| BIRTHDAY WISHES |  | | We want to wish a very happy birthday to the following:
James M. - Jan 2
Mateo V. - Jan 2
Caroline K. - Jan 2
Alix M. - Jan 4
Graham R. - Jan 4
Emily F. - Jan 9
Katherine M. - Jan 10
Marcella L. - Jan 20
Rufino G. - Jan 24
Jose M. - Jan 25
Arthur G. - Jan 25
Maria R. - Jan 29
Julia D. - Feb 3
John Y. - Feb 4
William M. - Feb 6
Isabella M. - Feb 10
David H. - Feb 14
Liam M. - Feb 15
Bradley R. - Feb 17
Morgan C. - Feb 18
Alejandro S. - Feb 20
Pierre Paul R. - Feb 20
Bunker K. - Feb 22
Saska M. - Feb 22
Jack B. - Feb 24
Troy G. - Feb 26
| FLC IN THE WINTER
An FLC winter tour around camp is certainly easier with a snow mobile, as deep snow and construction were the theme for winter 2010. Russ has been hard at work making upgrades to both camps. The framework for a new decking on cabin 2 was evident, as were the renovations to the hill 
office deck. What lay hidden were the exciting upgrades to the insides of the cabins. We await their spring unveiling with bated breath.
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| CAMP FAIRS
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Come visit us! Graeme and Sara have been busy attending camp fairs and bringing important information to potential new campers. If you are new to Forest Lake Camp and would like to meet us, please come join us at one of these events. If you are a veteran or an alum and happen to be in the area, it's always nice to see a familiar face. If you're thinking of stopping by, please drop us a note, and we'll let you know what times!
Jan 30th - Fairfield Theatre Co, Fairfield, CT
Jan 30th - Friends Seminary, Downtown Manhattan
Jan 31st - The Berkeley Carroll School, Park Slope Brooklyn
Feb 6th - Moorestown Friends School, Moorestown, NJ
Feb 7th - Westtown School, West Chester, PA
Feb 27th - Middlesex School, Darien, CT
Mar 13th - Lycee Francais, Upper East Side
Mar 14th - Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Upper West Side
| NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
What's your new year's resolution? Would you like to make one about camp?
We'd love to hear what some of you are doing to make 2010 better than ever! Write us and we'll add it to the next newsletter.
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| | | A Winter Welcome
We hope your new year is treating you well! January has been a great first month of 2010 for us. We have more enrollments at this time than we have over the last 2 years; Russ is continuing to make improvements despite the cold weather; and Graeme and Sara are busy organizing and preparing for the summer - a short 6 months away!
In the following newsletter you will hear from our FLC family, as well as some updates from us. We hope you enjoy!!
|  | A NOTE FROM PHILIP | It is the middle of winter and it's cold and snowy. It seems like a long time ago that I was swimming in Forest Lake and having a great time at camp. It is hard to imagine doing all of the fun summer activities while I make my  way through another school year. However, I have been having fun this school year too. For example, I have been playing a lot of hockey. My team just competed in a tournament in Western Massachusetts against teams from Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island. We won the championship game in overtime! I can't wait to go back to Forest Lake and play street hockey with Nat Greenwald.
Street hockey is not the only thing I like doing at Forest Lake. I loved swimming every day, riflery, horseback riding and rock climbing. I hope to do all of these things, and some new ones too this summer. I also can't wait to see some of the boys who I became friends with last year. I hope Freddie, Jack and Joseph come back this year. I also hope to make some new friends as well.
