Author: Elissa

It is getting closer to the end and you can see everyone making sure every moment and activity count. Our campers are up and active and participating in ever single activity. With only 2 weeks left, you can feel the eagerness to make it all count. Life is just great here and these last 13 days matter to each one of us. There is no sitting on the sidelines, we are all in the game!!

Just a few games today:

Senior Boys Basketball – CAW 31 @ Tioga 15

Senior Boys Tennis – CAW  2 @ Equinunk 3

The night was all about Girls Sing and it was spectacular. The pride, the joy and the honor of this night was tremendous. Each division worked so hard and it showed. When boys side sat in awe for 2 hours, you know it was entertaining and awesome. The support boys side gives girls side is just breathtaking. From our adorable freshmen through our crazy talented CIT’s, they all brought the house down. I could never bring justice to describing the bonds these girls have with one another but watching them up on stage perform together allows us all to witness it for ourselves.  They have all created a sisterhood that will follow them throughout their lives. The decision to pick winners was beyond difficult, after an agonizing discussion from our boy Group leaders Junior’s won for lower camp and Supers won for upper camp. Congratulation to both divisions who just did amazing tonight. From the alma maters to the dances and from the costumes to the choreography, tonight was insane. Girl’s side rocked it.

Though the CIT’s didn’t win tonight, they pulled on every heartstring in Shields Hall. They brought us all to tears with their emotional performance and ended the show with such grace and dignity. Tonight was their last Girls Sing and they opened their hearts and souls to us. You could have heard a pin drop during their performance. As they finished their performance they sat side by side singing their last song, you could actually feel the bonds they have built with each other  and their love for one another took center stage. Their careers as camper is now coming to an end and we can say with certainty that watching this group for years was like seeing a flower bloom. From the smallest seeds to the most beautiful bouquet, this group blossomed. These 21 girls, each so different from each other but all found common ground and built this community of friendship between them. It is exactly how you want your camp journey to go. These young women are incredible people who we are so proud of. Our hearts grew bigger tonight as we bear witness to something magical happening in front of our eyes. You saw the faces of every camper who sat in awe of our CIT girls tonight and wanted to be them, to have what they have. Camp Chen-A-Wanda is a better place with their presence and it is not goodbye, it will never be goodbye. Their journey will take a shift but Chenny is forever in their hearts and they have left an indelible mark that will never be forgotten. We say to this amazing group of young women, thank you for making a difference here.

Chenny out

 

 

It was brunch day and we all loved the extra sleep. The pace of camp is fast and furious so when we get to sleep in we all love it and today was that day. We rolled out of bed at 10am and headed into the Lodge for a very delicious brunch. Then it was off to activities and a full day of crazy Chenny fun. The campus was buzzing between The Voice Finals tonight and Girls Sing tomorrow night. There is so much going here and  everyone is involved. You just gotta love camp and you gotta really love Chenny. This place where your children spend their summers is full of so many things happening you can go form one incredible activity to the next in the matter of moments. It is truly one incredible place we all call home and with only 2 more weeks to go, we are getting it all in and enjoying every single minute. Life is just great here and we have 14 more days to live it up at Chenny and that is what we plan on doing.

Now onto our sports scores of the day:

Middy Girls Basketball (Gold)  CAW 10 vs. Tioga 24

Super Girls Basketball – CAW 49 vs. Nesher 9 CAW WINS CHAMPIOSHIP!!

GC/CIT Girls LAX – CAW 8 @ Starlight 13

Middy Boys Baseball  – CAW 9 @ Wayne 1

Collegiate Boys Basketball – CAW 56 @ Tioga 33

Senior Boys Soccer – CAW 0 @ Starlight 8

Super Boys Soccer – CAW 2 vs. Milford NJ 0 – CAW is going to the Finals!!

It was time to honor and recognize our Kind Campers. This is really catching on with over 300 nominations. I see camper standing around the  nomination box in droves and kindness is catching in at Camp Chen-A-Wanda. There isn’t a day when a camper or 5 tell me the kind things they saw other campers do that day. As a Director it fills my heart with joy to see our camp family embrace this project and as a mom, it makes my heart melt to see our kids love to do kind things for others. It has caught on and we are all riding the Kindness wave!!!! Congratulations to this weeks Kindest Campers: Skylar Fensterstock, Kaley Morabito, Casey Kaplan, Sydney Aranoff, Zach Parker, Brooke Kanganis, Alex Cohen, Corrine Packel, Sam Metzger, Elaina Hamuy, Sylvie Slotkin, Tyler Wolff, Lexi Heifler, Hunter Galan, Reid Feldman, Max Gutman, Jaclyn Marpet, Ben Kimmelman, Merri Grill, Rachel Garfield. Their faces say it all when their name is called and inn front of the entire camp and they get awarded a Kind Camper T-shirt that was all nominated by their peers. It is awesome to see and bear witness to watching kindness spread at our camp. Kindness matters here and our campers are leading the way!

