Camp Memories :)

Camp memories 2012:

1.  ZJ's impersonation of Bill
2. Gisani's super hero look alike lists
3. JP and Joey T and Andrew Dennis's ice bucket foot challenge
4. CMCL CHAMPS - 3 Peat
5. Color War- Congrats to the Blue Team
6. Montreal trip
7. Zach Snyder is "Mini Rotman"
8. Zach Stein's beautiful voice
9. BARBERSAUCE
10. Inside the mind of Jon Wilner AKA 3 ChainZ
11. Brent Bartzak's amazing M&M tricks
12. Henry Wolfson's giraffe jokes.. bringing down the house!
13. JoJo Solomon's double jointed tricks
14. T Scherman and Ben Scherman's Campfire act
15. Staff Skits.. Joey T's basketball dunk
16. Bunk 9's First Session Lip Sync
17. Weymo's Fire Works on July 4th!
18. America's Cup Winners-State of Texas
19. Watercize with Martha
20. Record number of Lake Swimmers!!
21. Congrats to South Africa - Olympics Champs
22. Phil Lawrence - Shoot the Hero
23. Deep Sea Treasure Hunt 5000 2.0
24. B.A.N.T.E.R. .. David McCormick
25. Power Outages to start the summer
26. Renaissance Music Performance
27. Gabe Salter and Ben Zimmerman's hole-in-ones
28. The Hefalump!
29. Josh Bedford & Sponge Bob Dodge Ball
30. Ogunquit trip
31. Beach Day- Jefferson Scoop Ice Cream!
32. Bouoploly- the official board game of Camp Caribou
33. Wildlife Park.. feed the bears
34. Wilkins and PK ~ 2 on 2 Volleyball Champs
35. Sam Zimmerman - Caribou golf course master
36. Ben Milliken - best individual climb at CMCL Ropes Competition
37. Cruising on the Hobie Cat
38. SUP - extreme paddle board wars
39. X-treme tubing!!
40. Gertrude and Bull Frog Go Camping
41. Nerd Campfire - Gwenevere.. NERD SALUTE!
42. Bunk 4 second session Lip Sync steals the show
43. Caribou culture comes alive with Caribou Epcot
44. Woodstock - Flopez in the House
45. Kestenbaum brothers ~ Ultimate Frisbee Total Domination Trio
46. First Ever Mother-Son Weekend.. so FUN!
47. Joe Wolfson - best Caribou Wide Receiver in history
48. Andrew Keighley - longest field goal kick - 65 yards
49. LOVE & RESPECT
50. It's cool to be nice at Camp Caribou
51. Epic Commando Capture the Flag
52. AMAZING WEATHER on the Peninsula
53. Mr. Chen's Army
54. Rubik's Cube Genius' - Matthew Bitner, Charlie Graham, Jeremy Wolfe and more!
55. Craig Willcox successful gallon challenge
56. Back 5 and Bunk 2 - Surfing the USA
57. Rafting down the Kennebec with B6 and Zip
58. Lori and Alex getting hitched!
59. Third Annual Round Ball Classic!
60. Eimear's, Nick's and Josh's serenading songs
61. Casey Salzman's epic Aqua Zip ride
62. Loads of Aqua Zippers all summer long
63. Megan's rotating hair styles
64. Shawn Pace's amazing hair!
65. Let's get crafty - with Hunter Rowell
66. Conor's crazy beard
67. Road Run with Bobby - earn your slushies
68. Road Walk with Martha!
69. Frog catching with Jorge, Rafa, Nino and Sergio
70. Carlos' name
71. Jay Maxwell's dance moves and poetry
72. Music and dancing at the end of every meal
73. What's today's number of the day? 1.4 yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
74. Danny Holdsman.. go into the woods!
75. Arooostashahhhhh
76. Jim Dock's beaver song
77. Jager
78. Max Lobel's biggest catch
79. Gossip guys with the young Americans
80. Staff basketball game in Color War.. great game
81. Willcox talking..in general
82. The Man, The Myth, The Legend... LAZAR!
83. Swedish Fish (the soccer game)
84. JRob and Joey T Staff Tennis Champs.. we love you guys!
85. Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T Joey T JOEY T!!!!!! 
    
