We hope our Island Lake families had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  With winter just about here, it is our hope that your children still have camp on the brain and are continually sharing their wonderful ILC summer 2014 memories with you.  Our countdown for next summer has already kicked into gear as the opening day of camp will emerge upon us before we know it.

Our camp reunion on November 22^nd was a huge success!  Screams of excitement filled the air as campers and staff embraced one another.  We had a fantastic turnout, including children who flew in from other parts of the country just to see their camp friends.  The reunion never seems to last long enough though.  Time flies when we’re having fun catching up with many of our Island Lakers.  Check out our reunion photos posted right here on our website, on our Facebook page, and on our Island Lake app.

A reminder to all families, returning and new, don’t forget to read our monthly newsletters.  They are located right here online, as well as in your regular postal mailbox at the start of every month. Our newsletters provide important information for you, including enrollment and availability updates.

Speaking of enrollment, if you have not yet registered your child for summer 2014 but plan to do so, please, please, please do not put it off any longer.  Some bunks are now completely full.  We truly do not want to turn away our loyal campers, so let’s avoid that from happening.  You can register your child with the registration form mailed to you with your newsletter or you can download the form here on our website under “Island Lake Families” and then “Forms & Mailings”.  For those of you who registered your campers prior to December 1^st, keep an eye on your mailbox (the snail mail kind) for your children’s special edition ILC t-shirt that will arrive shortly after the New Year.
We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and we wish you and your families a spectacular holiday season!  Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a happy and healthy New Year to all!  ILC U THERE!

Hey campers, staff, & parents, have you seen the link on our homepage for our new virtual tour of Island Lake?  If not, check it out & take the tour right now!  Just click our logo at the top right of this page to take you to our homepage and then click the “Virtual Tour” at the bottom of the page.  You will feel like you’re back at camp once again.

Hey parents, check out this article from the Huffington Post,…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitch-and-stephanie-reiter/why-parents-are-thankful-_b_6181484.html

Our Island Lake Camp Reunion this past Saturday at Sportime USA was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!   Thanks to our campers, their parents, and our staff, as all of you made this day special for everyone involved.  Our kids had a fantastic few hours with their camp friends running around playing games, going on rides, and plain ol’ hanging out with one another, catching up on the past few months.  The screams of joy as friends embraced one another was as heartwarming as ever.  There is nothing like the friendships that are created at ILC.

Keep an eye out for our reunion photos which will be posted on our website and on our ILC app real soon.  They’re already on our Official Island Lake Camp Facebook Page, as well.  Below is just a glance at some of the photos you can find on our social media.

Thank you, again, to all who made Saturday’s reunion so very special for everyone involved. Now the countdown to summer 2015 officially kicks into gear,..213 days!

Happy holidays to all and until we reunite at camp once again, ILC U THERE!

It’s never too late to send us pics from previous holidays!   Darien Gyselen just shared with us this picture of herself with her little sister, our future Island Laker.  Are they cute or what?

We hope lots of our campers sported their Island Lake t-shirts at school today.  Maddie Weiss and Barbara Gilman participated in the fun.  Thanks for sharing your photo with us, girls!  See ya at the reunion on Saturday!

We are pleased to present you with our West Coast Teen Tour/Camp Experience for CIT’s who are those campers entering 11^th and 12^th grade.  There is no additional charge for the Experience.  Campers can choose to attend for two sessions with the Experience or three sessions with the Experience at our current rates, $9000 or $10,850.  Those who are already registered and would like to take this option should contact us to discuss.  The Experience is limited to fifty campers.  The campers will arrive at camp on June 27^th as usual, leave on July 2^nd for the west coast and return on July 23^rd, prior to Visiting Day.  They will then stay until the end of second session or continue through the third.

The price includes airfare, attractions, admissions, transportation, and some meals.  The campers will need spending money for some meals and souvenirs.

We hope that your campers will be joining us for this amazing opportunity to have camp and a teen tour with their best friends all in the same summer!  We are so excited for this new opportunity for our Island Lakers!

Highlights of this trip include:  Travel to San Francisco, tour Stanford University, tour Hearst Castle, volunteer work on 3 separate occasions throughout the trip, tour Cal-Poly Tech, Pismo Beach, travel to LA, tour UCLA, Dodgers Game, Universal Studios, California Science Center, Natural History Museum, Venice Beach, travel to San Diego, San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, travel to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park (& volunteer one day), Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon (& volunteer one day), travel to Sedona AZ, tour Arizona State University, and much, much more!

All of us at Island Lake would to take a moment to thank our staff members for making Island Lake Camp the most spectacular place on earth.  Camp is a huge melting pot of nationalities and demographics, ranging from our young campers to our adult staff.  Working together in this small microcosm of society, our staff members have created a special home to so many throughout the past few decades.  You, our counselors, are the ones who work incredibly hard to provide children with the summers of their lives.  Ranging from bunk counselors to department heads to support staff, group leaders, and head counselors, you all work effectively together to hone children’s skills in a wide variety of activities.  With our top notch facilities and our highly professional staff members, we are able to introduce children to activities and have them succeed in ways we never thought possible.  Ranging from our circus program to our sports department to our theater, horseback riding, skatepark, waterfront, magic, tennis, cooking, pioneering, and more, anything is possible for our children, and this is because of you.

It is because of our amazing staff that Island Lake has become a home away from home for so many year in and year out.  You have created a community for campers to develop unique friendships and create memories that will truly last a lifetime.   We acknowledge all of the hard work and dedication that our staff put into their jobs for two months out of the year and we would just like to thank you all for your dedication and commitment to Island Lake.

We would love to hear from our staff, as well as our campers.  Please email us at info@islandlake.com or wendy@islandlake.com and we will post your messages on our blog.  Thank you all again for making Summer 2014 the best one yet!  ILC U THERE!

We hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween on Friday night.  We received pictures of some of our campers all decked out in their costumes so we’re excited to post them for all of you to view.  Here ya go:

Emily Talkow, Paige Wasserman, Hayley Rayman, Sophia Danielle-Grenier, Lauren Mensch, and Amy Grunther were in 2 separate groups and ran into each other while trick-or-treating in NJ.  What a “treat” they had, hanging out together that night!

Emma and Pumpkinhead (whoops, we mean Jason) Podell look fantastic, whether they’re in their Halloween costume or on the stage in costume!

Who’s behind that fantastic costume you may be asking yourself?  Why it’s Aidan Levy!  If he’s this creative on Halloween, we bet he’ll do some creative stuff at camp next summer.

Teddie Liederman looks adorbs in her snowman costume.  We hope she filled her umbrella with loads of great candy while trick-or-treating!