- Philip P. | | | FLC @ ACA TRI-STATE CONFERENCE |  Forest Lake Camp has attended the American Camp Association's Tri-State Conference for many years. We are able to gain valuable information and better understand the research available regarding youth development and the camping  industry by attending this event. This year, Forest Lake will be providing a workshop on staff development and team work. Sara Robertson-Ryan  will be working closely with our Square Dancing master, Rick Hill, and an alum Head Counselor, George McDonnell. The three will be working closely through the winter and are looking forward to putting it all together for the March Conference. Go team FLC! | | | FLC's GOING UP
| | So, we all know that the economy hit everyone hard last season. While FLC was not immune to the economic downward swing, we are already seeing that 2010 will be an up year for us! A few notable occasions: - Emily L. and TJ M. were the first from each campto sign up
- Morgan H. is the first veteran to receive a referral rate for having a friend sign up
 - We have campers signed up from NY, NJ, FL, VT, MA, Canada, China, Denmark, Venezuela, England, Germany, and France
- Our enrollment is up 30% compared to 2008 and over 100% on 2009.
- NY is beating NJ by 2 for most enrollments by state
- A sneak peak of returning staff members (more to come next month): Ray Head, Sadie Ball, Justin Hessberg, Jess Davidoff, Heather York, Taylor Amon
DON'T FORGET!
We are having our best off season in many years with huge increases in prospects and enrollments. Thank you to all of you who continue to send us friends and family as prospects. The camp thrives on word-of-mouth and you are our biggest advocate and we greatly appreciate all your support. Don't forget about the 5% tuition savings you receive for any referral who enrolls. For full details send us an email to info@forestlakecamp.com.
| | | NORTHERN (STAFF MEMBER) NAT | G'day from the Canadian Rockies!  I'm writing from Lake Louise Ski Hill in Alberta where it is currently a balmy 12 degrees Fahrenheit, a mere shadow of the -50 degrees we experienced a few weeks ago here. I have finally gotten used to the cold but still get a little twinge of jealousy when I see photos of my friends back home in Oz, spending all day at the beach in 100+ degree heat. I am instantly appeased, however, when I look out my window and see that I have the most glorious mountain range in my backyard and there is REAL snow everywhere- something I had never seen before arriving here in October. It feels like only yesterday that I was saying a teary goodbye to my brand new FLC family, wishing that 10 months wasn't SO far away! I spent the next 2 weeks exploring the concrete jungle of New York with Kate, one of the horsey girls, where we met up with a few more of the other counselors along the way. I honestly think that in one summer at FLC, I've made some real friends for life. Erin was so right in her end of session speech when she said that FLC is an environment where you can be spontaneous and outrageously  silly and people love you FOR it, not in spite of it. After Kate went back to England, I started working in a hostel on the upper west side as the events coordinator. This was a LOT of fun and allowed me to get to know the city by running tours for guests and also chaperoning them around the New York nightlife. I must admit, I never in my wildest dreams thought that I'd be able to skip a massive queue at one of NYC's hottest nightclubs with 20 people in tow and say to the bouncer; "its ok, they're with me" then waltz straight in! Unfortunately my time at the hostel had to come to an end as ski season in Canada was approaching and I was anxious to get my first taste of snow. So I packed my ever-growing suitcase AGAIN- a task my campers and co-counselors will remember is not something I do willingly- and set off for the great white land of frost and moose. Oh my, what a SHOCK I had arriving in Calgary. It was a record cold day for October at -15 degrees F and after 23 years of year-round t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops weather, it ripped through to my bones. My friend Quinn proved a savior as she came to pick me up with some fresh Tim Horton's (brilliant coffee!!) and a car with heated seats. You North Americans definitely know how to brave the cold weather in style! I arrived just in time to celebrate my very first Thanksgiving, which was justlike in the movies. We spent all day preparing a smorgasbord of food, including a 'turducken' (google it and prepare to drool) that took 14 hours to cook! Luckily Quinn's boyfriend and his workmates, the famished Gleichen division of the RCMP, showed up to demolish a big part of the spread as I was in severe danger of eating until I fell into a food coma. That afternoon we went clay pigeon shooting, where I got to show off some of my FLC-learned