No way!! Yesterday was Towanda at it’s FINEST. It was pure LOVE! PURE JOY! A moment that I will never forget. You guys just get “IT” !! And “IT” is what made us look at each other when we toured camp in the rain 2 years ago when we first came to visit and it was pouring rain and yet there was still a spirit and a warmth that was tangible that we felt deep down and knew we had found the camp for our family. We were hooked and today I sit here and believe it was one of the best decisions we have made yet as parents. For we could not imagine having a more secure feeling knowing that the TOWANDA FAMILY is now our family as well and we are so lucky to be a part of it. I know our kids are getting the gift of camp, but it is the gift of Towanda that they are really getting. So again thank you from the bottom of our heart for how you handled her late arrival and since I know you will take great care of her I won’t even ask how she is doing!!!. All the best and have a great summer! ..”

On that note…we’ve got a great week planned!!

Let’s jump right in to week 2!

Mitch

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Campa-pa-looza

Two Terrific Towanda Days to recap.  Camp is in the groove; the kids are relaxing, participating, spirited and having fun. As Steph and I walked around during activities we watched our staff just as enthusiastic as the campers!

Every single activity had wonderful instruction, skill development and involvement; from volleyball to basketball to tennis to hockey, softball to gymnastics (which everyone loves), and more!  The Garden Club has already enjoyed some arugula and radish from Stephanie’s garden.  And Damn Yankees rehearsals are looking good.

Yesterday started with a Porch breakfast buffet (yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, granola, health bars, cereal, eggs and juice) on the picnic table lawn. In the afternoon we had our annual Campa-pa-looza outdoor concert from the Walking Heroes in our amphitheater in the sun and warmth (finally)!  After the music , everyone went bananas when they got to make their own banana splits!

Evening activities are in full swing.  Lower Camp has been spending their nights on the zipline, in a scavenger hunt and we even had a duct tape fashion show from the younger girls (really quite impressive…who knew duct tape came in other colors than grey!).  Upper Camp is enjoying everything from a beautiful BBQ dinner lakeside to their “black out” social (everyone wore black) to our very own UNIQUE entertainment game show!

As for our oldest campers: The Dorm Girls returned from their overnight Canoe trip and said it was awesome.  The Club Boys had their special ceremonial campfire (shhh, I can’t talk about it) which included a beautiful setting moon and a still, silent and warm night!!!!

We hope everyone has been enjoying ALL the photos on CampMinder! A parent stumbled on this blog and shared it with us (Click here to read). It has some good laughs and a great moral to the story.  We hope you appreciate this self-depricating perspective on “THE PICTURES”.  The blog also featured a great cartoon that’s also in our Parent Guide.

Camp eagerly awaits the first official installment of Friday Nite Flix later tonight and we hope you are as excited as we are! Wishing everyone a great weekend (we know we’ll be having a blast!).

Mitch

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The Circus Comes to Towanda!

High Five Tuesday was a gorgeous day.  But it sure felt like fall! I can’t recall the last time I wore long pants and 3 layers in June!!!  The forecast says 80s and 90s by Thursday and Friday and I’m sure we will be shedding those layers and running (or walking carefully) for the lake!

Our waterfront staff enjoyed being on “dry dock”.  Activities such as jogging on the track and basketball kept us warm, while the smell of the courtyard firepit kept us thinking we were warm!  Of course, Banana splits were delayed until Thursday when we will need them to help cool off!

Culinary Classes started today at The Farm as our junior chefs made pretzel chicken, broccoli and rice, cornflake chicken and fresh baked cookies! A very popular option!

This evening’s activity was brought inside; The National Circus Project rolled in and we look forward to circus workshops this morning!

It’s another beautiful day today at Camp Towanda (warmer and less breezy).  Perfect for a day with the circus!

Mitch

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Thunder, Thunderation!

Day 3 started off with a bang! A little thunder and some rain followed by a cool, breezy and sunny day!

We had sloppy joes for lunch and an afternoon of fun with our amazing coaches at basketball, golf, gymnastics, soccer and elsewhere.  After a great day, last night’s evening activities were: Upper Camp Campfire and Lower Camp ‘Towanda Open’ (a carnival of challenges that involve jello toss, pudding races, apple bobbing and french fries).  The night before, Upper and Lower Camp were reversed so everyone got to experience two great events.

If you are following us on Twitter (@camptowanda) you would have already heard yesterday that our Club boys were victorious in their first Wayne County intercamp baseball game!  And if you Like Us on Facebook, you would have seen those Dorm Girls dressed to impress for Maniac Monday!  We’ll continue to post bonus updates for all you social media fans out there.

Yesterday came to a close late last night when our campers from Spain arrived to a huge ovation with hugs and screams (as some of them are returning for their 6th summer).  Bienvenidos!!!

Now let’s have some fun on High Five Tuesday!!!

Mitch