Author: Elissa

Oh what a night! Sign and Song was incredible and Girls side blew the roof off the house. An absolutely spectacular show put on by every single girl camper who worked so hard and delivered a brilliant performance. Tonight is all about Chen-A-Wanda tradition and leaving your mark. Every boy bunk and girl bunk made a plaque, decided on a name and created a plaque that will be hung in the bunks till the end of time. Every campers name is on the plaque and that is cemented in Chenny history. There isn’t an alum that comes for a visit that doesn’t search for their plaque as soon as they get here. It’s just what you do – look for your plaque. Once they are hung in the bunks, they are there forever. The artwork was fantastic and the competition was fierce but there could only be one plaque winner for Lower Camp boys and Lower Camp girls and only one winner for Upper camp boys and Upper Girls. A giant congratulations goes to Girls Bunk H and Boys Bunk C for winning lower camp best plaques. Girls Bunk U and Boys Bunk N took home the title of Upper Camp Plaque Winners! When you are a Chenny kid, this means everything.

The main event is the Girls Side dance and boy did they deliver. Events like these are just simply magical. Something special happens when we are all together, doing what every Chenny camper has done before us and what every Chenny kid will do for years to come. Each girls bunk puts on a dance related to their bunk plaque name i.e. Bunk B Boxers put on a dance that was the most adorable dance ever as they all were little boxers. Couldn’t have been cuter, but hopefully you get the point to how they create their dances. They coordinate costumes around their theme and girls side just rocked tonight. It went from the cutest, newest most adorable rookies to the wildly talented and show stopping GC’s who were just incredible. You know you have a great show when all of boys side were so supportive, cheering after every group. They cheered on girls side and the room was electric. It was so campy and it felt so good. Even the counselors that were off duty, came to see the show tonight. It was an absolute packed house with standing room only in Shields Hall. Every counselor was cheering on their kids. During the girls of Bunk M’s dance, I was sitting next to their counselor who was screaming, “Those are my Girls!!!!!” She was standing on the bench, singing along at the top of her lungs. It was total pride and total connection! She turned to me and said,”I cant believe I met these girls 2 weeks ago, they are all my little sisters”. This is what happens here, we celebrate, sing and dance together and bonds are made. It happens that quickly. Two weeks and it becomes the start of a sisterhood and brotherhood, 8 years later and its connections for life. A major congratulations to Girls Bunk L for winning Lower Camp Song and the GC’s in Bunk U dominated with a win for their Song. The night was just right. It was an experience all our new kids loved to see and be a part of and it was something our returning kids yearned for over the past 2 years. It’s what they looked forward to and planned for and it didn’t disappoint. Sign &  Song 2021 is in the books and part of Chenny history. Plaques will go up tomorrow in each bunk and your campers name, hangs on the wall as its their mark that they are forever part of the Chnny family.

Camp is in full swing and kids have totally settled in. Hard to believe but we have just completed Week 2. For our first time camper parents, they did it!! They have been at sleep-away camp for 2 weeks and are doing so AMAZING!! Their days are filled with so many great moments, one after the other. I love watching the entire camp at snack call. Its at 2:45pm each day right after 4th period, the bugle blows and all the kids come to center camp for snack call. Its my favorite time of the day. I sit and watch the connections between all our campers at snack call. Kids running. to siblings and chatting it away. Believe it or not, those siblings that may ignore each other at home, are so interested and connected at camp. It would make you so proud to see how siblings are there for each other. That has always made me smile but for some reason, this summer our sibling campers are closer than ever. Maybe it was the year we had but your kids are so close and are always looking out for each other. Its incredible to see. So this time at snack call is one of those moments everyday that defines why we are all so connected. Campers running to grab their snacks and grabbing a seat with their buddies all around them. Kids eating with their First Friends and mingling with everyone. Every swing is taken and its a sea of happy snacking happy kids who spent their entire day playing outside and making connections. Its breathtaking on so many levels.

It was Dueling Pianos for evening activity tonight and the kids LOVED LOVED it!! It was a giant sing-along party as the dueling pianos played all the kids requested songs. The roof came off as we all sang together. What an incredible night it was. Our Supers and GC’s got off camp tonight as we rented out a rollerskating rink. We had the place to ourselves. It was so much fun. The kids had a ball. A perfectly fun summer night here at Camp Chen-A-Wanda. Our kids deserve moments like these.

It’s Sign & Song tomorrow night and Girls Side is pushing hard with practicing their dances all over camp. Plaques are being completed and there is an energy in the air. Costumes are being finalized and and last minute changes are made. We all can’t wait for this camp favorite – Sign & Song  is here.

