We’re in our final stretch here at Island Lake. It’s our last week of camp. Although it feels like yesterday when the opening day buses rolled onto Island Lake Road, it’s already been 6 full weeks of camp. I hope your children come home next Saturday happy, healthy, and with only amazing memories to share with you. And hey, if there’s a pair of matching socks thrown into the duffel, even better!

This morning was a chilly one with temps only in the 50’s but sunny skies. By lunchtime the temps reached the mid 60’s and the high was only around 70 degrees today. Although chilly for August, it’s perfect for children who are running around all day.

This has been a great summer for prank wars here at camp. I thought you’d get a kick out of hearing what’s been going on all over camp this summer. Let’s see,…so the summer started out with a continuation of last summer’s prank war between the current G20 vs. Matt Stoltz. They decorated his golfcart and then sprayed his office windows by writing G20 everywhere with shaving cream and window markers. Matt besought his revenge by stealing their pillows and not returning them until the girls announced in the dining room in front of the whole camp that Matt is the king of all prank wars. Then there was some good ol’ fashioned fun between G2 vs. me (Wendy). They (& G12) love to take the bungee cords off of my quad and not return them. G2 did so and declared war on me so I went into their bunk during an activity and took all of their spare blankets. Don’t worry, I returned them before bedtime that night. I kept them just long enough for them to notice. Well then they got ahold of some silly string and slaughtered my quad with it. That was a real treat to clean up! I decided to retire the war with them at that point and let the little girls declare victory over me.

Here are some other prank wars that occurred this summer: G24 moved all of the boats to blockade the dining room doors and let B24 get blamed for it. G23 stole all of G20’s orbeez and delivered them in cups and pitchers on their dining room table.   Just recently, G24 stole all of girls campus’s shower curtains. To get retribution, Dustin and Trip are in the midst of taking all of G24’s towels & linens, which they may notice by dinnertime shortly. There’s another trick up their sleeve for later tonight but I can’t yet share it with you in case you’re the parent of a G24 camper with a phone call this evening. These prank wars have all been good ol’ fashioned camp fun and no personal property was damaged.

Back in ILC news, our theater shows, Suessical and Thoroughly Modern Millie, practiced full run throughs today. Suessical, our younger camer show, will perform on Tuesday night and Modern Millie, our older camper show, will perform on Thursday. Circus is also practicing for their big performance for the camp on Wednesday night. Tomorrow night our magicians and dancers will show off their skills for the camp when they perform for everyone at evening activity.

Our tennis campers have been competing in another ILC Open this session and this morning was our semi-finals. Our tennis finals are tomorrow so I’ll let you know who the winners are then. Skatepark is having their once per session competition tomorrow for our avid skateboarders and rollerbladers of all skill levels. I’ll let you know who those winners are, as well.

Tonight’s evening activity is our big, spectacular, 2^nd session SOCIAL! ILC’s favorite DJ Dennis will be here to spin tunes and bring our campers to their feet to dance all night long. Our girls will get dressed up and look very pretty. Our boys,…well, we’re lucky if they shower. Our campers always have a blast at the social.

Today’s special feature is CIRCUS! Please excuse some of the action blur. Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

Hi ILC Parents! Today we resumed our regular camp schedule with majors and minors once again. Being that this has been quite the rainy summer, of course we woke up to those liquid droplets pouring from the sky. Before first major, the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds. The temps stayed cool in the 60’s most of the day with the skies partly cloudy. It was a bit on the windy side, too. Great for sailing! What a summer in terms of weather, huh? I can write a whole blog about that alone! But I won’t bore you any further,…

It seems like we’re always celebrating something here at Island Lake. Today I held MUSIC LUNCH in the dining room. Some of you may be asking what Music Lunch is. Why it’s Island Lake’s very own Lollapoalooza/Coachella! Just kiddin’, I play music throughout the dining room for everyone to enjoy. Once the kids finish eating their lunches, they get up and dance and sing along to the pop tunes. It was a fun, festive time for our campers and staff. I even took lots of pictures to share with you below (see if you can figure out which pictures were taken during “The Wobble”).

