Social Media

Are you following us on social media? Island Lake is everywhere now, so be sure to join us on all of our social networking pages. We’ve recently joined Instagram and a great deal more will be added to our account in the next few months. If you aren’t already following us everywhere, here’s a list of social media that ILC is a part of:

All Summer 2014 Island Lake families should have received their annual camp folder by now. There is a great deal of information in this folder to help prepare your child for a successful camp experience. Please take some time to read through everything thoroughly and ﬁll out and return the required forms. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of ﬁlling out the forms in a detailed, timely manner. These forms provide us with extensive feedback regarding your child so that our staff can have thorough, accurate knowledge about each camper in order to provide him or her with a safe and successful summer. Profile, Medical, and Transportation Forms must be submitted by May 1st. These forms are necessary for us to ﬁnalize plans for the summer. The Profile Form helps us guide your children when they choose their activities and put together their schedules. The Medical Form must be completed by both a parent and a physician, as required by Pennsylvania law. Please note that incomplete Medical Forms will be returned to you. The form must have your complete insurance information and a credit card number for any out of camp medical expenses. Every Medical Form needs to be signed by both a parent and a doctor. The Transportation Form lets us know which bus your children will be taking to camp. If we do not receive the Transportation Form in our office by May 1st, we will have to assign a bus to your children. In June, we will send you detailed information on the bus locations, along with luggage tags that you will use to mark your children’s bags. If you have any questions or need any help ﬁlling out your forms, you can always give us a call in the winter ofﬁce at 914-769-6060 and we’d be happy to help you! We encourage you to use our online system instead of paper forms. If you have not already done so, go to islandlake.com and click on “CampMinder Login”. You will be prompted to enter your email address and password. If this is your ﬁrst time using the CampMinder system, just click on “First Time Users – Create Account.”

March Parent News

Happy March! As we sit here in our winter office with tons of snow outside our windows, it feels as though summer 2013 is a distant, yet fond, memory. However, our summer 2014 countdown has kicked into gear and lucky for us, summer, and for that matter camp, will approach before we know it.

All summer 2014 families will receive your annual Island Lake folder any day now. This folder contains TONS of information to prepare you and your children for this summer. There are forms inclosed that we request you return to us promptly. The Profile Form helps us guide your children when they choose their activities and put together their schedules. The Medical Form must be completed by both a parent and a physician, as required by Pennsylvania law. The Transportation Form lets us know which bus your children will be taking to camp. If we do not receive the Transportation Form in our office by May 1st, we will have to assign a bus to your children. In June, we will send you detailed information on the bus locations, along with luggage tags that you will use to mark your children’s bags. If you misplace any of your forms, they will be available for download here on our website. You can access them by clicking on ‘Forms & Mailings’ to you left-hand side of this page. There will also be information in the folder instructing you how to fill out the transportation and profile forms on-line.

A reminder to our summer ‘13 and ’14 families, don’t forget to read our monthly newsletters. You can access them here on our website or at the start of every month in your mailbox in hard copy form. The newsletters provide important information for parents as well as campers, including enrollment and availability updates.

Speaking of enrollment, if you haven’t yet registered your child for summer 2014 but plan to do so, please, please, please do not put it off any longer. We truly do not want to turn away any of our devoted campers and it’s very difficult for us when forced to do so every year. Please don’t let that happen to your child. Some bunks are already full! It only takes a few minutes to fill out the registration form, we promise! If you don’t have one handy, click “ILC Families”, “Forms & Mailings” and then print the “2014 Enrollment Form”.

To all current Island Lake families, we look forward to an amazing summer 2014 with your children. To all prospective families, feel free to contact us if you have any questions after browsing our website: 800-869-6083 or 914-769-6060. And last but not least, to one and all…. ILC U THERE!

Camp FYI

Chad Abbott spent some time up in Vermont with the Hausman family. Great photo of them together.

Here’s another one of Chad and Justin taking a snowboarding lesson together. Hope you all had a blast (or as Chad says, “ya’ll had a blast”)!

Emma Stravitz competed in her very first horseback riding competition and placed 1st in her level. Great job, Emma!

Logan and Colby Kusinitz showing off their new ILC tshirts. Looking good guys!

We received this photo of some of our campers but don’t yet have the details as to what kind of competition they were in. Gymnastics? Regardless, we hope Sydney Shulman, Paige Wasserman, Barbara Gilman, and Annabelle Fine rocked it!

The Stravitz Family got together with the Gevisenheit family in Miami Beach just yesterday. Lexi and Mikayla had some fun in the sun!

Why Working at Summer Camp is the BEST JOB EVER!

The following is a fantastic article for staff members, old & new. An upbeat, enjoyable read for campers & parents, as well. Enjoy!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahmcf/20-reasons-why-working-at-summer-camp-is-the-best-k6jl

We’d Love To Hear From All Of You!!!

Everybody up, everybody up, up, up! Rise and Shine! It’s a beautiful day in Starrucca, PA! The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the grass is growing. Everybody out of bed. Breakfast, in 10 minutes,…see you there!

Now that we’ve gotten your attention,…although it’s only February and the Northeast has been pounded with tons of snow these past few months, camp is constantly on the brain for all of us in the Island Lake offices. We love hearing from all of our campers and staff, whether it’s via email or social media. Trip and Dustin are in the midst of their college recruitment tour, seeing lots of previous staff and hiring new fantastic counselors for this upcoming summer.

