COUNTDOWN TO CAMP! Lace up your sneakers! Put on your hiking boots! And dust off your dancin’ shoes! Get ready for some foot stomping fun this summer! It all begins in 30 days!

I know we’re all excited about this summer. Seeing our summer friends again, making new camp friends and enjoying all of the fun that happens at camp is the highlight of the year for me and I know it is for you too! For us die hards, the countdown to camp begins when the buses drive down the road at the end... But it’s really close now!!! Get psyched!

Click here for our 2009 Welcome Message.

Hello Gang! Jon here... working! Yes, I’m working in the New Jersey Office! I know! I can’t believe it either! Anyway, I’m having fun helping everybody with precamp preparations. It’s busy and a lot of work but I’m in the middle of all of the action and I get the latest camp news first! I know! I love it!

Here’s the latest... Everyone’s favorite Intermediate Girls Division Director Robin Chamow reports that she’s definitely pysched for her sixth summer at Camp Lohikan. Robin says that her campers will be happy to see that she’s perfected her scooping technique and the Cookies and Cream is guaranteed to have the shortest line on Sunday Sundaes! What about me? I like chocolate ice cream! Robin sends her “See you in a few weeks” hellos out to all of her inter girls, fans of cookie and cream ice cream, and all of her camp friends!

MARRIAGE NEWS! A big congratulations goes out to Lohikanites Ashley Ainsworth and Rob Lugo who got married this past April! Best of Luck Rob and Ashley!!! Rob and Ashley will be heading up Lohikan’s ceramics and pottery arts department and based upon the tons of great stuff produced last summer... 2009 will be ARTISTIC! We’re looking forward to seeing you this summer!

We’ve got a great group of staff members working at camp right now. It’s called “pre-camp” and these staff members are doing all the hard stuff like cleaning cabins, mowing grass, weeding flower beds, setting up activity sites and geting camp ready for the big day... June 28!!!

Tennis instructor par excellence, Jojo Crowley, is one of our pre-camp gals and she asked me to send her “Can’t wait to see you” hellos out to all of her camp buddies. Jojo says the tennis courts look great and she’s looking forward to her competitive tennis clinics. Me too!

Camp Lohikan’s Opera Singing Chef called in to say... Oh solo mio... Won’t be too long.... I love Lohikan... That’s why, this song... Okay, so Dennis Ryan isn’t the best song writer but he’s an excellent singer and chef! Dennis is also an excellent arm wrestler which he proved when he won the annual event on the Night of the Superstarz! Dennis sends his love to all and said that he can’t wait to get back in to Chez Lohikan and cook up some great food this summer! Dennis also promises to serenade us during Italian dinner night! I love Italian night!

The Krazy Katz Club has been expanded. Honorary member, Ashley Sorenson, has been promoted as full member of this summer’s evening activity production crew and couldn’t be more excited. Pictured on left is Ashley with Mitchell Morris, the Krazy Katz Chairman of the Board. Get ready for a great summer!

Congrats goes out to camper, Matt Kempner! I saw Matt on television recently in an episode of the ABC show The Unusuals, and I know a bunch of you Lohikanites out there saw Matt too! Talented Matt Kempner is now taking his act onto the big stage. Matt is currently starring in the Off-Broadway show Almost an Evening playing at the Atlantic Theater in New York City! I also heard that Matt will be making his film debut in the new Helen Hunt movie, Everyday, in the fall! Congrats Matt! Keep up the good work. We’re all your fans! Can’t wait to see you this summer!

We’ve got spirit, yes we do... We’ve got spirit, how about you? Everybody knows I’m an Olympics nut! Hey, what can I say. I’ve got the SPIRIT! I know you do too... especially this summer. I’ve convinced Mark to loosen the budget for BREAKOUT and it’s awesome! You’ll just have to wait to see what I mean but I guarantee that you’ll be surprised!!!

