Dear Campers, Parents, Staff, Alums & Friends,
And zooooooom! The summer has passed us by. Not that you could tell that by walking outside here in Tucson. We’ll be in triple digit temperatures for the next few weeks before we “cool off” into the 90s. So it feels summerish, but the kiddies are going back to school, and camp is closed down for the year, so summer must be just about over. 
*sigh* You can bet that it was hard to pack up and leave that beautiful piece of the Northwoods this year. The last few weeks were just perfect weather with mild days and cool nights. We had a few spectacular storms, and – of course – the fields turned even greener than they were already. It was definitely way too quiet up there, but we did our best to make some noise. One of the funniest things to watch was our two dogs, Wylie and Josie, sprinting into camp everyday looking for kids to play with. They didn’t get too depressed, though….there were still squirrels to chase and the lake to go swimming in. But just like the rest of us, they miss you campers a lot!
One way to take our minds of the end of the summer of 2012 is to start right away planning for the awesome…amazing…better-than-any-summer-before-it summer of 2013!! And start we have….with quite a bang! We’ve got two rather large projects going on at camp as we speak, and we’re not gonna tell you about either of them just yet. Let’s suffice it to say that we KNOW you’re going to love the new stuff going on up there. Both projects are going to make camp even better than it is already, and that’s just the big stuff. We’ve also got multiple smaller projects in the works to be completed before you guys come bounding off of the buses in June. It’s really exciting!
Speaking of exciting, you won’t believe the amazing start we’ve already gotten with our enrollment. This is truly an unprecedented response from so many of you already, and we absolutely appreciate your enthusiasm. Welcome back to the following “old-timers” who have re-enrolled in the few weeks since camp ended: DILLON GROSS of Bannockburn, IL; ALEX PECK of Deerfield, IL; ZEV BURTON of Carmel, IN; MARI COTTRELL of Cleveland, OH; DILLON BERLIN, EVAN & KYLE GROSS, DAVID HEIMAN, and ZACK SCHREIER of Glencoe, IL; GRANT & JASON GARLAND, JUSTIN & MAX GOLDENBERG, JACK KAHN, JACK ROSENTHAL, DEVIN SHAW, and ZAC WARR of St. Louis, MO; ANDREW KARMIN, JOEY & JONO ROSENBLUM, and LUKE SCLAMBERG of Highland Park, IL; RICKY ROMERSI of Milwaukee, WI; JACKSON & SAM PAWLAN of Atlanta, GA; ANDREW CRAMIN and JAKE FEIGER of Northbrook, IL; and BEN LITMAN of Denver, CO. Are you serious?! That is just amazing, folks!
And we have a new camper already to welcome aboard. Say hi to DANIEL SOLOT of Glencoe, IL.
| City | Date | Time |
| CHICAGO | Saturday, November 3rd | 12 pm – 4 pm |
| MILWAUKEE | Sunday, November 4th | 12:30 pm – 2 pm |
| NASHVILLE | Sunday, November 11th | 3 pm – 4:30 pm |
YO EVERYONE! It’s that time of year again, and we are so happy to tell you about the 2nd Annual Around The Campfire event to benefit Camp for All Kids. This event will be held in Chicago at Banner Day Camp on Saturday, September 22nd. This year’s event will have a day time program for everyone, including kids, and then an evening program for adults. We are big believers in the powerful benefits that CFAK provides to our scholarship campers, but also to our tuition-paying campers. The past summers are filled with incalculable numbers of new friendships being born and nurtured, and interactions between kids who would otherwise NEVER GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER AND LEARN FROM EACH OTHER. We urge you to join in the fun, or if you cannot make it to Chicago for the event, to please join in the fund-raising effort to enable CFAK to continue this important work. You can join our online “team” by clicking here. From that site you can make a donation and/or buy your ticket for Around the Campfire. Thank you for your participation and support.
We know you all lead very busy lives, and it’s fun to hear about what your camp friends are up to. Please folks…campers and parents, send us a quick email to let us know what you’re up to this winter. We’ll print it all right here each month. It could be accomplishments big or small, academics, sports, arts, hanging out with camp friends, traveling, you name it. We’re hungry for information!! Facebook is fine, but you have to read through so much other stuff to get to the good stuff, so think of this as a major Facebook filter that only turns up your camp friends’ info. We hope we’ll have lots of great info to share in this very spot for next month’s issue. Thanks!
