Camp is looking beautiful this time of the year and we’re happy to share the following photos with all of you.

Warning: The following photos may heighten your desire to move to the 18462!

Hey Island Lake families! Although summer 2017 at camp is over and you’re probably concentrating on the school year once again, we’re already thinking about summer 2018. We thank you for all of your valuable feedback from this past summer and we will apply some of your great suggestions for next year.

Now it’s time to reminisce this recent fantastic summer. We changed up Color War quite a bit to offer a greater variety of activities, and the response to this was very positive. We added lip sync battle and music videos as an evening activity. We also added cooking, fishing, science, theater, and much more to our daily sports. We brought back an old favorite, the bucket brigade, which included every single camper on each team. Of course, we kept many traditional events such as the rope burn, swim meet, tug o’ war, trivia game, battle of the bands (a few years old at ILC), the apache relay, and of course our final night sing. We were very happy to see more campers than ever involved during these 3 days of fun.

We kept your children very busy during each of our Lazy Days during the 2 sessions. Our first Lazy Day was spent at Dorney Park and Wild Water Kingdom, which is always a camp fav. We split up the camp during other Lazy Days and sent them to a variety of places such as Sky Zone, Ithaca, bowling, movies, and Montage Mountain Water Park. Perhaps we didn’t allow your kids to be so “lazy” during these special days?

Our annual teen trip to Cleveland, Ohio was a huge success. Our oldest campers actually got history lessons at the Football Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They even enjoyed hands-on experiences as well as an IMAX movie at the Great Lake Science Center. Let’s not forget the Cleveland Indians game when our whole group made it onto the jumbotron at the stadium! Lots of fun was had at Cedar Point Amusement Park, Dave & Busters, and Splash Lagoon indoor water park. Very soon we will start planning next summer’s teen trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. Get those passports updated!

Evening activities varied for every group, boys and girls, day to day. We had our share of group evening activities as well as full camp evening activities. Group activities varied: pool parties, giant messy twister (amongst our girls’ favorite!), campfires, gaga, ugly fashion shows, photo scavenger hunts, Island Lake Game Night, and many, many more. Full camp evening activities that our campers loved the most were the big annual hoedown (see the blog from July 30^th and photos from July 31^st), dance socials, and ummmm, I think that’s it, right? Ooohhh yeah, I almost forgot,…Revival Night!

Other summer 2017 memories include prank wars. Many bunks (and Matt, Trip, & Dustin!) got involved in this, some praks were better than others, but they were all in good fun. Should I even bother mentioning the wild weather we experienced this past camp season? Although the temps were cool it didn’t stop our kids from staying active. We did have quite a bit of rain but only 1 day at the end of the summer was a total washout where kids had to do indoor activities all day. The rest of the days had pretty quick rain showers that came and went. Those of you with girls, they definitely got some good wear on their rain boots this past summer, huh? On a positive note, we saw a great deal of Island Lake 5-year jackets throughout the summer!

I’m sure you’ve heard even more camp memories from your children since the season ended. We hope your kids continue to talk about camp and see their ILC friends throughout the school year. Our annual camp reunion at Sportime USA will be here before we know it. It’s on Saturday, November 18^th at 10am so be sure to mark it on your calendars. Details are in your monthly Island Laker newsletters. Until then, when we can see your children’s smiling (cleaner) faces once again, ILCUTHERE!

It was with great sadness that we bid farewell to our ILC family on August 12^th. We truly enjoyed spending an AMAZING summer with all of our campers and staff. Was summer 2017 the best because of our incredibly awesome counselors? Was it because we had the greatest group leaders, department heads, and head counselor ever? Was it our fantastic teen trip to Cleveland, Ohio? Could it be because of the fun theme days and evening activities such as Counselor Switch Day, the Hoedown, and Revival Night? Or was it because we had the coolest, happiest, most amazing campers ever? We are sure it was a combination of all of these things that made this summer so special. One thing we can tell you with all sincerity is that this was one of our BEST ILC SUMMERS YET!!!

We’d like to thank you for your wonderful emails, phone calls, and letters regarding this past summer. These gracious gestures mean so incredibly much to us as camp directors. Now go get a pen and paper to save the date for our annual camp reunion, which will be held on Saturday, November 18^th at SportimeUSA in Elmsford, NY. Details are in our September newsletter and we hope our campers and many of our staff can join us for this special day of fun!