This past week we’ve had a few surprises in the NJ office. The best surprise was a visit from long time Lohikanite, Sam Schneider. Sam graduated from Vanderbilt University in May and is now working towards his masters degree. Then it’s teaching and hopefully back to Lohikan for another 10 year run! Good luck.

Talking about the Schneiders, Sam’s younger brother, Jon, was rumored to have been seen recently performing at the Six Flags Show in the Park Parade in New Jersey! Looks like another Lohikan circus star has taken to the road! Is it true Jon? Let us know!

Circus fans will be happy to know that Mark Gandy is back this summer. Mark has spent the last year traveling with Bruce Pfeffer’s Circus of the Kids and plans to return to college in New Orleans in September. These plans opened his schedule for a return performance at Lohikan! That’s great news! See you soon Mark!

Could it be true? Lohikan legend, Sam Eisner, will be returning to camp for his 12th consecutive summer? Yes, it’s true! Sam says that he can’t imagine a summer without Eddie’s pizza, Ms. Lohikan, Camper Counselor Day and French Fridays!!! We’re happy to know you’ll be back Sam - You’re the best!

That’s it for now gang. I’ll definitely have more news next time. Until then, let me know what’s up at jon@lohikan.com. See you soon! - Jon

Hello everybody! Summer’s just around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited. This year I’ve been working with Mark and Joe on staff hiring and it’s been a lot of hard work but also a lot of fun! Searching for staff, selecting, screening, interviewing and then, when the perfect candidate is found... closing the deal... It’s all been fun!

I have to say that we have a fantastic group of returning staff this summer. You know them well and they’ve been announced in newsletters going back as far as December. If you missed an issue, you can take a look at the old newsletters by clicking here. Since our last newsletter we did receive formal confirmation from a number of Lohikan notables who jumped on at board the last minute. These include: Dana Arschin (2000-2005 circus star!), and Matt Breasbois (2006 head instructor for mt. biking and mt. boarding). Both great staff members returning from a couple years ago!

Super returning staff members are joined by an incredibly talented, skilled, caring and charismatic group of new staff members. The new staff members bring new ideas to the program and this year’s crop has some real pizazz! I can’t wait until camp begins. I think this summer is going to be the BEST! I’m so excited!!!

So is Suzi Evangelatos! Suzi’s got to be the best creative arts director of all time. Who else could manage all those creative arts projects, workshops and events on a daily basis? There’s a reason why creative arts is a top 5 activity at Camp Lohikan... Suzi and company!

We’ve got Kim Neilson back in operations ‘09. Yes, your mail, email and packages will be delivered on time, every time!

Doug Jensen is back for summer #25! Doug looks so young some say he started working at camp when he was 5 years old! Hey, camp keeps you young! Doug returns to the senior division as co-division director, a position shared with Rich Malik, another Lohikan super star! Look for a column from Doug in the next e-newsletter.

Chris Schultz returns for summer #7 as the assistant camp director in charge of intercamp games (among other jobs!) This position was held by Chris in 2004 and 2005 so we know that the intercamp games program will be very active in 2009. The number to beat is 160 intercamp games. That’s the record.

I’m looking forward to Chris beating another record. Last summer was the seventh year Chris Schultz has run his Lohikan Marathon and we had 190 kids participate! That’s a lot of sweat!!! This year... let’s see what Chris can do!

And in the "Last But Not Least Category" - the winner of the last returning staff member to return his/her summer contract contest goes to... ta da, Steven Shields! Steven has been very busy teaching music and we’re just happy to have you back Steve! Better late than never!

WHAT’S MISSING? Our last newsletter printed the photo on the left with the challenge... What’s Missing? Long time Lohikanites have gotten accustomed to seeing the beautiful view of Lohikan’s lake and the south mountain with a huge landmark that’s been around since the 1960’s. It’s missing from the photo on the left because... it’s been removed. What was removed??? The Triple Chair Lift!!! The chair lift was used in the winter operations of Lohikan’s winter ski area which ended in 2004.