Tonight’s evening activity is the Campers’ Choice Awards. It’s like the Teen Choice Awards except we don’t slime anyone! The Campers’ Choice Awards is a special night for the campers, by the campers. The goal is to have fun recognizing campers and staff who stood out this summer. We handed out ballots to each bunk ahead of time and asked them to fill them out and submit them back to their group leaders. The ballots were then tallied up and nominees were informed.

At the start of the night, we will lay out the red carpet in front of the theater. The nominees will walk down the red carpet while being interviewed by staff. Our photographer will be snapping photos and our other campers will be spectators. We’ll try to make it feel like a real red carpet event! Everyone will then enter the theater for the award show.

Here’s a list of categories for tonight’s festivities: rookie of the year (best 1^st year counselor), most adorable camper, best major or minor, favorite department head/assistant department head, camp clown (funniest camper and funniest counselor), cutest camp couple, counselor of the summer, most likely to never stop coming back to camp, most likely to be famous some day, and most likely to be Color War general next summer. As the summer 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, I’m very excited to attend the Campers’ Choice Awards tonight!

Below are photos from MUSIC LUNCH! Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

Hi Island Lake families! It was an amazing 3 days of Color War and the Comedy Blue Team took home the win by only a few hundred points. Last night’s Sing was exciting for everyone. Great songs, funny skits, and fantastic plaques were enough to make each team proud. The whole camp later sang the camp alma mater while the scores were tallied up and many kids and counselors were in tears. Tears of joy for the 3 fierce and intense days they experienced and tears of sadness, for camp is over in 8 days. Friendships and bonds were strengthened and the love everyone has for one another filled the room with joy.   Although one team had to win Color War, the memories over the course of the 3 days are what will stay with everyone for a long time to come. It was absolutely fantastic, but we will now move on, as the friendly competition is over.

Today is our very last Lazy Day for summer 2017. Tomorrow we resume our regularly scheduled program. But for today, groups 1&2 went to Montage Mountain Water Park and groups 3&4 went to Sky Zone in Scranton, PA. These children are bundles of energy so if 3 days of Color War and a day of jumping around at a trampoline park and running/swimming/tubing on water doesn’t wear them out, well then,…I don’t know,…they’re all yours in another week!

Tonight’s evening activity is GROUPS! Here’s the rundown: GIRLS: Groups 1&2 (& boys group 1)- movie; Group 3- Hungry Hungy Hippo (human version); Group 4- Pool Party (with boys group 4). BOYS: Group 1- movie (with girls groups 1&2); Group 2- Capture the Flag; Group 3- Gaga; Group 4- Pool party (with girls group 4)

Because today is Lazy Day, there’s no special feature slide show. I’ll make it all up to you tomorrow when we resume our majors/minors once again. Until then, ILCUTHERE!

And the winner of 2017 Island Lake Color War is,……..COMEDY!!!!!!!!

Today is the 3^rd and final day of Color War. It’s been a fierce but friendly 3 days of competition between Comedy and Horror. Yesterday’s rain let up after lunch so we were fortunate to be able to play the Sports before dinner. The winner of sports was grey Horror, but by only a few points.

Last night’s Lip Sync Battle & Music Videos was truly FANTASTIC! I kid you not, these campers and staff did a stupendous job choosing songs, choreographing them, and then performing them. The Horror team’s music video was aesthetically rich, gruesome in context, and perfect for their theme. The Comedy team’s video was cute and light hearted since hey, it’s comedy! Because both teams did a superb job with this evening activity, it was extremely difficult for our judges to choose a winner. Ultimately, the scored was drawn as a tie.

Yesterday’s decorum points went slightly more to the grey Horror team but again, only by a few points because both teams are truly going above and beyond in so many aspect of Color War this summer. With all of these points in place, and the recovered hatchet points added in from yesterday (Comedy found it), the team who was winning this morning at breakfast was,….drum roll please,….COMEDY by 73 points! It’s truly anyone’s game and it can go in either direction today with sports, our big annual apache relay, and Sing tonight.