Registration for Summer 2018 has exceeded last year’s enrollment at this point in time. We are thrilled to know that we had so many happy campers with us this past summer. We are super excited that our change in sessions this past summer worked out so well. We will once again be offering 2 sessions for 2018. Session 1 will be 4 weeks long and session 2 will be 3 weeks in length. Camp will begin on a Saturday, June 23^rd, our changeover day will be on a Saturday, July 21^st, and closing day will be on a Saturday, August 11^th. Our Open House will be on Saturday, June 9^th, our Rookie Day will be offered on Saturday July, 7^th, and our annual Visiting Day will take place on Saturday, July 14^th.

Remember, camp fills early! If you have not yet registered your children, please do so immediately! All you have to do is fill out your 2018 enrollment form and send it to us with a $1500 deposit by either check or credit card. A copy of your child’s registration form was already mailed to all returning families so you don’t even have to fill much out on the form. Our office has moved back down to Pleasantville, NY so please send all mail to that address from now on. Our early rates run through September 15^th so take advantage of these prices and avoid getting closed out later on. Cancellations can be made through December 1st and we will refund all of your money less the $250 enrollment fee. Remember, there is a rate increase on September 15^th.

Well, those three torturous words, “Back To School,” have already become a reality for many of our campers who are stuck behind a school desk, daydreaming about their Island Lake experience. We wish you all a wonderful and healthy school year. Our campers can now start their countdown until next summer when we can all be reunited in Starrucca, PA once again! As of September 1^st, we have only 295 days until ILC U THERE!

Sadly, today is our last full day of camp. Summer 2017 here at Island Lake has been absolutely fantastic! We could not have asked for a better summer filled with happy campers and amazing counselors. Your children will for sure come home with long lasting memories of their experiences at ILC this summer.

Tomorrow the buses should all arrive at their designated bus stops between 11:30am-12:00pm, give or take a half hour. Please be there on time to pick up your children. If you are not sure which bus stop we have in our records, please call us here at camp before 4:30pm when the office will be closing for tonight’s banquet festivities.

Today we let the camp sleep in and we had a late wake up with breakfast at 9am. The kids then went back to their bunks to start cleaning up. Lunch followed and then we had our 5^th annual COLOR RUN! Most of our campers and staff participated in this fun event throughout camp today. As they reached certain locations they got sprayed with powdered paint of different colors. They all eventually gathered by the lake at the finish line, proud of their accomplishments.   Our campers had been looking forward to this special event for weeks and they had a fantastic time running around camp getting sprayed with different colors, congregating at the end.

Directly after the Color Run we had our final Rock Concert of the summer outdoors by the lake. Our rock and roll campers jammed out to their favorite tunes while the rest of the camp watched and sang along. Following rock concert, all of the kids went back to their bunks to pack, sadly. They collected all of their belongings at the different departments at camp- arts & crafts, skatepark, sports, music, etc.

Tonight we have our annual ILC banquet in the dining room. Instead of eating cafeteria style, the kids will all sit with their friends at the table of their choice and the kitchen staff will serve food to their tables. We’ll play music and there will be some dancing, lots of picture taking, and some awards will be presented after dinner.

After the banquet, we will all head down to the theater to watch the summer 2017 Island Lake video yearbook. The yearbook is a compilation of the entire summer here at camp. Post-summer we will share the yearbook with all of our ILC families. Our video department and advanced video campers worked extremely hard to make this summer’s yearbook amazing! It’s a wonderful memento for our Island Lakers to view all year long until they can return to their home away from home here in Starrucca once again next summer.

Upon completion of the video yearbook, we will all move lakeside to the waterfront where each bunk will release a candle onto the lake and make a bunk wish together. Following this we will burn the “Island Lake 2017” sign on the water and we’ll sing our camp alma maters. We will end the waterfront portion of the night with a big firework display. This is all a very somber and bittersweet moment of the night. Tears fill many campers’ eyes (ok fine, possibly mine as well) as we make bunk wishes, sing our camp songs, and watch the 2017 summer sign burn. This sign represents the ILC summer in its entirety as we all say farewell.

Although it will be a bit later than usual, we’ll allow all of our campers to make one last trip to the canteen to eat their hearts out one final time. Based on how late the evening runs, we will decide when everyone’s curfew will be.

And that’s about it for the Island Lake Summer 2017 blogs. It’s been a pleasure writing for all of you every day. I hope you enjoyed reading my blogs as much as I enjoyed writing them for you. I’d also love feedback from you, the parents, with regards to these blogs. If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding how to make it even more entertaining or better, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a note at wendy@islandlake.com.

We hope your children all come home to you as “happy campers” tomorrow. Hey, bonus if they’re healthy, sort of clean, and even have all of their personal belongings! Our office here at camp will remain open for a few more weeks so if you need to contact us, just give us a call at the camp number: 570-798-2550 or email us at info@islandlake.com.