We had loads of answers, some right, some way off. The first 12 or so correct answers came in at about the same time so we thought it would be fairer to expand the winning circle from 5 to 12. Here are the winners! You all won an awesome official Camp Lohikan T-Shirt! Congrats to: Sophia Koh, Hannah Reape, Dylan Toron, Cara Jaslove, Alexy Lefebvre, Aliya Cohen, Dalia Lache, Jennifer Neuman, Jason Katz, Samantha Fuller, Nick Schmidt, and Emily Morris. You guys are FAST!!!

NEWSLETTER CONTEST:
WHO’S THE ARTIST?

Rock Band did an amazing job last summer. The Camp-A-Palooza Concerts were great on stage, in the park and at the amphitheater! The cd’s produced were also great. There’s this one song that was produced on cd that I could never get out of my head... If you know who did the song... YOU WIN! Click here to hear the song. Oh, what do you win? How about an all expense paid trip to the canteen for two and a Slurp and Turf!

Joe’s Thought for Today:
I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

Joe’s Thought for Tomorrow:
Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.

Hello everybody! Summer’s just around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited. This summer I’m the scheduler in-charge! I’m the guy who confirms that all of your activity choices appear on your schedule. And the activities this year are awesome!

All of your favorite daily activities are back... some with a twist! Now when it rains, we have an Indoor Riding Ring for horseback riding enthusiasts! No more cancelled classes because of rain! We also have the new circus building for Flying Trapeze. There’s flying trapeze outdoors with the original rig and also an indoor rig when you want to get out of the sun ...or rain. You’ll be flying rain or shine! We also have the tight wire activity added to the circus program which will be really cool. But that’s not all! A new putting area for golf will make golf even more popular than it was last year! We’re also getting alot of attention from girls excited about Field Hockey’s addition to the daily activity program. We’ve already lined-up inter-camp games in Field Hockey so we’re happy to see that there’s lots of interest!

LATE NEWS: Long Live Dodgeball! I know, I know. With activities like flying trapeze, horseback riding, tennis, sailing, golf, adventure... why would anyone schedule dodgeball? Well, when I was a camper we’d pray for rain so we could play dodgeball in the gym! I even heard inter boys asking for it last summer. Well the jury’s in, dodgeball’s back in 2009! Dodgeball’s a regular activity offered fourth period everyday!... DODGEBALL 2009!

ONLINE ACTIVITY SELECTION FORMS - All Program Forms are available online at the Enrolled Camper Login Box located at www.lohikan.com. (login: lohikan2009; password: lohikan1957) If you haven’t completed your Activity Selection Form yet, you should start taking a look at it. The activity selection form is the form you use to schedule your first week’s worth of activities. You can still change your activities every day at camp but it’s a good idea to complete the activity selection form because this is the only way to be guaranteed you’ll get the activity! There’s a separate activity selection form for inter boys and girls and senior boys and girls. Super juniors who want to join in the program would use the inter boy or girl form.

Campers participating in the elective program should have their ASF Form mailed to us by June 10th.

If you have any questions, just give us a call in the NJ office at 908-470-9317 up until June 13th. After June 17th, we can be reached at the campsite office - 570-798-2707. 

The Krazy Katz Club is open for membership! We produce evening activities every night of the summer... It’s non-stop fun! Want to perform at campfire? Want to help out with summer productions? Have some ideas? Right now the Krazy Katz are working on this year’s theme for Olympics. We’re also working on some junior, inter and senior special events and also some cool lunch program ideas. Have some ideas you’d like to contribute? Email us at krazykatz@lohikan.com. We’re all ears!