And now onto all of today’s Color War events: We woke up to blue skies and cool temps that the sun burned off pretty early on. The temps reached the upper 70’s, which was perfect for running around for Sports and then doing the afternoon Apache Relay. But before I get to all of that, here’s a list of what everyone did for sports this morning: Group 1: Boys- dodgeball, Girls- musical chairs; Group 2: Boys- theater challenges, Girls- Gaga; Group 3: Boys- chess tournament, Girls- Chopped (cooking) & Kong Pong; Group 4: Boys- touch football, Girls- water basketball.

The winner of this morning’s sports goes to Horror but again, only by a small amount of points! Here are the scores as of lunchtime: 3147 to 3129, for a difference of 18 points, in favor of BLUE COMEDY!!! It was still anyone’s game. After lunch we had team meetings and then we hosted our sailing regatta and staff island swim meet that was previously rained out. Following that we went directly into our big Apache Relay. The Apache spans over the course of a few hours and it involves a couple hundred campers on each team. The relay entails a total of 167 tasks for each team to successfully complete. The kids run from one location to another throughout camp and tag a child in a specific department to do an activity/task. Once complete, they then tag another camper either in the same department or someone to then run to a different department to tag a child and perform another activity/task.

The Apache is a big camp tradition and it involves all of our departments here at camp, and then some! We include a whole lot of fun tasks such as eating saltine crackers and then whistling Yankee Doodle Dandy before tagging another camper to run to the next department listed on the schedule. Other fun activities in the Apache are kayaking around the floating raft in the lake, filling a cup of water using a teaspoon, saddling a horse, beading a bracelet, typing “Island Lake Rules” in different languages in the video room, self-hit a homerun on the baseball field, run to pioneering with a jalapeno pepper in their mouth (Oy vey!), drop in on the half-pipe in the skatepark, deflate a tire in mountain biking, sing the camp alma mater over the PA system in the office, and much, much, much, much more. Our counselors also have some difficult tasks to perform such as doing 100 push-ups or hitting a baseball over the fence on the ball field. The Apache Relay finally ends with all campers and counselors in the gym sitting on the bleachers watching a camper from each team successfully shoot a half court basketball shot.

The Apache Relay represents such a special thrill and excitement of summer camp tradition! It’s all about fun during this event here at ILC, and it shows. In the end, the blue Comedy team beat the grey Horror team by about 14 minutes. Below are just a few photos from the start and the end of the Apache. Please see our CampMinder page for many more photos from all of today’s events.

Color War closes tonight with our annual Sing. Each team is judged for their creative entrance into the theater. They then take turns performing a March/Fight song, a Comedy song, a Skit, an Alma Mater song, and then they present their team’s Plaque. The entire night is bittersweet and somber as Color War comes to an end. Everyone hugs, many cry, and while the final scores are tallied we play the camp alma mater so everyone joins together to sing.

And finally, once the scores are all tallied up, Oliver, who is in charge of Color War, will stand on the theater stage and announce how proud she is of everyone who participated these past 3 days. Then she’ll announce the winner of the Sing and the winner of Color War overall. The winning team will jump up and scream and go crazy with excitement. The other team will be sad for a moment but they’ll quickly get over it by the time they head to canteen. Since this blog is being posted prior to Sing, later tonight I will post the winner for all of you. Until then, ILC U THERE!

Happy 2^nd day of Color War!   Last night’s rope burn was a very close call with the two teams’ ropes burning within a few minutes of one another. Ultimately, the grey Horror team won and took more of the time differential points.

At the end of each day, decorum points are handed out to the teams for cheering, dressing up, banners, sportsmanship, etc. The decorum points for day 1 went to the blue Comedy team. With the decorum points tallied up with all of yesterday’s friendly competitions, as of this morning the leading team with 322 more points was the blue West Coast team.

Today we woke up to partly cloudy skies and the temps rose to the mid 70’s. It started off as the perfect day to be running around outdoors for Color War. This morning we hosted the Swim Meet down by the lake and the pool. A variety of groups participated in the following on the lake: canoe relay, kayak relay, freestyle relay, medley relay (freestyle, backstroke), sweat suit relay, greased watermelon, & swim to the island and back. Here’s a list of activities that took place in the swimming pool: penny fetch, water basketball, medley relay, kickboard relay, paddleboard relay, & freestyle relay. Due to thunder, we ended the staff greased watermelon relay early and sent everyone back to the bunks before lunch. The winner of the Swim Meet was Comedy by a hair!