We have so many talented campers here and they put on a show tonight. It was The Chenny Voice and boy do we have some incredible voices. All 13 of our finalists took the stage and sang their heart out. They were fearless and phenomenal. They  engaged us and entertained us. They were just brilliant and tonight was all about our Voices. After all the finalists sang, the vote was in our campers hands and tonights winners went to duet singers Dasiy Chaskin and Jordan Leeds. We are so proud of every one of them that took that stage and gave us their hearts tonight as they sang with confidence and poise. What a night we all had. It was just another perfect Chenny night!!!

Chenny Out

Watching our kids thrive as they play sports here at Chenny can warm your heart and make you believe again in the power and purpose of sport. Sports allows our children to belong to a team, it provides working with others for a common goal, it allows our kids to have an outlet physically and enhances their lives when used in it’s proper  intention. I think we have all witnessed sports being a great stress for our kids at home at times and when you see them play here you are reminded why playing for the pure love of it is so powerful. I watched our kids play today and I saw them soar. I watched their faces when they hit that shot and I also saw them cope when the ball just wouldn’t go in. There were no angry coaches, there was no disappointment. There was no yelling or screaming. They learned that it’s really ok if they just couldn’t  score this time and they showed such incredible sportsmanship, it would make you proud. Our Inter girls were playing in basketball finals vs. Lavi and we were down 14 – 0 after the first quarter. We couldn’t get anything to drop. Regardless of the score, they were encouraged, they were supported and they were coached and it may be a total coincidence that with this approach our kids won the game. Or maybe there was no coincidence at all. We believed in them and they believed in themselves. You heard our basketball specialist tell them how good they are and to believe that they can comeback and win this game and that is what these girls did. No intimidation, no threats, no disappointing looks from the bench and they came back with such spirit, it was awesome to see. But the real beauty was after the game as they wanted to cheer, jump and celebrate their victory they immediately composed themselves, got in a line, shook the hand of their opponents and thanked each one of them for a great game ending with “have a great rest of your summer.” I was blown away with their graciousness and sportsmanship. As the opposing team headed out, I overheard their coaches talking about what nice kids we have and how impressed they were with the level of sportsmanship they showed. Our girls won that game but the benefits of what will be lasting inside of each one of them, goes way beyond the final score.

Inter Girls Basketball – CAW 28 vs. Lavi 22 – CHENNY WINS WAYNE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Collegiate Girls Soccer  Finals  – CAW 5 vs. Westmont 6

GC/CIT Tennis – CAW4 @ Weequahic 1

Inter Boys Basketball (Red) – CAW 34 @ Westmont 11

Inter Boys Basketball (Gold) – CAW 26 @ Westmont 19

Collegiate Boys Basketball (Red) – CAW 61 vs. Westmont 32

Collegiate Boys Basketball (Gold) – CAW 35 vs. Westmont 17

Tonight was our annual Powder Puff Game – GC’s vs. CIT’s. They had such a great time as the girls played flag football and the boys were cheerleaders and kept the crowd going. The campers watched an intense and exciting game of football. In true Chenny form, the music was bumping, the free giveaways were in full force and the spirit was on high. It was Friday Night Lights on a Thursday. The girls and boys put on a show but the GC’s have serious bragging rights as they pulled out a win with a 21 – 7 victory. All in great fun. These groups showed heart and serious camp spirit.

We have a full house again as the Supers arrived back home tonight from their incredible trip to Virginia Beach and Washington D.C. They rolled off the buses with the hugest smiles telling us that this was the BEST TRIP EVER. Nothing made us more happy than knowing this group of incredible campers had a journey they loved and appreciated. What an incredible day we all had.

Chenny out

The Wanderers are back from their trip of a lifetime out West and as they rolled off the bus with suitcases in tow heading to their bunk, there was a group of Inter campers watching them in awe. I was watching this scene unfold as one camper said to her friend, “That will be us one day coming back from California, and I can’t wait.”  Most of them started as Juniors and have literally grown up in front of our eyes and this was their turn to leave this bubble for a trip with the summer family they created. Trips to Camel Beach and Dorney Park were now the Santa Monica Pier and the Grand Canyon. It’s hard to believe it was their turn at this incredible trip but as time keeps moving forward so quickly,  it is a joy we can’t quite explain seeing them in every stage grow into mature and capable Graduating Campers. So here is to our GC’s for being together for years and creating a bond that will never be broken. As for those Inter campers watching so intensely at the cool GC campers getting off the bus this morning, we say, In a blink of an eye that will be you.