It’s been the most amazing, fantastic, wonderful summer, and until next year when we can all be together once again in the 18462, ILCUTHERE!!!

Today was our last day of majors and minors for summer 2017. It’s hard to believe that camp is almost over! It truly feels like yesterday when our 1^st session buses rolled in to drop off our campers. It will be sad to say goodbye to so many friends we’ve made throughout this fantastic summer.

In the meantime, guess what time it is? That’s right, it’s ILC weather forecast time! With winds coming in from the southwest,….just kiddin’! We woke to blue sunny skies and temps in the 60’s. It quickly warmed up to the low 70’s by lunch and mid to upper 70’s in the afternoon hours with partly cloudy skies. It was fantastic weather for our final day of majors and minors.

For the final time this summer, here’s your ILC sports: 8^th & 9^th grade girls played lacrosse out of camp this afternoon. 5^th grade girls played basketball out of camp, as well. Our athletes had a fun summer learning and playing hard on the ball fields and courts.

At the end of the 3rd minor I will read a sad poem over the PA about activities being over and end of summer drawing near.  Just about the whole camp will then voluntarily come to the office to sing our alma mater as I play it over the PA for everyone to hear.  It’s all very bittersweet. Lots of tears will fall onto the office porch just before dinner this evening.

Tonight’s evening activity is our musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie! We’re thoroughly looking forward to seeing our older campers perform on stage for all of their friends.

Today’s special feature is from last night’s fantastic, amazing, stupendous, out-of-this-world phenomenal CIRCUS SHOW! Our campers were on the edge of their seats watching the wondrous acts of their fellow bunkmates and friends as they performed their hearts out.

We have only one more full day left for summer 2017 here at Island Lake. Our blogs will continue even after camp ends and will run all year long every couple of weeks. Be sure to continue reading them throughout the fall, winter, and spring months. If any of your children have written anything about their summer experience here at Island Lake that they’d like to share with their camp family, I’d love to post it in the blog. Just email the info to me at wendy@islandlake.com.

Enjoy your last full day tomorrow of peace and quiet in your homes before your children invade it,…uh, I mean return to you on Saturday. We have one more blog to go while our campers are still here for this Island Lake camp season. Until tomorrow’s final summer 2017 blog, ILCUTHERE!

Happy Counselor Switch Day! Today is one of our Island Lake special theme days that our campers truly enjoy. At breakfast, male counselors were moved to the girls’ bunks and female counselors to the boys’ bunks. The kids have a blast with this day as they dress up their counselors and terrorize them. Let’s just say there are a lot of counselors’ beds outside of the bunks instead of inside the bunks. Gotta love camp!

And now for your daily ILC weather report. I’m happy to tell you that we woke up to clear blue skies and we just had a few clouds in the afternoon hours. Per usual, the day started off cool around 60 degrees but it warmed up to a blistering mid 70’s later in the day. Dare I say it? It was a beautiful day in Starrucca, PA!

Today in sports: Our avid athletes took a trip to Cooperstown, NY to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. They journeyed their way around the museum to learn about the history of baseball and take in the aw-inspiring memorabilia from seasons’ past.

Step right up because tonight’s evening activity is the Circus Show! We’re looking forward to our 2nd and final circus show to see all that our campers have learned over the course of the summer. It’s going to be an exciting fun-filled night with the flying trapeze, high wire, fabric, lyra, mini-trampoline, rolling globe, ground skills, and more! We know it’ll be the best show on earth!

Today’s special feature is from last night’s amazing performance of Seussical! Check out this fabulous set and spectacular costumes. Our campers worked hard and it showed as they performed their hearts out. Until tomorrow, which will be our last day of majors and minors (tear!), ILCUTHERE!

Hi Island Lake Families! I’m happy to report that the rain has finally stopped! After a full day of wetness, it was time for the grass to dry, tennis courts to get squeegeed, sports balls to be brought back outdoors, horses to ride the trails, swimmers to go back into the lake and pool, and overall have another great outdoor day here in Starrucca, PA. The temps are already warmer than yesterday, reaching 70 degrees for a high. Hopefully the layers of clothing will be discarded as shorts, t-shirts, and tank tops return as the casual wear of our campers once again.

Last night’s Dance Show and Magic Show was spectacular! The dance show theme was Beyonce vs. Gaga. There was a story narrated in between the dances, which were all performed to the songs by these two great artists.  We have some very talented dancers here at ILC! The magic show theme was Magic Through the Seasons so they went through every season performing stage illusion for the camp. The whole night was entertaining and our campers and staff did a fantastic job. Kudos to all of them for a wonderful show!