Another activity that runs throughout Color war is the “Find the Hatchet” event. The hatchet is hidden somewhere in camp. Our campers (who must be accompanied by a counselor) search high and low throughout ILC looking for the hatchet. Clues are given out one per day and are quite difficult to solve. Once the hatchet is found, the clues all make sense and the points are given to the team who finds it. This morning, during the team meeting, the Comedy team found the hatchet. We watched as they ran down the road screaming with pride.

We had some rain during lunch and afterwards but that’s ok because after lunch we had rest hour and then team meetings. After the meetings was snack break followed by Battle of the Bands. Our campers (& staff) played a variety of instruments, sang songs related to their team’s names, and each group had a separate battle against one another.  The whole camp stood up on their seats and sang and clapped along with the bands. Everyone was super into it, which was great. There’s been an amazing amount of Color War spirit these past couple of days. The winner of the Battle of the Bands was Comedy!

After the battle we ran sports. Here’s a list of what everyone played: Group 1 boys played kickball and girls played Gaga. Group 2 boys had an engineering challenge in science and the girls played charades in the theater. Group 3 boys played sand soccer and the girls played water basketball. Group 4 boys played chopped in cooking while the girls played a game of giant foosball at the hockey rink.

Sidebar: A few years ago we ran something called “Tribals”, which was a smaller version of Color War. We introduced the camp to “silent dinner” during that event. I personally loved it! A dining room filled with children and hardly a sound was made throughout the meal. So peaceful! Well, some older girls wanted us to bring it back and yesterday Matt told them that if they got 250 signatures from campers then we will apply it to Color War this summer. Well, these determined girls got right to it and brought him over 250 signatures first thing this morning after breakfast. Low and behold, tonight’s dinner will be a silent meal. Take note parents, as you may want to apply this event to your own homes after the summer!

Evening activity will be Lip Sync Battle and Music Videos. Each team has spent the past 2 days creating a music video that relates to their team’s theme. We’ll play them in the theater on a big screen for the entire camp to view tonight.

Lip Sync Battle is inspired by the tv show. Our team representatives will attempt to intimidate their opponents with their sweet dance moves and lip sync abilities. Each team will have 3 dance crews: lower camp (groups 1&2), upper camp/CITs (group 3&4), and counselors. Each crew will prepare two dances, complete with props, costumes, and a song relating to their theme. Each crew will compete head-to-head against their opponents. This is new to Island Lake Color War and I’m so excited to see it. I’ll report the winners to you in tomorrow’s blog.

Below are photos from this morning’s swim meet. Until tomorrow, our final day of this intense, powerful, yet fun-loving Color War, ILCUTHERE!

Happy Color War ya’ll! The energy is high here at ILC as we complete our first full day of CW. We broke it directly after a surprise snack break Revival Night (or shall I call it “Revival Day”?) yesterday afternoon. Once the gun shots rang through the air, the whole camp ran to the gym where they picked up flyers to see which team they were on. We then introduced all of the officers of each team. The cheering immediately began and Color War was born!!! The next 3 days are all about Horror (grey) vs. Comedy (blue).

The kids had their first team meeting after introductions and then we played “5 Period Basketball” for evening activity. Different groups played each period (youngest to oldest) and the game ended with a staff round. In the end, the blue Comedy team dominated over the grey Horror but don’t worry, this is only the beginning.

This morning we woke up to sunny skies and warm temps outdoors. After breakfast and clean up, the teams each had their respective meetings. Once the meetings were over we started our first full camp Color War activity, Sports. We’ve changed up our Color War sports quite a bit this summer so here’s a list specifying what they all did. In Group 1 the boys went Fishing and the girls played Bocce Ball. In Group 2 the boys played Gaga and the girls played Sand Soccer. In Group 3 the boys played Kong Pong and the girls played Charades. In Group 4 the boys played Giant Foosball (which was really cool!) and the girls were broken up into two groups to play either Kong Pong or Chopped (in cooking). Our campers really seemed to enjoy this change of events from past summers. It was very close but the winner of sports was Grey Horror! At this point in the day the Blue Comedy team is only ahead by 8 points.