86. And many, many, more!
87. We can't wait to make new memories with all of you next summer! TO ENROLL ONLINE for 2013, please click HERE and Log In to complete the camper application. We look forward to seeing many of you throughout the year.

What's the biggest ship in the world?! The friendSHIP!

The title of this blog is something that every Caribou camper will hear during their time with us at camp.
 Camp is about the friendships, the people and the memories we make here together. It's amazing how quickly campers form friendships, and we're so proud to have such a wonderful community of boys who are ready and willing to make a new friend, to help another camper, and to live by our slogan, "it's cool to be nice at Camp Caribou". We're lucky to have such a special group of campers and staff from all over the world!

Smiling Faces! 

Don't worry, the kid with making the silly face in the background just wanted to show me his back-scratch-er and get it in the picture! He wasn't trying to hit anyone! :)

We cannot believe how quickly our first session flew by! We had an absolutely fantastic visiting day, and then three days later our second session began. Even though we miss our first session friends, it's SO exciting to have all of our second session kids here, and the full season campers are so amazing at helping everybody get comfortable as soon as possible. A perfect example of that was at campfire tonight! We had loads of new campers get up in front of the entire camp and tell jokes, demonstrate their "stupid human tricks" of amazing flexibility, perform skits, play music, and more! It takes an amazing amount of courage to get up in front of the whole camp when you only just arrived a few days ago (even if you've been here all summer it takes courage), and we absolutely loved it!! Everyone who performs receives a tremendous amount of support, cheering, and applause from the whole camp, and we encourage all to participate. It was such a terrific way to really kick off the session with some major positive energy circulating and lots of laughs and smiles.
 The second session is already going full speed ahead with a wilderness trip to Mt. Tumbledown going out tomorrow, instructionals, electives, bunk night, socials, commando capture the flag, special programs coming up like the Round Ball Classic, and more!

Listening to the sounds of nature! We could hear the loons!

Learning to serve!

The oldest boys are going out on "trip week" (not really a week, but 3 days/2 nights) starting on Sunday morning and they're really excited. The "Super Seniors", who are the oldest campers are so excited to be going to Montreal (something they've looked forward to for years!) and the second oldest boys are going on an awesome trip to southern coastal Maine for some rock climbing, surfing, water parks and more!

While they're away, we have some extra special awesome activities planned for the junior camp, and they always have a great time being the "big boys" on campus for a couple of days.

The weather up here has been absolutely gorgeous and we've been hydrating and applying sunscreen all day long!

Everyone is happy, healthy and having fun, and we hope the same for you!

Time Flies When We're Having FUN!!

WOW! We just cannot believe how camp is flying by! It's crazy to think that Visiting Day is next weekend already! The boys are doing GREAT!! Everybody is "feeling the flow" and visibly much more comfortable here. We've had a crazy busy week with more to come! We've had CMCL soccer, baseball, lacrosse, hockey, golf, and basketball for most of the age groups, and tomorrow we have ropes, tennis, soccer and volleyball. On Saturday we've got more baseball and basketball coming up. (We divide the tournament days by age groups, so that we don't compete in all age groups in the same sport on one day..it minimizes the time that  we have to wait for fields/courts, etc.)
We've also had some amazing wilderness trips going on! We just had our first hiking trip for the younger ones up to Camden Hills in Camden, Maine, and they loved it! They were all excited about seeing the Ocean in Maine! Lots of kids who had never been on a trip before were on that trip, and they had a fabulous time. We now have another trip out to the St. Croix River (canoeing of course). All the kids were excited to see the Canadian border! :)
We've also had some great programs this week! Commando Capture the flag, Lip Sync, Waterfest, Cookie Bowl, all-camp movie, and of course, the world famous Camp Caribou 4th of July fireworks extravaganza!!! Our resident pyrotechnic genius, Marc Weymouth aka WEYMO put on an absolutely fantastic show and the kids were going nuts for it! It capped off a wonderful 4th of July. We had the America's Cup tournament all day on the 4th where each camper is put on a team, the teams are all different States in the Nation, and the winner gets... you guessed it, THE AMERICA'S CUP!! Very exciting! :) We had a lovely outdoor picnic on the front lawn of The Lodge and the kids got a yummy all-American meal...fried chicken, biscuits, salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and RED sugar cookies with red, white and blue sprinkles! All HOME MADE by our one and only 31 year veteran head chef, Sue Gilbert. She's the "awesomest" as some of the kids like to say! :) So I know this is a short Blog post, but I'm already late for campfire, so I've gotta get going! We're giving out the 5 year jackets to our 5 year campers tonight and they're all "psyched" to wear their jackets with pride. We are so proud to have a camp with such wonderful boys. We feel very lucky to have the pleasure of spending time with each and every Caribou camper, and we thank you for sharing them with us!!