And now a few scores from our Sports Center:

Inter Girls Soccer (Gold) – CAW 3 @ Tioga 1

Lower Camp Dance Competition @ Tyler Hill – CAW Places 1st

Freshmen/Junior Boys Tennis – CAW 0 vs. Starlight 5

Freshmen/Junior Boys Tennis (Gold) – CAW 0 vs. Starlight 5

Middy Boys Basketball – CAW 24 vs. Starlight 32

Middy Boys Soccer Tournament @ Camp Wayne – CAW 3 vs. Wayne 0 / CAW 7 vs. Westmont 0/ CAW 5 vs. Wayne 1

Collegiate Boys Softball – CAW 0 @ Lavi 2

The buzz on camp was all about Halloween and the campers couldn’t wait  to get into their costumes and partake in our annual Chenny costume contest. There were football players and Elvis’s, lots of minions and babies, a few witches and ghosts and so many more awesome costumes.   It was just a perfect evening of dressing up and having fun. The Seniors spooked everyone with their Haunted House and ghostliness. It was creepily cool and the campers loved it. The went in with screams and out with gasps. Nothing could be more fun than Halloween in July!!!!

After our contest it was Trick or Treat time. Each group went station-to-station collecting candy and having a ball. There was spooky music playing all throughout camp that added to the Halloween vibe. The mood was ghooly and everyone dressed up which made it so festive and fun. This camp has so much spirit you can actually feel it. As one camper looked inside his brown bag full of candy, he turned to his friend and said “Can camp get any better?”  And as I overheard him, I couldn’t help but reply, YES IT CAN!!!! Just you wait for what is coming next.

The days seem to be moving more quickly as we have only 16 days left in paradise. But these last weeks are by far the best.  We are not done yet, not even close!!!!

Chenny Out

 

When the big kids are away… the little kids will play. As the Collegiates were having a great time at Great Wolf Lodge, Seniors were enjoying their day in Hershey Park, Supers loved their time in Virginia Beach and our Wanderers spent their last day in Phoenix before they return to camp tomorrow afternoon. Our Freshmen through Inters had camp all to themselves and had an amazing day at camp. It was lower camp takeover and our youngest campers ruled the campus. Faces were painted and campers were fierce with spirit and camp pride. It was a hot one today so all the campers enjoyed water relay races, swim parties, the slip and slide,  water dodgeball tournaments and so much more. It was just a crazy fun day.

The big event of the day was Wiffle Cup 2015. Boys side was dressed in all black and girls side was everything neon. There were chants and cheers but it was all about the game. Boys side was feeling the pressure as they jumped to an early lead but girls side caught up and as they finished 6 innings, Boys side pulled out a ‘W” with a  48 -41 victory over girls side. The players for todays Cup was:

Girls side: Sophie Hornick, Sam Ehrenrich, Olivia Mallor, Sienna Fox, Jordana Reissman, Jillian Baskind, Chelsea Weisfelner, Emma Klarsfield, Jadyn Sardoff, Skler Jaffe, Dylan Berlent, Abby Leeds and Maya Grill.

Boys side: Troy Golden, Austin Levitz, Ethan Schwartzberg, Ari Hirshfield, Jordan Goldklang, Jake Schuster, Matt Traub, Turner Katz, Jake Erlich, Ben Shamus, Bradley Luts.

MVP for girls side – Jillian Baskind who had 2 HR and awesome defense. MVP for Boys Side was Turner Katz with a record breaking 5 HR’s and made the game saving defensive play to clinch the title for the boys.

After a full day of outside activities, we all needed a relaxing night so it was into Shields Hall for movie night as we loved watching Big Hero 6. It was a perfect ending to an awesome day for our lower camp kids.

Our Collegiates and Senior campers are back home after their awesome trips to Great Wolf Lodge and Hershey Park. It was a perfect summer day and all are sung back in their bunks as everyone is looking forward to late wake up tomorrow!!!!  The GC’s enjoyed their last day in Phoenix and are headed home and we can’t wait to hear all about their amazing trip they just took. Our CIT’s spent their day off seeing relaxing at a national park, a little shopping and ending their night at the movies.  It just doesn’t get better than this for our Chenny kids!! It was busy and fun trip day for our oldest campers who love the trips but nothings quite like coming back home… We are just waiting for our GC’s to arrive back in the morning, and for our Supers who are having a blast in Virginia to come back on Thursday and then this Chenny family will be complete again.

Chenny out