Happy Holidays!

Hey Island Lake Families! With the winter break already here for some and approaching for others, we’d like to take this time wish you and your families a fabulous holiday. Lots of our campers get together at this time of year so we’d love to hear from those of you who do. Please send us photos to info@islandlake.com and we’ll post them here on our blog as well as in our next monthly newsletter.

All of us in the Island Lake winter offices wish our special Island Lake families a happy and healthy holiday season. Summer will be here before we know it so until then, ILCUTHERE!

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10 Surprising Things Kids Learn at Camp Article

While having FUN is one of the main goals for our campers every summer at Island Lake, it is by far not the only one.  The beauty of our camp is that children can also LEARN in an indirect fun-filled manner, whether it be at their activities or while bonding with their bunkmates.  ILC is a special place where children will learn a great deal about themselves, as well.  The following article covers this topic pretty well.  Enjoy!

https://sunshineparenting.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/10-surprising-things-kids-learn-at-camp/

December Parent News

Hey Island Lake families!  We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. With winter just about here, it is our hope that your children still have camp on the brain and continue to share their wonderful ILC summer 2015 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 21st 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. Time flies when we’re having fun catching up with many of our Island Lakers. Check out our reunion photos posted on our Facebook page. Many more will be posted here on our website and on our Island Lake app shortly.

We are excited to offer our 2nd annual West Coast Teen Tour for all of our CIT’s entering 11th grade in the fall of 2016. Please see our October 12th blog for more details. If you have any additional questions about this trip, simply give us a call in our NY office.

By now all of our summer 2015 camp families should have received our amazing ILC video yearbook. We hope you and your children have taken the opportunity to watch this super fun video filled with many exciting summer activities and memories. For an hour you can forget about all that’s going on around you and truly feel a part of the ILC experience. We hear some children have been watching it on loop, over and over again. Enjoy it!

Reminders 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 2016 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”.

With all of the winter cheer around us, 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!

Fun-Filled Island Lake Reunion

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 time with their camp friends running around playing games, going on rides, and plain ol’ hanging out with one another and 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 real soon. There are some pics already posted on our Facebook page, Instagram page, and Twitter feed. Below is just a glance at some of the happy campers we saw at our reunion.

Thank you, again, to all who made Saturday’s reunion so very special for everyone involved. Now the countdown to summer 2016 officially kicks into gear,..214 days!

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

Camp Reunion This Weekend!

5 MORE DAYS! Yup, that’s right, we’re counting down the days and we have less than a week until our much anticipated Island Lake 2015 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, many their first time seeing each other since saying goodbye at camp.

All of our Island Lakers, current and past, are welcome to join us on November 21st 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 on Saturday. We’ll take tons of photos and post them on our website so if you can’t make it, you can still feel as if you were a part of the ILC reunion experience.

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

November Parent News

Hey ILC Parents! We hope you and your children had a fun-filled, safe Halloween. We’d love to post photos on our blog of our campers in their Halloween costumes. Please send pictures of your children all dressed up for their special day of trick-or-treating to wendy@islandlake.com and we’ll happily post them.

All of us in the ILC winter offices are very excited for our CAMP REUNION on November 21st at Sportime USA in Elmsford, NY. The reunion will be held from 10am until 1pm and details are provided in our monthly newsletters. We look forward to seeing many of our summer 2015 campers and staff there on that date, no RSVP necessary.

We are excited to offer our 2nd annual West Coast Teen Tour for all of our CIT’s entering 11th grade in the fall of 2016. Please see our October 12th blog for more details. If you have any additional questions about this trip, simply give us a call in our NY office.

Very soon all of our 2015 camp families will receive their Island Lake Video Yearbook on dvd. We hope you and your children will take the opportunity to watch this amazing video filled with many exciting summer activities and memories. For over an hour, you can forget about all that’s going on around you and truly feel a part of the ILC experience.

Are your kids still sharing their wonderful ILC memories with you? We sure hope so! Our summer 2016 countdown is in full swing, as camp will sneak up on us before we know it. In the meantime, you and your children can continue to view our daily summer photos, weekly videos, blogs, & Facebook videos for several months to come.

Don’t forget, we have a wonderful Island Lake App for your iPhones and iPads. We hope all of our campers, parents, and staff have already downloaded our app and have taken advantage of all of the amazing features it entails. You can check out this past summer’s photos, videos, read our monthly newsletters, and even log onto your CampMinder account, which will come in handy next summer while your children are with us at camp. The home screen of our app even has a countdown of the number of days until summer 2016 begins. Definitely take advantage of our app if you haven’t already checked it out. We’re really proud of it!

Registration for summer 2016 is going very well thus far. If you have not yet registered your child(ren) for next summer, please don’t put it off any longer! We truly do not want to turn away our loyal campers. You can enroll your child(ren) with the registration forms we mailed home with your monthly newsletters or you can download the form here on our website under “Island Lake Families” and then “Forms & Mailings”.

We look forward to seeing many of our Island Lakers at our camp reunion on November 21st. Until then, ILC U THERE!

