All of us at Island Lake would to take a moment to thank our staff members for making ILC 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 2013 the best one yet! ILC U THERE!

25 MORE DAYS! Yup, that’s right, we’re counting down the days and we have only 3 ½ more weeks until our much anticipated Island Lake 2013 Camp Reunion takes place! We are so excited to see many of our happy campers, along with local staff members. We can’t wait for screams of excitement when friends embrace one another, first time seeing each other since saying goodbye at camp this past summer.

All of our Island Lakers, current and past, are welcome to join us on November 23rd at Sportime USA in Elmsford, NY. Our reunion will take place from 10am- 1pm so don’t be late! Campers will be given game cards to enjoy all that this indoor amusement center has to offer: arcade games, laser tag, indoor bowling, rides, and more.

Come and be a part of the fun at Sportime USA in a few weeks. We’ll take tons of photos and post them on our website so if you can’t make it, you can feel as if you were a part of the ILC reunion experience.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in 25 more days! ILC U THERE!!!

We are excited to announce that we are rebuilding Boys & Girls Bunks 21 & 22 for summer 2014! If we receive our permits in time then we will also rebuild Bunks 19 & 20 by next summer, as well. For those of you who checked out Boys & Girls Bunks 23 & 24 this past summer then you know how amazing these new bunks will be. If you never saw the new bunks then you’re in for a great surprise next summer!

The bunks will be 30’ x 74’ each and have wooden beds (single beds and bunk beds). The walls are pine wood, creating a warmer, brighter atmosphere in the cabins. Each will also have its own exhaust fan to circulate the air and keep the bunks cooler on those hot summer days.

Our new bunks will have spacious dressing rooms with tons of cubbies and hanging space, as well as laundry bins to help make your weekly laundry day that much more convenient. The dressing rooms have nice tile floors and the bathrooms have ceramic tile floors. Each building, housing 2 bunks, will have 6 showers and 8 toilets, which is more than our other bunks currently have.

Let’s just say that we’ve overheard campers say that these new bunks are nicer than hotels they’ve visited and our counselors say they are nicer than their dorms! Lol, we don’t know what kind of hotels they’ve stayed in but hey, we were happy to hear that. So keep the summer 2014 countdown going and we look forward to seeing many of you on November 23rd at our camp reunion at Sportime USA in Elmsford, NY. Until then, ILC U THERE!

Summer 2013 at Island Lake is now officially over. It was a FANTASTIC summer and we just want to thank all of our campers and counselors for making it so special. What was your favorite part about ILC this summer? Was it Color War? Evening Activities? Special Events? The teen trip? Do tell us! We’d love to receive feedback from our campers and staff.

We had an amazing 3rd session, including an awesome 4 day teen trip to Cleveland. With Counselor Switch Day, Battle of the Sexes, and our final day Color Run and banquet, this last session was extremely special for everyone involved.

Now our campers must once again adjust to being at home and will soon be getting ready to go back to school, the 3 dreaded words in the English dictionary (“Back to school!”). For all of us in the winter office, the work never ends as we start all over again planning for summer 2014. We will provide details about our November reunion in our upcoming monthly newsletters.

Thank you to all who made this summer at Island Lake truly the best one yet! Until we see many of you at the camp reunion, ILC U THERE!!!

So last night I’m hanging out at the canteen with the kids and an 11 year old girl hands me a piece of paper. Notes like this remind me of why we do what we do and why we love it so much! This is what it said:

Camp gives me:
– Shelter
– Bed
– Food
– Fun Summers
– Friends
– Smiles
– Activities
– A Great Time
– AWESOME Counselors
– Cool Bunkmates
– Safe Environment
– Nice Instructors
– Strength
– Skills
– Bravery
– Unbelievable Summers

This is a list of what camp gives me. I really love camp. Thank you very much. I’m excited for next year.

Love,
Grace

Hey ILC Parents… Summer at Island Lake has been fantastic thus far. We couldn’t ask for happier campers, running around and having a blast making friends while enjoying their activities. It was sad to say goodbye to our session 1 campers who went home last week but they left camp with wonderful memories and fabulous new skills.

Session 1 highlights:
1. Tribals was a blast! Four teams played hard for two days with the Green Team taking the victorious win. Check out our daily photos and weekly videos on CampMinder, as well as our daily videos on Facebook to see all of the fun in action.
2. 4th of July rocked here at ILC! Everyone dressed up in their favorite red, white, and blue attire and enjoyed a fun-filled lazy day followed by a cookout and an amazing fireworks display. Our neighbors around our lake can attest that we have the best firework show around!
3. Sports! Congrats to many of our campers who played very well in a variety of intercamp games this past session. We won and we placed in quite a few tournaments, including tennis and volleyball.
4. Performance Week at ILC was a success, as well. Everyone worked very hard on these shows and they were enjoyed by all. Campers also put on a fantastic circus show, dance show, rock concert, and magic show. Parents will have an opportunity to purchase copies of these performances on DVD after the summer.

Currently, we couldn’t ask for a better 2nd session. Although it’s been extremely warm, the rain is finally staying away and our campers are taking full advantage of all of the activities we offer. We now look forward to Visiting Day on July 20th and Color War on…just kidding! Can’t tell you when it will break. All we can tell you is to stay tuned and check out our daily tweets, Facebook videos, and CampMinder photos for a glimpse of what’s to come here at ILC.

Enjoy and as always, ILC U THERE!

We are so proud of Rusty, Little John, Cody Kirvan and Amanda Mikeska! Click here to see why!

Three days until the Open House when we get to meet some of our new campers.  We can’t wait.  Camp looks sharp and we are ready.  The weather today is perfect working weather and we are getting ready for a couple of hundred people to be here Saturday.  The menu is set and the food will be delicious just like our Visiting Day buffet.  We have been working hard these past two weeks and it will all pay off when everyone starts to arrive on Saturday.

The first week of pre-camp will be in the books tomorrow and it’s been a great week!  The weather swung from a high of 55 on Tuesday to a high of 85 on Wednesday and has been perfect ever since.  Camp looks great and most of the equipment is set up and ready to go.  The grass is getting mowed, the buildings are getting cleaned and painted and ILC will look great for next weekend’s Open House.  We are looking forward to seeing many of our new campers on June 8th for a day of orientation, tours, lunch, and activities!

Pre-camp started yesterday and we got a lot done!  The inflatables for the lake are out, lots of equipment has been moved, bunks are being cleaned and painted, and the grass is getting mowed.  We’ve got a great crew here, mostly returning staff.  The rookies are holding their own however and are already a big part of the effort.  We have less than two weeks until the Open House when we get to meet and great many of our new campers.  We’ll have Island Lake looking perfect for their arrival and we can’t wait to see them!  The weather hasn’t been too cooperative with some cooler temperatures but that won’t slow us down!