Author: Elissa

I sat in center camp today and watched your kids playing and was thinking of you, their families at home, wondering if the pictures and video truly relay how easy life is up here. There were kids swinging on swings and some were having a catch and most were in conversation with one another and all I kept think was how at ease our kids are here. The music was playing, the sun was shining and everyone was at ease and so happy. There is no traffic to get frustrated over, no homework to focus on, no daily stresses to occupy our minds and no concept of time to worry how late we may be to an appointment. The word stressless is a perfect way to describe the feeling I felt as I watched your kids play.  It actually took my breath away as I felt incredibly grateful  that our kids get to detox from the stresses of their real world and live like this in this environment for another 3 1/2 weeks.

“Whether You Think You Can Or Think You Can’t, You’re Right.” – Henry Ford

Collegiate Girls Basketball – CAW 32 @ Lohikan 5

Senior Girls Basketball – CAW 41 @ Shoshanim 12

Super & CIT Mixed Doubles Tournament @ Trails End – Laine Bishop & Jake Atlas advance to Semi-Finals

Middy Boys Tennis – CAW 0 vs. Starlight 5

Inter Boys Soccer – CAW 7 vs. Wayne 2

Collegiate Boys Hockey – CAW 3 vs. Lavi 6

Super Boys Volleyball Tournament at Towanda – CAW wins First Place

Senior/Super/CIT Mixed Doubles Tennis Tournament @ Tyler Hill – CAW lost in second round

The excitement around Chenny Jam is undeniable. It is Boys Side vs. Girls Side – It is Pink vs. Black – It is energy and it is a camp favorite. It is everything the NBA ALl-Star offers but just here in our backyard. There are prizes, halftime dance shows, trick shots and dunks. It is a night that stands out as a summer favorite and not a camper at tonight’s game had anything but an INCREDIBLE time. One of those nights that you can’t sit down because standing and dancing makes way more sense. The fun was over the top and then of course there was the game. It was all staff playing and all camp cheering. Tonight’s Win went to GIRLS SIDE!!! Everyone in Pink went nuts but with all the prizes and T-shirts thrown out the crowd, everyone was a winner. Oh What a Night!!! Who needs Lebron or KD? We sure don’t.

Chenny out.

Rain was in the forecast today so we had to go to plan B for our fabulous trip day today. That meant we all had to be the river and go with the new plans and that is exactly what our kids did. No tears, no disappointment just plan B. I heard a Mohican camper say to his buddy, “Camel Beach would have been fun but bowling and roller skating sounds pretty cool too.” That is the essence of being the river. I often ask our kids to be the river and not the rock. Rocks are stuck in one place and they can only see what is right around them but when you are the river you flow with the current and get too see so much more on your journey and that is exactly what our kids did. The original plan for our kids was to be outside at amusement parks and water parks but the rain had a different plan for us and it turned out to be a perfect day for all. Being the river is way more fun than being the rock.

Cherokee kids (Freshman, Junior and Middies) spent their morning bowling at the lanes and had a ball. Then it was off to the theater to grab a summer blockbuster. Half the kids saw Incredibles 2 while the other half enjoyed Hotel Transylvania 3. The kids rolled back into camp at dinner time and had a pizza party waiting for them. It was a great day and an incredible night for our youngest campers here at Chenny.

Mohican kids (Inters & Collegiates) also spent their morning at a bowling alley and they too had a great morning. Bowling, arcade games and lunch at the alley was a perfect morning for our Mohican kids. After they were done with bowling it was off to Skate Escape for some old school roller skating and they LOVED it. When the kids got back to camp that is all they could talk about. They absolutely loved rollerskating. For so many of them it was the first time they ever roller skated and it was the highlight of their day. It was all smiles when they rolled back into camp as they spent an incredible day bowling and skating. Lucky kids!

Navajo had a ball at Kalahari – the country’s largest indoor waterpark. It was swooshing down the Barrel Balloon or speeding through the Anaconda slide our kids had a ball at the park today. Our oldest campers enjoyed an entire day at Kalhari but the joy is was being with each other and spending a summer day with good friends.

So the day wasn’t what they had originally planned but our campers proved that they were all the River today and sometimes Plan B’s are pretty darn awesome!!

Chenny out.

When you think of sports and competition at home it tends to be cut throat and intense. There are endless hours of practice, upset feelings when our kids don’t make the travel team and stress the players feel when they hear the parents an onlookers coach them from the sidelines. It couldn’t be more opposite here. There is competition yes but the entire focus on playing sports at camp is all about the joy of playing, nothing more nothing less. When you think about our kids playing a sport just for the joy of playing, it makes sense and it can inspire them rather than deflate them. Another magical moment that I witnessed today was when our girls swim team arrived back at camp after their meet at Camp Starlight. The vans rolled through our gates and I heard singing, loud singing coming from inside the van. The van door opened and out rolled a group of kids laughing and singing at the top of their lungs. The smiles on their faces told their story. I asked how their swim meet went and every single one of them replied, “It was AWESOME” and “We had so much Fun!!” Then one of them told me how they came in last place and how much fun they had. These girls got it. They all loved to swim and that is why the day was incredible. They loved to swim regardless of a win or a loss, they just loved to swim. There were no coaches yelling, no disappointed faces for their defeat, no feelings of loss and agony. Each one of the girls couldn’t tell me fast enough how much fun they had. What a gift. What a perspective. What a lesson for all of us who may push too hard or expect too much from our kids who just want to love playing their sport. Reality is that the odds they will earn a living from playing professional sports is pretty low but odds are if done right, sports can inspire our kids and make them feel good about themselves. Sport can teach us how to be a good teammate and how to loose with dignity and grace. The lessons they will take with them wherever they go. I wish you all could have seen that van roll in with a bunch of kids laughing and singing after they came in last place.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Freshman – CIT Girls Swim Meet @ Starlight – CAW took 5th Place