 

I walked into Arts and Crafts today and stumbled upon a group of Junior boys in our Lego room. They created a giant connected circular lego creation, together. These 8 boys were  focused on this masterpiece they were creating and it was massive. They kept building onto it and as they were making it bigger, each camper added their own story to what it was and how big they could make it. They worked together, they used ingenuity, the compromised, they communicated and together they built something way bigger than their creation. I sat in that Lego room and watched in awe as they created bonds and a brotherhood. As the structure got bigger, their commitment to it grew. One of the campers said to the group, “hey guys, we should do this together everyday.” to which every kid jumped in with a “yeah lets do it”. They may have been playing with Legos but what was being created was magic. This is what I get to see everyday. Connections made and nurtured solely by each camper. Nobody is making playdates for them but they them selves are building relationships. It happens organically and that is why I love camp so very much.  The lego room was just the backdrop but the heart and soul were those 8 boys sitting around the table, chatting away with one another and making a masterpiece together.

For the first time since Ive been writing these blogs for our parents at home, I missed last nights blog and I deeply apologize. It was a packed day with a doozy of a storm late last night. Our internet connection wasn’t great as there were some trees down just outside of camp so last night blog just couldn’t go up. I know how you at home crave a birds eye view of how your children are doing and let someone who is watching and observing them all, THEY ARE DOING INCREDIBLE. The spirit here is joyful. There is no utopia but this place gets pretty darn close. Opening camp at the end of a global pandemic creates some unique challenges but also some phenomenal opportunities and the one thing that there is absolutely no doubt is that we all need each other. We need to connect. We need to communicate. We need to be needed and we need to sit around a lego table and create masterpieces.

We have a saying here at Chenny that has stood the test of time and has become part of our ethos; Be the River, Not the Rock. When you approach life as the river, you are capable to roll with life’s punches and go with the flow. When you are the rock, you get stuck and moving forward seems impossible. Today, I have to honor our oldest campers, our Supers and GC’s who proved to be the river. We had an incredible afternoon planned for them at a an extreme ropes course. We had rented the place to ourselves and after a day of crazy extreme climbing and zip-lining, it was a private catered dinner in an outside pavilion. The day was planned and we were beyond excited for the kids to experience this day of fun. What was supposed to be a beautiful day out for Supers and GC’s became disappointment. The rainstorm that rolled in had different plans for our kids today. They waited and waited and waited some more and then it was time to throw in the towel and head back to camp. What was forecasted as a beautiful day turned out to be even better. No they weren’t able to climb the course today and their outdoor catered dinner was also canceled but your kids were the river. They went with the flow. They chatted with their buddies and laughed with friends. They fell asleep on each other on the bus ride home and they may have even commiserated together with how today was a bummer. But they spent time with one another, engaged with each other, got caught in the rain and got soaked together and these are standout moments that make our summers great. Those moments that happen in between our plans and become way bigger than any ropes course. This trip is already rescheduled and it will happen for our kids, but today they showed how they rolled with it and truly became the river.

We brought in Dominos Pizza for the group and they absolutely loved it. You just can’t go wrong with cheesy bread and Pizza. They rolled with what life threw at them today and that is a skill to be proud of. They are just so happy to be here and be with one another. It’s not where we go but it’s who we’re with that makes all the difference in the world. We couldn’t be prouder of our campers who showed us all how to be the River!

After last nights celebration, it was onward for everyone at camp. Lets get the party started and there is no time to waste. Reveille rang this morning and it was up and adam. Campers had things to do, games to play and people to meet. So many of our Big/Little First Friends got to spend time together today and in the next few days, we will hold events just for them. The weather was picture perfect. The energy at camp was one of relief and a total excitement to play. Kids are talking to each other in groups and there conversations have no device in between them. We are watching your children engage and embrace what they so desperately missed for way to long and it is simply joyful. Though we have all been here for 8 days, acclimating and reconnecting, today feels like our summer began.

There are many ways for our campers to be recognized for their outstanding character and contribution and honoring them as our Campers of the Week is a huge deal at Chenny. It is with great pride as we honor Summer 2021’s Campers of the week.

Girls Side /   Boys Side

Rookies – Emma Shey / Alex Orlando

Freshman – Jagger Sacks / Adam Rashid

Juniors – Abby Sugarman / Dylan Cohen

Middies – Chloe Day / Brett Simpson

Inters – Maya Knobloch / Dylan DeGeorge

Collegiate – Cami Cohen / Jason Benisch

Seniors – Jolie Krieger / Trent Hernandez

Supers – Gracie Frankel / Logan Saltzman

GC’s  – Jess Benisch / Ethan Schwartz

The night ended with a Staff Talent show put on by our incredibly talented staff. They danced and sang and blew our minds with the talent they shared with us. They rapped and performed magic and entertained us. It was an incredible night in Shields Hall watching our kids give standing ovations to the counselors they adore. One counselor who performed tonight came up to me and said this is so outside his comfort zone and how nervous he was but if he was going to impact his campers, he wanted to be an example of being brave and going for it. He brought the house down and got so much Chenny love. Thats how we do it here – face your fears, gain your confidence and be supported the whole way through.