YO STAFF! Same request for you. Please keep us posted on your life away from camp (we know there is such a thing!) Your campers will love to hear about how you’re doing. RYAN GERSOWSKY has applied to work as a lifeguard at a local health club in the Chicago area. MICHAEL BREEN just returned from a 2 week trip to Iceland with “old-timer” SAM GOLDHAR. Yet another experience of a lifetime for Mr. Breen.
THE JUICE
A special section from Michael Breen
Wait…what just happened? Didn’t the busses just roll in? Didn’t we just do “Take ‘Em Away?” Didn’t the staff just rake the beach? Seriously, I cannot believe it is the “off-season” once again and I am re-living the
summer fun through my keyboard.
Now, some of you may have noticed during the summer that your bug juice would sometimes be an off color (don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this). However, when you built up the courage to try it, the flavoring was always perfect. You can thank Stephen Wayne in the kitchen for this. He would always take pleasure and pride in mixing a specific amount of each color of bug juice to create the perfect concoction, going so far as to call his creation Wayne’s Mix. And, now with nothing left to do but wheeze the juice of summer 2012, I realize we all worked to create a massive, summer-long Wayne’s Mix (see, I told you I was going somewhere with this).
This summer was a special mix of returning staff, incredible activities, boundless creativity, new friends, exciting trips, flawless campfires, new staff, courageous campers, abundant kindness, old friends, and bees…lots of bees.
And while it is so sad that there are only a few drops left to wheeze, the beauty is that we are all better, stronger, more powerful people for having created this juice together.
So, let’s enjoy our efforts and wheeze some juice:
· You’re a first session camper and you’re excited for a new Casino Night event—the CIT Eating Contest. The mightiest, beefiest CITs (that way between 100-130 pounds) gather around the table with three hot dogs, massive buns, and a pitcher of water in front of them. As the competition starts these young counselors transform from incredible, kind leaders into ravenous beasts. There are shreds of hot-dog-bread carnage scattered everywhere—you find yourself curling up your fingers for fear they could get stuck in the fray. Then, a champion emerges—bloated and stuffed, Eliah Hiken was the first to finish all of his food. He may very well be a vegetarian the rest of his life
· You’re a second session camper and are attending the first post-lazy breakfast egg toss of the summer. You watch all of the cooks gather at a line about fifty feet from their target—an old, red gas pump. All the cooks take their turn to throw their eggs at the pump. Colby’s egg goes left, Breen’s goes right, Zemach’s too far, Rodin’s hits one of the vans. And then, Rick Jones approaches the line. His hands free from the bacon grease that had accumulated over the past few hours, he winds up, yanks his arm forward and the egg flies through the air. SPLAT! You and the other thirty campers watching let out a huge cheer as the shell cracks against the center of the gas pump and the yolk slides down to the ground.
-Michael Breen
BRAVO TO THE SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAY BOYS & GIRLS! Jake Feiger - 9/2/1997, Isaac Blue - 9/3/2001, Aidan Doyal - 9/3/1997, Greg Fus - 9/4/1955, Carlos Gomez - 9/5/1990, Max Gootter - 9/5/2001, Joey Flom - 9/6/2001, Rick Jones - 9/9/1957, Jeremy Sus - 9/10/1998, Jesse Stolberg - 9/11/2001, Kevin Tu - 9/11/2000, Scott Wolf - 9/11/1991, Spencer Coudal - 9/12/2000, Jay Humphreys - 9/14/1989, David Tamsky - 9/15/1999, Ari Gordon - 9/16/1999, David Artzi - 9/17/1993, Dustin Cohen - 9/17/1993, Jordan Fishel - 9/17/1997, Jack Ross - 9/17/1998, Jack Eichner - 9/19/1998, Jesse Mc Cauley - 9/19/1999, Ari Singer - 9/19/1999, Jordan Allen - 9/20/1997, Ross Sinar - 9/21/1996, Andrew Cramin - 9/22/1999, Zev Burton - 9/23/1999, Eliot Goldfarb - 9/25/1992, Ethan Beckman - 9/27/2002, Sarah Kearney - 9/27/1991, Danny Shade - 9/27/2000, Emma Smith - 9/27/1993, Chris Tompkins - 9/28/1998, Josh Skrill - 9/29/1998, Max Weintraub - 9/29/1991, Jack Elowe - 9/30/1997.
So, that’s it for this month. We’ll keep in touch with you, and write you again at the start of October. Have a great September, y’all!!
Benches up,