skills as I blasted 6 out of 10 pigeons! Then later in the week I got to go on a ride-along with one of the mounties I'd met at dinner- and after chuckling at my eagerness, he even let me wear a bulletproof vest on the ride! The next few weeks saw a series of job interviews at different ski resorts in Banff National Park where I finally landed a position as a line cook at Lake Louise Ski Resort. It's a really great lifestyle here; the people are lovely, the views are breathtaking and I'm slowly but surely getting better at snowboarding. I've done a bit of exploring through the park here, we took a 3 day road trip up to Jasper to do some hiking and see the glaciers etc. and even got to see a wild grizzly bear! No moose sightings yet, but I've got my eyes peeled. I'll be staying here for the whole winter season, which ends in May, then popping over to the UK to celebrate my birthday  with some friends (including a fair few co-counselors!!) before returning to New York to come back to camp for round #2. I honestly can't wait to return: the campers, the counselors, the activities and the environment are all ingredients to the most perfect summer I've ever had and I'm chock-a-block full of ideas on how to make this one even better! I hope you've all been jumping and shaking your booty at random intervals over the last few months to keep that FLC spirit alive until we return. See you in June!!!!!!!!!!!!! Girl Nat | | | ACROSS THE POND-ERINGS
| Dear All,  My name is Liam and I come from England. I have been coming to Forest Lake Camp for the past 5 years. I always enjoy myself and find each year gets better and better! I am a second generation camper; my father went over to camp in the 1980s and found himself coming back to become a Head Counselor. Also, my big brother went to forest lake from 2002-2008 and told me lots of exciting stories and says he loved every minute of it. One of the best things I find about FLC is how everyone is so friendly and very kind. Every year I make more friends; but most of all, I enjoy the wide range of activities I get every day and the relaxed atmosphere at camp. Liam B. | | | Recalling that First Summer- Tim Wesley
|  I can still remember the my first day at Forest Lake Camp, the summer of 1988. My father and I drove all the way from Detroit, MI for me to attend the same camp that he had as a child and told me stories about when I was a young boy. I had no idea what to expect as we drove through Cleveland, to Buffalo, through Albany and eventually into the majestic Adirondack Park. I even wondered: what are we driving 14 hours for exactly? To be honest, I can still remember being nervous about what the summer would look like.
After a long two day drive, we arrived at Forest Lake at about noon on a overcast day that had started to open up. I was greeted by Gary Confer, the FLC director at the time and I met my counselor, Mark Santiago. Mark and my father walked me into what was then Cabin 3 of the boys camp, which is now right next to the girls office. When we walked into the cabin, I met my first friend at camp - Rob Spina. I unpacked my bags and Mark and Rob showed me how to organize my locker before we went to lunch.
Like any camper in his or her first weeks at camp, I experienced some mild homesickness and even a few tears at night, but my world was opened by meeting so many great friends - Todd Darling, Jeff Marootian, and Ryan Kelleher. They were all from Wayne, New Jersey and came to camp together, but never stayed as a clique. I started to think how lucky I was to be the only camper from Detroit and things started to become really exciting with my new gang from New Jersey. I can still remember one day, about two weeks in to my 5-week stay, when Rob Spina and I went out in fun-yaks on Forest Lake and relaxed under the sun during our waterfront period. The sun was shining, the Adirondack pine was a green-blueish shade, and the lake had warmed over the winter. Everything was perfect, and I said to myself: I need to come here for years!
And I would come to Forest Lake for years. I stayed on as a camper for 6 years and was a counselor for four more years. Rob and I have remained friends to this day. I live in Portland, ME and he lives in Hong Kong and we stay in touch over facebook. Our friendship serves as a great reminder for me of my many great summers at Forest Lake and the life-long friendships that I made at the camp. The camp itself and the great friends I made over the years have filled me with some excellent dreams over the years. If only I could rewind and go back as a camper!
Tim.
| | | We hope you've enjoyed this edition of our newsletter. Remember, we'd love to hear from you, so please write us!
We wish all of you the best in 2010!
Sincerely,
Sara Robertson-Ryan Graeme Marshall
Director Assistant Director
Forest Lake Camp
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