And now in ILC sports,…it’s back! 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade girls played volleyball here at home this morning. 6^th & 7^th and 8^th & 9^th grade boys played in basketball games out of camp this afternoon.

In ILC Open news, our finals were played this morning so I have a list of winners for you:

GIRLS: 5^th & 6^th grade winner- Olivia M. 9^th grade & older winner- Gabby G.

BOYS: 5^th & 6^th grade winner- Ian F.   7^th & 8^th grade winner- Luc L.   9^th grade & up winner- David P. Congrats to all of our 2^nd session ILC Open Winners. They will receive their very own tennis trophy at the banquet on Friday night.

Tonight’s evening activity is our younger campers’ show, Seussical! Our little ones put on a sneak peak for us in the dining room last night during dinner announcements and it was adorable. This show should be another fun one to watch.

Today’s special feature is the DANCE & MAGIC SHOW! Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

Good afternoon ILC families! Today has been the first day all summer that it rained continuously throughout the day. We have been very lucky up to this point and rain would only stick around for up to an hour or so (every other day! Ha!).   This is our first wash out of a day where activities had to be brought indoors for every major and minor. It’s also been unseasonably cold with temps only hitting a high of around 60 degrees. I think in my next life I’ll return as a weather woman!

Due to the rain, our Island Lake Open tennis finals will have to be postponed until tomorrow. Our Skatepark Competition successfully took place. The winners of our competition are:

Skateboarding:

Beginners: Liam M.:  Intermediate Girls: 3^rd place- Hallie M., 2^nd place- Abigail W., 1^st place- Danica M.:  Intermediate Boys: 3^rd place- Ryder M., 2^nd place- Charlie R., 1^st place- Jordan K. Advanced: 3^rd place- Jonathan (Noni) A., 2^nd place- Chase M., 1^st place- Miko M.

Rollerblading:

Beginners: Sam B.:  Intermediate: 3^rd place- Logan C., 2^nd place- Ian F., 1^st place- Jared B.:  Advanced: 3^rd place- Michael P., 2^nd place- Chase M., 1^st place- Christian W.

I was asked to do the following for an avid Island Lake blog reader: A special shout out to Lyndsey’s mom who’s got it going on. She lives far away on the other side of the pond. She and this blog have a very special bond. Let’s hear it for Lyndsey’s mom!

I have a surprise guest bunk here today that would like to blog for all of you parents. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you GIRLS BUNK 21!!!!!

Yo yo yo what’s poppin’ Island Lake blog readers?!?! It’s your girlz, G21, comin’ at ya live from Starrucca, PA! Today’s a rainy day in Starrucca, PA but we’re happy anyway. Since this is our last summer together as campers, we’d like to tell you our favorite parts of camp.

“The 1^st day of camp is my favorite because we get to see all of our friends again.”– Charlotte D.

“Color War Sing because then we sing the alma maters and I hug everyone and realize how much I’m going to miss everyone,…and I cry.” -Rachel B.

“Getting my 5-year jacket! Oh and Revival Night!” –Julia B.

“Steve Maxx so I can show off my Simon Sez mad skills.” – Rebecca P.

“Brad Henderson because it’s cool to watch our counselors getting hypnotized for real.” – Sara B.

“I liked the teen trip because we got to do different and fun activities with our camp friends.” – Ali G.

“Science with Ben Weber! And Council Fire!” – Sarah C.

“All of banquet day (last full day of camp) because like, I don’t know, how do I say it, uuummmmmmmm, because we have the Color Run, the Rock Show, and we get to do it all with our, like, best friends.” – Ryan P.

“I love making the bunk wishes at the waterfront after banquet and then watching the current year burn away while singing the camp alma mater.” – Sami B.

“I like when our bunk is just together and we sit out on the grass during canteen and talk for hours.” – Gabby G.

“This has been the best summer. It’s my favorite so far. We’ll never forget the last 5 years together. We love each other and our group chat is never gonna die. Friends Forever at ILC.” – XOXO, G21

This group of girls is unusually special. They all get along so well, never have big bunk issues, and just truly love one another and love camp equally. It was a great time having them in my office with me today. Today’s special feature is heartwarming. After G21 blogged, we all sang the camp alma mater together. The following is a video clip from this momentous event.  Please click “clip #13” to view it at the bottom of the blog.

Tonight’s evening activity is the DANCE SHOW & MAGIC SHOW! Our dancers and magicians will perform their hearts out for all of their friends.

Until tomorrow, once we’ll all know who the Bachelorette Rachel picks to marry (inside scoop- I already know!), ILCUTHERE!

Clip #13