Category: General News

It is crazy to think that in just 12 days your children will be back home with you. It feels like we have been here forever and living in this Chen-A-Wanda bubble is nearing the last phase for summer 2015. With only such short time to go, we are gearing up for some insane days ahead. 12 days is still an eternity here with Color War, the Circus show, Chenny Globes, Late Night With Leahy and of course Banquet, we have some serious great times ahead of us. So the game plan is to live it up, laugh a lot and spend as much time with our friends we call our summer family. Boy is life great at Camp Chen-A-Wanda.

And now from our Chen-A-Wanda sports desk:

Inter Girls Soccer Championship Match – CAW 2 vs. Wayne 0 – CAW WINS CHAMPIONSHIP!!

Collegiate Girls Softball – CAW 11 vs. B’nai Brith 1

Middy Boys Soccer (Gold) – CAW 3 vs. Tioga 4

Inter Boys Tennis (Gold) – CAW 2 vs. Tioga 3

Collegiate Boys Tennis  (Gold) – CAW 2 vs. Tioga 3

Collegiate Boys Soccer Championship Match – CAW 7 vs. Equinunk 1 – CAW WINS CHAMPIONSHIP!!

Seniors Boys Baseball Championship Match – CAW 2 vs. Equinunk 3

Tonight’s evening activity was our summer production of High School Musical. Our campers took center stage and sang, acted and danced. The packed house was singing along with every song. We clapped and cheered along  with this awesome cast who had so many memorable moments tonights. Whenever our campers are on stage, everyone gets behind them. It is what makes this camp a family.We knew how much time, effort and dedication our actors put into this production and we couldn’t be prouder of everyone who performed tonight. Bravo to the cast and we thank you for putting on quite a fun show tonight.

Chenny out.

 

When I try and capture what I will write about in my daily blog, I typically observe our campers and am able to describe to you at home what has happened here at camp that day but today I was compelled to play so I jumped in. There was a group of Collegiate girls sitting playing cards and I just had to join. They taught me a few ard games I have never heard of. These 4 girls and I had the absolute best time playing card games for 45 minutes. There was not a care in the world for those 45 minutes. As they each explained the games to me, I kinda felt like a camper as we all sat indian style playing card games in front of Arts & Crafts. No distractions , no ringing phones or buzzing devices and I even turned off my walkie talkie for that 45 minutes. I haven’t sat and played cards laughing and giggling for a very long while and as my point of view is normally of our campers and the great benefits that occur for them being here, tonight I am speaking to you at home. Put those devices down, step away from your computers and learn a few new card games. I can’t tell you how amazing it felt to just and play. The world didn’t end and all was ok without my immediate attention for those 45 minutes. I was energized and silly for 45 minute. These kids may really be onto something. So I have made a commitment when life returns to normal as of August 15th, I will carve out 45 minutes to sit indian style with my girls, unplug and play some card games.

Sports Sports Sports…….

Freshman/Junior Girls Tennis – CAW 5 @ Tioga 0

Middy Girls Basketball – CAW 26 @ Starlight 6 – CAW WINS CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!!!

Collegiate Girls Basketball (Gold) – CAW 6 @ Tioga 24

Middy Boys Soccer Championship Match – CAW 3 vs. Starlight 3 (CAW Lost 5-4 on penalty kicks)

Inter Boys Baseball Championship Match – CAW 10 vs. Starlight 15

Collegiate Boys Baseball Championship Match – CAW 1 @ Starlight 2

Super Boys Soccer  – CAW 2 @ Trails End 4

It was time to honor our Camper of The Week. It is always a pleasure watching the faces of these outstanding campers receive their very well deserved awards!!!!

Freshmen      Alexa Klein                     Jake Chafetz

Juniors          Summer Housenbold    Brett Hafkin

Middies         Jessica Locker                 Tyler Jurist

Inters             Chloe Ross                       Brett Sachs

Collegiates   Alexa Plotkin                    Ben Peskin

Seniors         Maddy Grabow                 Jayson Stern

Supers          Olivia Hornik                   Drew Sandler

GC’s              Cami Oresky                    Ethan Greenfield

CIT’s are on their incredible trip to Lake George

Tonight was an incredible night as we had out Head Staff Lip Sync Battle. There were 5 that had advanced and were ready to put on a show tonight. The winner won an ice cream party for the division they represented. Basketball Director Troy Tonsil represented the Freshman, Assistant Head Counselor Kevin Breen represented the Juniors, Athletic Director Ashley Milks represented the Middies, Activities Coordinator Stephen Grossman represented the Collegiates and Head Counselor Paul Elmendorf represented the Seniors. Each performed 2 songs and the competition was fierce and so much fun. It was so close and literally came down to the last performance of the night as Troy Tonsil sealed the deal as Chenny Lip Sync Champion!!! The Freshmen went nuts with excitement and pride as their guy won the show, not to mention the ice cream party that is coming their way. Another amazing night spent at the best place in the world!!!

Chenny out

 

 

 

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