Hashtag-#Runningoutoftime

Hello Chippies!

I am sad to write that this will be my last 2011 Cliff Notes edition. It really is beyond belief that camp is coming to a close. I typically take this opportunity to reflect on the summer. I also tend to get obnoxiously sentimental about camp, the season's memories, and the wonder of Chippewa... This blog will be no different :) However, I will keep it short considering the fact that I have 60 more staff evaluations to complete by Thursday night... and a summer camp to run!

Last night was Chippy Awards. Most of you have no idea what that is or what it means, but at Chippewa it's a red carpet event and it is as big as the Grammys! Different dress code of course: clown outfits, princess dresses and sports jerseys as opposed to... well... you've all seen the

Grammys I presume. Chippy Awards is quite the glamorous affair and is the place to see people and the place to be seen (and where all campers HAVE to be at 7:15 pm on the last Monday of every camp season). The event was put on (as always) by our oldest cabin of Lakeview, and the whole night was filled with laughter, music and the giving of awards. Now i'm not talking about "who is best at what" kind of awards, but rather who has the brightest red hair, who smiles a ton, and who loves to dance the most. Cute things like that. Lisa and I always get great seats for this particular event too (stage left, floor level, nowhere near a ceiling fan, in front of a window that is painted shut and covered by a thick black fire retardant wool curtain. Who the heck is running this place anyway??). Bottom line... we were schvitzing. It didn't help that I was wearing a Russian wool ushanka hat (don't ask). Rest assured that your little kittens were much more comfortable in their seating accommodations..ish. Anyway, so I am watching a Silverspurs camper (4th grader) as she leaps to her feet to accept the Curly Q award (for having pretty curly brown hair). In a cute blue princess dress and flip-flops she steps over some other inconveniently situated campers, weaves around two camp dogs and eventually makes her way to the stage. All the while she has this huge grin on her face (ear to ear) as if she has just won ... well... a Grammy. The smile widened following a big hug from the 15 year old camper that gave her the thoughtfully designed, construction paper covered cardboard award. At that moment I was reminded of just how amazing this place actually is! I'm not being arrogant here because I fully recognize that Lisa and I are simply privileged passengers on this ride. Someday (a long time from now), someone else will also get the benefit of seeing camp's work from the best seat in the house- on an an old wooden bench, beside a stage that shines green, gold, silver and red from years of excessive glitter use.

Another quick story comes to mind and then I have to call it a night. I was looking through the window of "Tom's Office" the other day and saw a little camper making her way to the volleyball court. This camper is of special interest to me because she had a hard time transitioning into camp life. She was homesick for the first week and came to camp really not knowing anyone. She sat in the sand by herself and began to dig a hole. For a brief moment I felt a little sorry for her, but just before I got to the door two other girls from her cabin entered the scene. They sat down on either side of her and immediately joined in the digging operation. I sat back down and continued my work. About ten minutes later I peered out the window again to see how the digging was going and to make sure that they were still guarding the holes (digging is a common sand project at Chippewa, but holes have to be filled back in relatively quickly to prevent ankle sprains). The girls were indeed gone but something else caught my attention. I walked out to the volleyball court and saw something pretty cool. The girls had not only filled in the big hole that she was digging, but they had also flattened a spot above it and engraved their initials surrounded by a big heart. Please tell me there is some kind of metaphor in this... Again, we're just passengers here, but we wouldn't spend our summers on any other ride!

There is still plenty of camping left, but Lisa and I want to once again thank you from the bottom of our hearts for entrusting us with the care of your children. We will never take this responsibility lightly, and are frankly looking forward to keeping it for the rest of our lives.

Last night was the staff show (thus the staff heavy photos), today brings Pony Express & Request Night, and Thursday evening is our Final Banquet celebration. From there we bid 'ye all farewell until next season. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to talking soon!

All best,

Cliff

The Good Stuff!

Hi All,

So I decided to make this an upbeat blog! No heavy subject matter, no sadness and no intensity. I have committed to writing this post with simple reflections of happiness, fun and good weather (you might have to be flexible on that last one). If I was a Chippewa parent viewing the weekly blog I think that I would want to read about smiling campers, exciting programming and pretty things. I would want to know how the last week has been absolutely magic

al, and how Song Fest (Sunday) was a magnificent sight to see (you may have caught the photos). I might want to learn about how neat it was having close to 25 alumni visiting this past weekend for our annual Ten-Year celebration. I guess that I might be curious to know what the proud Ten-Year Girl's names were (Armani D., Kourtney K., Sarah S., Jessica J. and Jen P.). I might want to know that camp ran a great day of activities today (despite the weather). I would have been interested in the fact that there was a Horseshoe social on Saturday night and (as always) it was a hit! Finally, I would be VERY anxious to know about the

exciting week ahead. What a coincidence... I happen to have that information. Allow me to tell myself :) Feel free to listen in...

Tonight was a great Tan & White game for yucky weather called Scatter Brains. Tomorrow is one of the biggest days of the summer called Kahuna Day! It's a full day of fun and competition played by the four teams that camp has already been split in to. Every year the theme for Kahuna Day changes, and this year the theme is CANDY! The four team names are KitKat, Charleston Chew, Three Musketeers and Crunch. Note that even TEAMS at Chippewa are peanut free ;) There will be more photos from tomorrow than you will know what to do with, but they will be colorful and fun so be sure to check them out on Thursday morning! Thursday night is Lip Sync and Friday evening we will have a campfire led by our 4th graders. Saturday we run our older girl's talent show with Camp Menominee and Sunday is our Colt Village musical (Beauty and the Beast). They will be performing for Camp Timberlane. So LOTS of fun ahead. Once again stay tuned for photos and tweets of things to come!

*I am sorry for the lack of photos last night. Due to severe weather we were unable to leave the computers running to do an overnight upload.

*2012 ENROLLMENT- We THANK YOU so much for all of your applications. We are thrilled that our girls are loving their summer home! I think that there has been some confusion, however, regarding second session campers. Second session returning campers will have preference for their SECOND SESSION spots until September 1st. In other words, your daughter's space cannot be filled by a 2012 girl looking to switch to being an 8-week camper OR by a first session camper looking to switch to second session.

I am sorry if that was unclear!

As a final note in this blog I thought that I would share something kind of cool. I received an email from a gentleman named Sam Gold. This email came amid all of the sadness that transpired throughout last week. He expressed an urge to visit camp and seemed very enthusiastic about the concept. At first I simply could not place the name. I thought about it some more and proceeded to re-read the letter. It then clicked and I realized that I was being emailed by the son of this camp's founder (Jerome Gold). I was shocked because Lisa and I (despite our efforts) had never been able to meet ANY of the Gold family. After selling Tom Adler the camp in 1979 the Golds seemed to vanish from sight. Sam was a young guy when the camp sold to the Adlers, but his memories were vivid and I took great joy in chatting with him and showing him around a bit. Camp chaos ensued :) and I was unable to spend much time with him, but I must say that making his acquaintance was an absolute privilege and one of this summer's most memorable highlights for me. Getting the "Gold Standard" of approval on the current state of camp didn't hurt either! Anyway, I thought I would share that with you!

Have a great week and I look forward to talking soon.

Stay tuned...

All best,

Cliff