This summer’s events calendar is filled with all of your favorites from last summer PLUS some new surprises like: Lip Sync with a Twist, Wild Rice Maze Riot, Gears and Ropes, Apache Launch, Topsy Turvey Weekend, the Lohikan Shuffle, the new Senior Staff Carnival Booth - Monsoon Power Shower! (also known as the fire truck booth!), Dancin’ with the Staff, Senior Tiki Bivouac, Gladiator Lunch, Dress your Counselor like an Animal Lunch (?), Mitchell’s Viking Surprise, Rumba Lunch. Add these wacky events to Lohikan Idol, Night of the Super Starz, DJ Todd Yahney’s Dance Extravaganza, Senior Beach Parties, July 4th’s Doo Daa Parade, Pool Parties, Night at the Races, Twilight Zone Breakout, Sadi Hawkins Night, The Rock Hunt, Cajun Scramble, the Big Sing, Classic Crooner’s Night, Camp-A-Palooza Concerts, Talent Show, and you’ve got some major fun in store!

My favorite new thing though has got to be the Monsoon Power Shower!

Watch out for the new Monsoon Power Shower Carnival Booth! It’s coming this summer thanks to firefighter, Terry Beers, and his recent procurement of equipment to turn the camp fire truck into what I predict will be the most popular carnival booth at this summer’s Camp Carnival Extravaganza! The Monsoon Power Shower Booth is just one of Terry’s contributions to this summer’s excitment. Over the past year Terry has renovated cabin 6’s bathrooms, installed a new riding ring at the stables, renovated the porch of cabin 8, and helped out with dozens of winter maintenance projects. Thanks Terry!

I can’t believe that this will be my 22nd summer at Camp Lohikan. Time flies when you’re having fun! And I’d have to say that I’ve had a lot of fun! Camp gets better and better every summer.

More fun activities, more facilities, more special events, and MORE CLINICS! I’m in charge of the clinics program operation, so it’s natural that I think clinics are the best! But YOU love them too!
This summer we’ve got all your favorites plus some new clincis too! Check out: Competitive Tennis Clinic, Survival Camp, Camp Explore, Circus Show Clinic, Skate X-Games Clinic, Equestrian Clinic, Horse Care Clinic, Paintball Camp, Spy Camp, Hip Hop Clinic, Cheerleading Clinic, Basketball Clinic, and the Beginner/Intermediate Golf Clinic! The interest has been huge and space is running out, so sign up now! The Summer Clinic Sign-Up Form is available online. Just go to the enrolled camper login box on Lohikan’s index page (www.lohikan.com) and sign-in. See you at camp!

The snow has melted at camp. There’s still a chill in the air at night but the days are getting warmer.

I’ve posted some of the last “snow photos” of camp. Click here for a view.

The warmer weather is perfect for outside work like winter cleanup, scraping, and painting. All in all the camp’s in good shape. Want to see what we’re working on? Click here.

Hope you enjoy my photos! See you at camp!

ACADEMIC TUTORING - SAT PREP CLASS

I know it’s crazy talking about tutoring now that school’s almost over. Enough school! It’s summer and time for camp! Yes, I know. But we’ve had a lot of interest in tutoring this summer, especially in the SAT Tutoring Class. It’s the sign of the times!

The SAT Tutoring Program is operated 3 times a week, 1/2 hour each day, with additional independent study assignments. The program extends over the entire summer with a total of 24 sessions. The cost is $50 - no matter how many sessions are attended. The sign-up form is available by clicking here

Hello Everyone! 

Camp is opening soon and we’re busy with all the paperwork involved in opening camp. You can help! Please get your health form, ASF form (for those in the elective program), camper profile form and any extra program activity forms into us as soon as possible. Also, if you’re interested in taking advanatage of the camp’s bus and baggage service now is the time to reserve your seat. On Sunday, June 28th and Saturday, July 25th we’ll have a coach bus and baggage truck making a pick-up at each of the following locations:

1. Fresh Meadows, New York
2. West Nyack, New York
3. Kenilworth, New Jersey (Union County)
4. Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania
5. White Marsh, Maryland

We will drop-off at the same locations on Friday, July 24th and Thursday, August 20th. Details will be mailed to registered families approximately one wek prior to the pick-up/drop-off date.