Gotta Love Camp! :)

So, we're finally into the groove of camp and everybody's loving it! We've definitely had an interesting start with the power and the phones etc., but nothing can break our spirit, and Rotman is just so amazing at getting everybody excited over every little thing. He's really the best and we love him! (I'm not just saying that because I'm marrying him!) The kids and staff alike feed off of our positive energy (not that they don't have plenty of their own energy), and we've had some absolutely fabulous programs so far, despite the rain, or the "liquid sunshine" as we like to call it! The kids are settling into the routine and the staff are getting the hang of this whole "parenting" thing! :)
We had the BEST campfire the other night with many different kids getting up in front of the camp to sing, demonstrate their skills, lead a cheer, tell a joke, do a skit, play an instrument, etc. It was AWESOME!! We have such a talented community and we're so proud of our campers who were brave enough to get up in front of everybody to perform.
We're already looking forward to the next one!
We've got a group of kids who are out hiking Mt. Katahdin right now, and the sports tournaments are starting up on Thursday. We've been having a bunch of team practices during electives, and lots of kids are excited to start playing on teams. We've got baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis and track coming right up, and loads of kids are choosing to participate in those activities. We've also started some cool new activities that lots of campers are excited about..you may have seen some of the pictures of Martha and I doing water aerobics with some of the kids, which was a huge success! We've had tons of kids down in the new wood-shop creating all sorts of terrific things, and we're always amazed at the new ideas that they come up with! We had so much fun last night with a Junior Trivia Night and Dance Party in the Lodge, and a Senior Dodge Ball Tournament in the Gym. Both so much fun, and tonight we have Staff Skits!

We're so excited for all the wonderful things that are sure to come! We'll keep you posted!

Our staff is amazing! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Our staff is amazing! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!


Hey there friends and family of Camp Caribou! We wanted to check in pre-camper arrival and let you know how our summer is going so far.
Camp looks amazing, really and truly, and we are so excited for the arrival of all of our 1st session and Full Season campers!! Our staff Orientation started yesterday, and we already have a wonderful feeling about this group. We have brought together so many interesting, passionate, personable, outgoing and engaging people, and everybody has something special and different to offer. We feel the same way about the camper population that will be joining us here one week from yesterday. We are proud to be bringing together a group of children from all over the world; children who come from warm, loving and supportive families. The last week before camp starts can be a tough one for families, as everyone scrambles to prepare the last minute forgotten items, and send in all the forms. Don’t worry; you’re not the only parent who hasn’t yet submitted everything!
The last week before camp starts up here is just as busy, but in a very different way. We are learning all about our new counselors, and re-connecting and catching up with the ones we already know. We’re making all kinds of observations and evaluations, and thinking about which counselor would be the best fit with which children. Social chemistry, common interests, logistical necessities, all of these things play a part when we’re making bunk assignments and essentially creating partnerships of surrogate parents that will become the role models and mentors for our campers. We take this responsibility very seriously, as these partnerships are the key to the extraordinary world of bunk life.


