February Summer Camp Reading
We are full of kinesthetic energy this month! With great young role models, learning how to work together as a cohesive unit and tips on how to best train our staff, there's a lot to be excited about! Warning: Enthusiasm, spirit and vigor is contagious.

 

Movement at Summer Camp
When it comes to camp, your staff, campers and parents are all parts of the collective camp body. Everyone’s interaction with each other is often fluid and dynamic. The challenge is to get this elaborate web of individual, mingle mangle to come together and create a large camp body working with, and towards, a common purpose.
– Charisse Formanes

Youthful Role Models at Summer Camp
Young people bring energy and new ideas into the traditional setting of the summer camp. Camp programs develop and keep up with the times through the contributions of our young counselors and instructors. Many counselors are “grass roots” having literally grown up at camp. These counselors bring a wealth of personal experience as well as many lessons learned from both their camp peers and camp mentors.
– Camp Scholar Dr. Stephen Fine

No Reservations Needed! Please Be Seated for a Five-Course, Staff-Training Smorgasbord. During the spring of each year, many camp directors are faced with what can seem to be an overwhelming task of planning for staff training. While it is tempting to use the same "recipes" from previous years, this can be hard to swallow for returning staff. Because of the large amount of information that needs to be conveyed in a short amount of time, it makes sense to present training topics in a way that will maximize the learning and retention capacity of staff (and have fun while doing it!).
– Kim Aycock, M.S.T from an ACA article.

2009 CAMPference
March 2 - 4, 2009 , Kerrville, TX at Inn of the Hills Resort and Conference Center. Camping Association for Mutual Progress (CAMP) has the goal to strengthen the camping industry and raise health and safety standards for all camps through the spirit of cooperation, collaboration and collection of ideas.

ACA Mid State Camping Conference
March 26 - 28, 2009 , St. Charles, IL at Pheasant Run Conference Center & Resort.The Mid States Camping Conference, the FRIENDLIEST camping conference in the United States, welcomes you to join us for our 17th annual conference. The Mid States conference is a fabulous opportunity to connect with camping professionals, train your staff, shop  for deals and fill your 'bag of tricks'.

 

ACA Tri-State Camp Conference
March 17 - 20, 2009 , Atlantic City, NJ at Atlantic City Convention Center. Camp professionals, seasonal staff, youth development professionals, and “out of school” experiential educators gather annually to participate in over 200 program sessions, visit the 300 booth exhibit hall, and network amongst a group of people dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of children.

CampWest Conference 2009 April 1 - 4, 2009, Las Vegas, NV at Alexis Park Resort.This conference offers practical and guided education so conference attendees can maximize their level of learning and retention of information. From the opening kickoff to the closing session, conference speakers will connect the dots of “Building Connections: Creating Camps That Make a Difference.”

BRING “IMAGINATION-IN-MOTION” TO YOUR CAMP

- Models Teamwork!!
- Fun & Dynamic!!
- Teaches Campers how to work together!!

Welcome to “Imagination-in-Motion”, the brainchild of Paul Rajeckas & Neil Intraub, physical theater practitioners who have presented thousands of children’s performances and workshops over the past thirty years! Performing in venues as diverse as the Kennedy Center, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the Pine Tree Elementary School, Paul & Neil look forward to bringing their dynamic form of theater to your camp this summer.

The Performance:
Rajeckas & Intraub are a modern day Laurel & Hardy. Their sense of play and resilient on-stage friendship created “Imagination-in-Motion” – an athletic physical theater performance that plays like a live cartoon – drawing on various theatrical styles, including mime, modern dance and vaudeville – but turns these traditions upside down by combining them with dialogue, audience participation and a delightfully original soundtrack. Highlights include the creation of a mechanical man who runs amok while the audience cheers, a boy’s struggle to escape from within a video game, and a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks both performers offstage.

The Workshop (optional):
A hands-on workshop that is all about ensemble, Rajeckas & Intraub teach campers what it means to work together, building a sense of teamwork and cooperation. The artists de-mystify the creative process by illustrating that the skills necessary to create their dynamic performance are the same skills campers need in group situations, whether team sports, building a campfire, capture the flag, etc. The important lesson is the 3C’s (i.e. Concentration, Cooperation & Commitment) – physicalizing the 3C’s allows the students to ‘see’ these life skills in a new, exciting way.

The NEW YORK TIMES has called “Imagination-in-Motion” “… hilarious and persuasive”. The MILWAUKEE JOURNAL has referred to Paul & Neil’s work as “a gesture of astonishing physical virtuosity and incredible richness.”

Check out their website, phone: 212-529-8068, email: nintraub@aol.com

We have the opportunity to be movers and shakers in the lives of the children who attend camp. Encourage. Inspire. Celebrate. With your counselors as their dance partners, move them to join in the dance of life, rather than just be passive wall flowers. They might not dance right away, or they may not step out on the dance floor at all, but there is something to be said about a little foot tapping and head bopping.
– Charisse Formanes

On behalf of David Chun, Carol Mendelsohn and Jodi Stone, it was a pleasure to meet those of you who attended the ACA National Conference this past week! See thread for photos!