Early Bird Rates Deadline

Hi Island Lakers! With fall now in full swing and summer 2016 many months away, we know you may not currently have camp on the brain. However, we’d like to remind you that our early bird rates will only be in effect until November 1st. If you have not yet registered your children for next summer then now is the time to do so. To take advantage of our early rates all you need to do is finish filling out the enrollment form we mailed to you with your monthly newsletters. If you no longer have that form handy just go to “Families” at the top of this website, click “Forms & Mailings”, and print out the “2016 Enrollment Form”. Be sure to sign the back page and then mail it along with a deposit to our Pleasantville, New York address.  If you have any questions about sessions or enrollment just give us a call at 914-769-6060.

Our summer 2015 video yearbooks are nearly done so your children can anticipate receiving them in your mailbox (the snail mail kind) shortly. We promise it is worth the wait!

Wishing everyone a fun, safe, and spooktacular Halloween! ILC U THERE!

West Coast Teen Tour

This past summer we added a new feature to Island Lake and it was a huge success. We offered our very first annual West Coast Teen Tour for 3 full weeks. To say that our kids had such a blast is an understatement. They had so much fun that they’re still talking about it and posting photos from their trip on their social media accounts.

Next summer this trip will be available to all first year CIT’s, kids entering 11th grade. Regardless of whether your children returned to camp this past summer, if they will be entering 11th grade in the fall of 2016 then the trip is an option for them.

In order to go on this once in a lifetime west coast trip your children must commit to sessions 1&2 at ILC. The kids will spend a few days at camp before heading to Newark airport to fly out west. They will tour in a coach bus for 3 full weeks and then fly back to Newark and return to camp for the remainder of the 2nd session (another week and a half). We recommend that our CIT’s stay for the full summer and not leave after 6 weeks so that they can also gain experience living in a bunk with younger campers and start training to become a counselor in a couple of years.

Your children will have some of the greatest experiences of their lives by taking advantage of all this program has to offer. They will witness amazing sights, hike breathtaking national parks, tour popular universities, while also giving back with community service. This fantastic teen tour starts with a flight out to San Francisco, California. They will then travel on a coach bus down the west coast to Pismo Beach, Los Angeles and then San Diego. From there they will head out to Las Vegas, Nevada, followed by St. George, Utah, and finally Flagstaff, Sedona, and Tempe, Arizona.

Highlights of this trip include the following: Golden Gate Bridge, Hearst Castle, Hollywood tour, California Science Center, San Diego Zoo, Las Vegas strip, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Pink Jeep Tours, and much much more. Our kids will tour the following colleges: Stanford University, Cal-Poly Tech, UCLA, University of Southern California (USC), and Arizona State University. Our CIT’s will have the opportunity to earn community service credits for their high school by visiting a food bank, cleaning up a beach, and spending an afternoon working with young children.

Our Island Lake West Coast Teen Tour experience is everything you and your children can imagine, and more! If you would like more information, please contact us at our New York office at 914-769-6060 or info@islandlake.com. Below are some highlights of the trip from this past summer. ILC U THERE!

October Parents News

Hey Island Lake Parents! With fall upon us, we hope your children are still sharing tons of wonderful ILC memories with you. Our summer 2016 countdown has already kicked into gear- 269 days as of October 1st! Next summer will sneak up on us before we know it. In the meantime, you and your children can continue to view our daily summer photos, weekly videos, Facebook videos, & daily summer blogs for several months to come.

Shortly, all our 2015 camp families will receive their very own copy of our Island Lake Video Yearbook on DVD. We hope you and your children will enjoy watching this amazing video filled with so many fond memories of this summer past. For an hour you can forget about all that’s going on around you, sit back, relax, and enjoy being taken back to summer so you can truly feel a part of the ILC experience.

Don’t forget to check out our Island Lake App for your iPhones and iPads. The app has been developed for Apple products only, not for other smartphones and tablets. We hope all of our campers, parents, and staff have already downloaded our app to take advantage of all of the amazing features it entails. You can check out this previous summer photos, videos, read our monthly newsletters, and even log onto your CampMinder account, which will come in handy next summer while your children are with us at camp. The home screen of our app even has a countdown of the number of days until summer 2016 begins. Definitely take advantage of our app if you haven’t already checked it out. We’re really proud of it!

We are all getting pumped up for our camp reunion on Saturday, November 21st at Sportime USA in Elmsford, NY. The reunion will be held from 10am until 1pm and details are located in our monthly newsletters. We look forward to seeing many of our summer 2015 campers and staff there, no RSVP necessary.

We are happy to announce that camp is filling up very quickly for next summer. Be sure to take advantage of our pre-November 1st rates and register your children right away if you have not already done so. You can sign your child up with the registration form we mailed home with your newsletter or you can download our form here on our website under “Island Lake Families” and then “Forms & Mailings” to your left.

Well, that’s about it for now. We’d like to once again thank all of our Island Lake families for making summer 2015 so special. We look forward to our camp reunion on November 21st. Until then, ILC U THERE!

ILC T-shirt Day

This past Friday, September 25th, was our very first Island Lake T-shirt Day. Through social media we asked our campers and staff to wear their ILC shirts to school. We told them to post a photo in their shirts with the hashtag, #ILCtshirtday, on Facebook or Instagram. We had an overwhelming response with well over 50 pictures posted, so thank you to all who participated. You will see some of your camp friends and favorite counselors featured in our October newsletter later in the week. Below are some highlights. Enjoy and ILC U THERE!