New for 2009! We added a bus for our 6 weekers and 3rd 2 weekers to the Fresh Meadows, NY and Union County, NJ areas. This bus and baggage service is scheduled for Friday, August 7th.

- ONLINE CAMP INFORMATION -

The following camp information is currently online at www.lohikan.com in the enrolled camper section.

1. Camp Communications – This section is a backup for our email communications sent to parents. All camp to parent email communications are organized here in date order.

2. 2009 Parents Handbook – Parents are asked to read the Parents Handbook at their earliest convenience. The Parents Handbook contains a clothing list guide, details the latest camp policies and provides first-time camp parents with advice and guidance in making camp preparations.

3. 2009 Parents Handbook Addendum for MINI-CAMP ATTENDEES

4. 2009 Program Bulletin – Campers entering 6th grade and older participate in the elective program. This bulletin describes how the program works and provides guidelines for preparing your camper’s Activity Selection Form.

5. Activity Selection Forms – The Activity Selection Form is the form used to schedule activities in the elective program. The Activity Selection Form is an age and gender specific form. There are separate forms for super juniors (5th graders who opt into the elective program), intermediates (girls and boys entering 6th and 7th grade), and seniors (girls and boys entering 8th grade and older). The forms should be completed and returned to the camp’s winter office by June 10th.

6. Extra Program Activity Forms – These are the forms used to schedule: (a) extra horseback riding (horseback riding in excess of the 1 period of horseback riding which is included in the tuition), (b) jet skiing, (c) paintball, (d) quad riding, (e) email, and (f) academic tutoring.

7. Trip Forms – This section contains the forms used to register for optional trips: (a) local golf course trips, (b) rafting trips on the Delaware River (Note: Canoe trips are part of the camp program and are provided at no charge.), and (c) Scranton Yankee AAA Baseball Games.

8. Other Forms – This section contains miscellaneous forms like the Bunk Request Form, Pen Pal, etc.

9. Camper Profile Form – This form is used to identify summer goals and parental concerns or advice for working with your camper.

10. Senior Camper Agreement – All senior campers (campers entering 8th grade and older) are required to review this agreement with their parents, sign it and return it to our office before camp begins.

11. Big Brother/Big Sister – Senior campers who will be entering their junior year in high school in September can apply for a position as a junior staff member for the summer of 2010. Individuals interested in applying for a junior staff position should participate in the Big Brother/Big Sister Program this summer. The program description and permission for participation are described in this section.

CAMP POLICY REVIEW

GOOD NEWS: Email is here to stay. Feedback from parents and campers alike was overwhelmingly pro email. In fact I think it was 100% for keeping our email program exactly as it stands. Campers enrolled for email can send and receive unlimited emails at Camp Lohikan. It’s the best deal!

The 2008 Bikini Rule still stands. About half of the feedback expressed an understanding of the reasons why such a policy should be in effect in a children’s summer camp. The other half of the feedback was all over the map.

The 2009 Electronics Rule allows cd players and mp3 players but prohibits anything that can access the internet; store, take or play video (i.e. ipod); or take digital pictures. Cell phones are also prohibited.

Any questions, just give us a call. We’re here to help!

Email me at ian@lohikan.com or telephone me at 908-470-9317 until June 13th. After June 17th I can be reached at 570-798-2707.

See you all at camp! - Ian

WE’RE GETTING GREENER! Instead of mailing this month’s newsletter we’re only publishing it online. This green approach not only saves us postage and printing costs, but it’s faster! Because it’s much easier to produce and publish, we’re planning on producing future newsletters online to keep you posted on the latest happenings! Yeah!!!

If you’re not receiving emails from camp, check the "Camp Communications" section available through the Enrolled Camper Login Box.

We’ll be in touch next week! Luv ya! MB, SB, JC, IW, JR, KR, BL, JA