Following Sports was lunch and then rest hour and show rehearsals. In the early afternoon we held a Fire Brigade and then Tug O’ War. With the Fire Brigade, each team lined up from the lake all the way up the hill where there was a huge empty garbage can. The kids by the lake had small buckets, water pitchers, and drinking cups that they had to fill with water and then pass along to each and every child until it finally makes its way up to the large can. First team’s garbage can to overflow with water is the winner of the Fire Brigade. And that team was Horror!

Following the brigade was our traditional Tug O’ War up at the beach volleyball courts. Each group had representatives participate. The winner was Comedy!

The kids then went back to their bunks for a snack break followed by another team meeting. Late afternoon we hosted our annual trivia game, Unique. It’s held in the theater and it’s done group by group. The kids come up to the stage and stand before podiums with lights. When a camper knows the answer to a trivia question, whether it is related to the CW teams or camp, they flip a light switch and then answer. They earn points for their team by answering questions correctly. And the winner of Unique is,….Grey Horror!

It’s a tight race so far. Off to dinner we go, followed by the final team meeting for the day. Then the teams are off to present their entrance for the big Rope Burn. The counselors fetch wood and build their fires while the kids cheer them on. The first team to burn the rope with their fire wins. This is truly an amazing Island Lake tradition.

Below are some photos from sports earlier today. For more photos, please view our daily summer photos through CampMinder. Until more Color War scoop tomorrow when I tell you which team is in the lead, ILC U THERE!

Wow, is it truly the last day of July already? Where has this summer gone? It’s wild how time really does fly by when you’re having fun. Speaking of fun, we have had a chock full of it, especially today here at Island Lake. Let’s start from the very beginning,… (& I strongly encourage you read this entire blog!)

We woke to normal chilly temps but blue skies. As the sun rose, the temps warmed up for a perfect 80 degrees Starrucca day. Our overnight Delaware River trip returned and our tubing trip went out after breakfast this morning. They spent a few hours relaxing on what? Oh tubes, out on the Delaware but of course.

In ILC sports, our 8^th & 9^th grade and 10^th & 11^th grade girls had a volleyball tournament this morning here at camp. 5^th & 6^th grade girls went out of camp after lunch to play soccer in a tournament at a nearby Wayne County camp.

And then came snack break,…this usually consists of a 30 minute break back at the bunks, enjoying a mid-afternoon snack together. However, today was different. Halfway through snack, 2 gunshots rang out. Oh wait, it’s just another Color War fake break. It was the music that played throughout the camp on the loud speaker that excited our campers. What kind of music you ask? Revival music!!! That’s right, we surprised our campers with an afternoon Revival instead of a “Revival Night”! Everyone ran down to the lake to enjoy this Island Lake tradition. If you don’t know what Revival is, just ask your children when they get home. They’ll be more than happy to share the details with you.

So Revival went well as planned and all was good in the land of Starruccapa. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Gunshots sounded out,….ONE,….TWO,….THREE,….COLOR WAR HAS BEGUN!!! We are now officially in Color War for the next 3 days. It’s going to be great, it’s going to be nuts, it’s going to be fantastic!!! Not only are the next 3 days gonna rock, but we’ve adjusted some activities and events to make them more appealing to our campers with all different kinds of interests. Just you wait and see!

The Color War teams are Horror vs. Comedy! Which team do you think your children are on?   Aaahhh, let’s hope to find out via photos over the next 3 days. I’ll blog daily with Color War updates and post some photos from special events. Speedy will take tons of photos to post on CampMinder, as well. I hope you love every minute as much as our campers will.

Below are photos from last night’s HOEDOWN! The kids had a fantastic time playing in the hay,…literally! Many of them decked out in flannel, denim, hair braids,…and I haven’t even told you what the girls wore yet! (Just kiddin’!)

Back to Color War now. Go Blue! I mean Go Grey! I mean, have a great one and until tomorrow when I have lots of Color War info for ya, ILCUTHERE!!!

I’M BAAAAAACCCKKK!!! It’s Wendy here and we safely returned from our successful trip to Cleveland, Ohio last night around 9pm. I’ll fill you in more about the trip later on in this blog. I just want to thank Dustin for writing such amazing blogs while I was away. He’s very creative and it shined right through in his writing these past 4 days.