No time better than the present to send us your thoughts about your Island Lake experiences. We’d love to hear from our campers and staff, returning and new, with information that we can post here on our blog. Why not take a few moments to sit down and email us in your warm, cozy homes, whether it’s shout outs to your friends, memories of previous summers, poems about your camp experience, or anything else camp related?

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane,…remember opening day when you first arrived at camp, ran off of your bus, and ran into the arms of your counselors and friends? Watching you all scream in happiness as you embraced your special Island Lake friends is a familiar experience we love to reminisce. Evening activities (did somebody say “Revival Night”?), Lazy Days, special events such as Tribals, 4^th of July, and everybody’s favorite, COLOR WAR,…oh so many memories, we can’t even begin to list them all.

But you can! We’d love to hear from you so you can tell us what you love so much about Island Lake. Is it the camp directors that you love so much? (Haha- sorry, I couldn’t resist!) What camp memories are you daydreaming about while you’re in class? How often do you look through your camp photos from last summer? How much time do you spend on the ILC Facebook page? How many online group messages do you have going with all of your camp friends? Have you gotten together with fellow ILC’ers this winter? What are you looking forward to most this upcoming summer?

We want to hear what YOU have to say! Email us at info@islandlake.com and we’ll post your messages here on our blog as well as in our Island Laker newsletter. Until then, only 137 days our Island Lake family will be together once again! ILC U THERE!!!

Cloz Company

Cloz Company will once again handle our clothing outfitting this summer. Remember that there are NO required uniforms at Island Lake. Anything that you wish to order is completely optional and each camper will receive an Island Lake t-shirt upon arrival at camp. Flying campers will receive theirs in the mail prior to the start of summer.

Cloz is currently displaying merchandise at various locations throughout the country for “trying on” purposed. You may also order your camp clothing, process returns and exchanges, and check the status of your order at cloz.com.

Keep in mind that all orders are placed direcctly through Cloz Company, not through Island Lake.

Remember, orders are custom made and they take time to produce. Ordering early will provide you with time to make any exchanges.

To see a schedule of road show dates and locations, please view the February edition of our newsletter at islandlake.com. The following is a direct link to the newsletter: http://www.islandlake.com/pdf/newsletters/February2014.pdf

February Parent News

Happy February! As we sit here in our winter office looking at the snow outside of our windows, it feels as though summer 2013 was all a distant dream. However, our summer 2014 countdown has already kicked into gear and lucky for us, camp will sneak up on us before we know it. Our camp reunion on November 23rd was a huge success. Screams of excitement filled the air as campers and staff embraced one another. We had a great turnout, including children who flew in from other parts of the country just to see their special camp friends. The reunion never seems to last long enough, unfortunately. 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 and on our Facebook page. Go to the homepage here on our site and click the reunion photo link at the bottom of the page. Enjoy the pictures!

For those families who registered for camp prior to December 1^st, you will soon receive your children’s special edition ILC t-shirt. We hope your kids will love their new addition to their wardrobe and enjoy wearing their shirt to school with pride (and perhaps a long sleeve under it to keep them warm!).

A reminder to our summer ‘13 and ’14 families, don’t forget to read our monthly newsletters. You can access them here on our website, as well as in your postal mailbox at the start of every month. Our newsletters provide important information for parents as well as campers, including enrollment and availability updates.

Speaking of enrollment, if you have not yet registered your child for summer ‘14 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 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”. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the registration form, we promise!

Travel Message from Dustin & Trip

Greetings from the road! Every year around this time, Trip and I pack our bags, hug our wives goodbye and begin our journey into parts unknown to find the best camp counselors in the world. Literally, The World! This year our travels have taken us to Edinburgh, Scotland, Manchester, England, Oklahoma and Ohio and it isn’t even February yet! Future trips will take us from the snowy, great white north that is Canada, all the way to the Lone Star State of Texas. We search high and low, near and far, no stone is left unturned in our search to discover the best and brightest new staff members for our campers at Island Lake!

This summer, when you’re getting artsy in the Arts & Crafts building or dramatic in Theatre and you wonder why so many counselors sound like characters from the Pixar movie Brave, you can thank our visit to Scotland! In Manchester, we were helped out by two Island Lake favorites and 2014 returners: Becky Matulewicz and Katie Payne (unfortunately, all of Katie’s boyfriends couldn’t make it). From Manchester, we used a combination of trains, planes, and automobiles to arrive in Oklahoma and have mini-reunion with noted ILC-ers: Kenny Forehand, Ashley Oliver and Brad Henry! All of whom send their love back to each and every one of you, and cannot wait to see you all again under the warm Starrucca sun!

Until next time!

Trip and Dustin

Medical Staff Needed

We are currently looking for doctors and a nurse to fill our health center positions in the 3^rd session of camp this summer. The session is two weeks long so we can accommodate up to 2 doctors, 1 per week. We’re also looking for a nurse for the full 2 week session. If you are a doctor, a registered nurse, or you have friends who are and are interested in working at the greatest place on earth (that would be Island Lake, but of course), please contact Trip at trip@islandlake.com. Thanks!

Island Lake Camp News