Collegiate Girls Soccer – CAW 7 vs. Tioga 2

Super Girls Basketball Tournament @ Tyler Hill  – Game 1 CAW 11 vs. Westmont 32 / Game 2 CAW 26 vs. Seneca Lake 25 / Game 3 CAW 15 vs. Lokanda 23

Middy Boys Hockey – CAW 3 @ Starlight 5

Middy Boys Basketball – CAW 10 @ Tioga 7

Senior Boys Soccer – CAW 10 @ Perlman 2 – CAW heading to Championship

Senior/Super Boys Softball – CAW 1 @ Seneca Lake 0

GC/CIT Boys Baseball – CAW 7 @ Westmont 1 – CAW heading to Championship

Tonight’s evening activity was a show stopper. It was our GC  girls vs. our CIT’s playing in a rough and tumble game of Powder Puff football. CIT’s were dressed in all black and GC’s sported their white attire. The boys in each division were the cheerleaders and they got the crowd on their feet. It was a great night of football and we all had a fantastic time outside under the lights. The competition was fun and the game ended in a 21-21 tie. There were great plays, interceptions, long passes and great defense. The kids had a ball watching the girls on the grid iron. It was Monday night football here at Chenny and everyone loved it!  Summer nights like these will stay in our minds forever if either you played in the game or watched on the sidelines.  Just another incredible night in summer ’18.

 

What an absolutely perfect Visiting Day we had with all of you here yesterday. It was a spectacular day and we love showing off our summer home but today it was back to camp and everyone was ready to play. The day here was picture perfect. As I was walking through camp today, I headed down to the lake and watched your kids play. They were jumping off the inflatables in the water park, getting blobbed off the water trampoline and running to tubing with an excitement they just couldn’t contain. Three darling girl campers right in front of my were making a sand castle together and they saw a CIT boy trying to get his camper into the lake for some fun. This young boy wasn’t having it and just didn’t want to go into the lake and was having a hard moment. The CIT tried everything and nothing seemed to help except for when these 3 little darlings came to the rescue. They too saw what was happening and said to both boys, “Come play with us, we would love your help building a giant sand castle.” So the 3 now turned into a 5 and this group was brought together because 3 little girls reached out their hand and opened their circle to a few new friends. I turned off my walkie, sat back and watched what was right in front of me. This was the magic of kids being open to one another and offering friendship even in the form of building a sand castle. All they did was see someone who needed an offer to join them and he jumped in. That hard moment passed for that young camper, the CIT joined him where his camper  wanted to be and those 3 cutie pies probably have no idea how their openness to include others made someone else feel really great.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.― Michael Jordan

Inter Girls Tennis  – CAW 3 vs. Wayne 2 – CAW heads to Championship Game

Senior Girls Soccer Girls Soccer – CAW 2 vs. Starlight 3

Collegiate Boys Softball – CAW 2 vs. Westmont 3

Senior Boys Basketball – CAW 34 vs. Westmont 28

GC/CIT Boys Soccer Tournament @ Equinunk – Game 1 CAW 4 vs. Equinunk – Game 2 CAW 1 vs. Wayne 0 – Game 3 CAW 4 vs. Island Lake 0 – CAW advances to Final and lost but had the BEST Time at this tourney!

GC/CIT Boys Hockey @ CAW 5 @ Starlight 6

The last four weeks are in front of us and we aren’t wasting a moment. GC’s are getting ready to wander. The Supers are preparing for their Vermont/Boston adventure and the Seniors just cant wait for their overnight to Hershey It’s great to be a Chenny kid!!!!! The best part camp are these last 4 weeks. Lets get at it!!

Chenny out.

 

 

I think it is safe to say that our new Visiting Day process was a HUGE SUCCESS! We planned this day months ago and hoped it would work this seamlessly and it did. We can’t fully explain how happy we were to see parents, grandparents and other family members that joined you today all enter camp together! We wanted you to enjoy that moment as a family of getting your campers together and that is exactly what we saw happening today. The ease and joy of the morning was just beautiful and set the tone for the day. We watched you run to your children and hold them so tight. There is nothing like that first hug after not seeing your kids for three weeks. They needed it as much as you did. Today was all about Family and it was about making it as easy and stressless as possible and we hope we provided that experience for you and your family.

When you handed over your children to us just 3 weeks ago, our goal was to provide a community that inspires them, a place that protects them and experiences that make them better people. Today a father of a camper approached me and Jon and was in tears as he was trying to describe his emotions from the day. Today, he saw his son in a way that he never had. Something had been unlocked and his son was confident, secure, outgoing and profoundly happy here. He hadn’t seen this kind freedom from his son before and after a pretty tough year at school, he watched his boy in complete and total joy surrounded by friends – something that didn’t come so easily at home. He couldn’t even find the words but we knew what he wanted to say. He hugged us and said that there was no greater gift then seeing his child like this. What a gift he gave us today as he shared his thoughts. This was just one of so many moments that made our Visiting Day exceptional. Watching you enjoy your kids today and seeing how happy they are here make us smile from the inside out. We get this every day all summer long and today you got to see how we live inside these gates.

We hope your Visiting Day was outstanding and was exactly what you needed. We have four more weeks of this amazing place and we plan to make each day better than the next. Thank you for your love, support and appreciation for how we take care of your babies. Your children make us better people and we are so grateful for each and every single one of them. VisitingDay 2018 is in the books and will go down as one of the best!!

Life is Great at Camp Chen-A-Wanda!

Chennu out