We spend a huge amount of time over the next week talking about and modeling how to create successful partnerships between co-counselors, and the skills and strategies that they will need to implement in order for their relationship to succeed. We practice the language, demonstrate the strategies, model the behaviors and coach our staff to tap into their “natural nurturing” skills. We ask them to reflect upon all the little things that their parents or caretakers did for them to let them know that they were loved, and prompt them to start thinking about all the things that they do on a daily basis to take care of themselves.. these are all things that they’ll have to verbalize to the children. Is it a little bit chilly in the morning? Are you reaching for your sweatshirt? Time to remind the kids to grab theirs too!
We’re so excited for a wonderful summer together, and the staff already can’t wait to see the kids! We’ll be spending this whole next week preparing for their arrival in every way that we can. Here is one of the tools that we use to impress upon the staff how a parent might feel when sending their child to camp for the first time. Letter to my Child's Staff Person

Caribou is Heating Up!!

With only 15 days until the first session begins, things on the peninsula are starting to heat up!!!  The Bull Crew (Bill, JP, Damian, Willcox, Bobby, Rotman, Frank, Lori, and Rafa) have been doing massive work to make Caribou lookin' beautiful.  The new arts & crafts and wood shop building is UNREAL,  it's double the size of the old building and there's a gorgeous deck over looking Pattee's Pond!!  The new tennis courts are smokin', the pavement has been set and they should be painted once the rain stops.

On June 1st, 8 members of the waterfront staff arrived at the 'Bou for a 4 day life guarding course.  Also on the 1st, the new trips staff, James Anderson and Tom Keough, came up early to scout out this summers wilderness trips. AND... the new ropes staff, Josh Bedford and Chris Redford, arrived at camp as well!!!  So yes, a lot is going on, and everyone is JACKED UP to get things going.  OHHH and the craziness continued last night as Tom Ivinson arrived!!! BOU YAH.  On June 14th the rest of the staff come up for staff orientation.

Camper News:  Noah Safar and Miles Backer competed in a local triathlon a couple of weeks ago and absolutely tore it up.  Miles blew everyone away in the water and Noah was a beast on the Bike!!  Great job guys... Caribou Represent!!

See you guys real soon, WHOA, camp is right around the corner.  START THE COUNTDOWN, LETS GOOO, 2012 is GO.

The Summer Draws Near

What upp Caribou Nation?!?!?!  We hope this fresh blog post finds everyone enjoying the extremely warm spring season.  With only 65 days until the start of first session, we're beginning to feel the excitement build.

This past weekend, the Caribou crew took the eastern seaboard by storm.

On Saturday, Bill, Martha, Lori, Bobby, Jerry, and Rotman went to New Brunskwick, NJ to celebrate Garrett Blitz's (Jeremiah's older brother) wedding!! It was a fantastic wedding and great to see Garrett, Jeremiah, and Talia Dweck!  Congratulations Garrett!!

On Sunday, Bill, Lori, Bobby, and Rotman ventured north to Greenwich, CT for a reunion at Jacob Savitz's home.  We had a real fun crew of new and returning campers. In attendance, Ben Sandler, Jack & Mich Bronksy, Jeremy & Jake Tetenman, Jack Weiss, Chase, Cody, & Logan Gornbein, Ben Gross, Jonah Savitz, Lance Johnson, Jeremy Abraham, Blake Aviv, and Jackson Gaynor.  With the sun shining and the temperature in the mid 80's, it certainly felt like we were on the Caribou peninsula.  We played loads of basketball, wiffleball, and football!! We even got a chance to hop in the pool, bou-yah!!  And... to top it off, we had pizza and ice cream.  Yah it was a ridiculous day!!  We want to thank Alisa, Peter, and Jacob for being such tremendous hosts.

Up at Camp: Bobby has officially moved up to camp for the summer.  He is joining Frank Siekierski and Frank Picone to get the peninsula looking spectacular.  Soon Jp, Damien, Raffa, and Al Harding will be joining the crew.  And if you didn't hear already... Kuba is coming back to the BOU.. YUPPPPP!!!

In summer camp news.. Lori recently found this great article on the Huffington post... Check it out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-joseph/generation-z-summer-camps_b_1416380.html

Have a great end to the school year and see you guys soon!!