Here at camp it is COUNTRY WESTERN DAY! Yeehaaawww!!! Bust out your flannel, whip out your,…well, your whip, and ride ‘em on cowboy, because we’re celebrating today. Tonight we will end the day with a big Hoedown for evening activity. I’ll tell you more about it later in the blog.

In ILC news, today is our overnight river trip for our canoe and kayak enthusiasts. They will spend the day in their respective boats paddling down the Delaware River. They’ll camp out tonight under the stars and return tomorrow.

Tonight we also have our annual Science Observatory Trip. They will leave after dinner and head to Binghamton, NY to the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center. There they’ll explore computer science, solar system travel, view a meteor shower, Lego robotics, and a whole lot more.

We had blue skies here in the 18462 today. The day started off very cool but the temperatures eventually rose to a perfect mid 70’s. It will probably be a cool night once again but the temperatures will peak a bit higher tomorrow.

The Cleveland trip was a fantastic time for our campers. I, for one, am happy to be back home in the 18462 to enjoy our final couple of weeks with everyone here at camp. However, some of our campers weren’t yet ready to return because they were having too much fun. The kids got along very well with one another. They followed directions very,….uuuuhhhh, let’s just say that at last count, we returned with every child we left camp with.

We had great weather on 3 out of 4 days away. It rained a bit when we were at Cedar Point Amusement Park. Due to high winds (the park is right on Lake Erie) some of the larger thrill rides had to close. But there are so many different rides to choose from that it didn’t put a damper on any Island Laker’s day.

Highlights of the trip: Getting on the jumbotron at the Cleveland Indians game; eating, eating, and more eating; Dave & Busters’ games; everything at Cedar Point, for sure; that there are 4 claps in the Friends theme song (we watched enough episodes on the bus for everyone to now know); returning to camp! (Oh wait that’s MY highlight!). I took close to 100 pictures on the trip so I’ll feature some of them below in this blog and all will be posted on CampMinder today.

Tonight’s evening activity is the HOEDOWN! Yeeehaaawww! We will venture up to the hockey rink for a night of fun in the hay. Not only will we have music to dance to (country style but of course) but we will also have all of the following events happening in real time: line dancing, marriage booth, pie eating contest (for the counselors), tractor photo shoot, find the Dum-Dum pops in the haystacks, the corn hole game, CIT’s relaxing in a horse trough of bath water, counselor petting zoo (which consists of them wearing animal onesies), and much more. We’ll have lots of photos to show you tomorrow.

Today’s special feature is from none other than the Cleveland Trip! Enjoy and until tomorrow, ILCUTHERE!

Hey, Best Friends! I’ve missed you. It’s been too long. I’ve got some bad news; this is my last blog entry before Wendy resumes her role as blog author extraordinaire. Please, don’t cry. I’ve shed enough tears for all of us. Besides, the great Dr. Seuss said it best, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” We’ll always have these last four days to cherish and reminisce about in the future.

Our weather today started off almost fall-like. We were downright chilly at breakfast, but as the sun rose high in the Pocono skies so did our temperatures. Today was a cracker of a day. We had blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. I don’t think we could have programmed anything better!

I spent a good part of the day visiting all the departments so I could observe the progress of our campers. It is extraordinary to see how far our campers have come since they arrived at camp. I saw a camper that could barely stand on a skateboard drop in from the half pipe; another, who in past summers, out and out avoided the water, take and pass her swim test while her bunkmates swam next to her in a show of solidarity. Whether it’s a bunk that has been together for years or there was a cabin of new campers, the bunk dynamic is incredible to witness. The counselors’ feel like the campers are “their kids”, and the campers return that affection. The family atmosphere that has developed throughout camp is fantastic to witness first hand.

Over in the City that LeBron built, our teen trip campers are wrapping up their Ohio adventures with a trip to Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park. I’m sure Wendy will have a full recap of today’s events tomorrow, but in the interim I will take an educated guess that fun was had by all and more than a few campers took a nice long nap on the bus ride back to camp!

That about does it for me folks; I had a blast keeping y’all updated on the ongoing adventures here at Island Lake.

Love and Latkes,

Dustin