HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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We'd like to wish all our campers with a July Birthday a very Happy and Fantastic Day!! Hubba Hubba!
Carlos BC. - July 1st
Arthur B. - July 3rd
Danil G. - July 6th
Marcela B. - July 8th
Cecilia V. - July 8th
Edgar C. - July 8th
Francesca B. - July 9th
Vincent L. - July 10th
Frederico C. - July 11th
Gabriel W. - July 12th
Emily L. - July 13th
Hannah G. - July 19th
Isabelle P. - July 19th
Lilje L. - July 20th
Juliet GR. - July 22nd
Camilla R. - July 23rd
Fabian K. - July 25th
Juan P. - July 25th
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EXTENSIONS!
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Looking to extend past a camper's originally chosen last night at FLC?
Many parents (and campers) have already inquired about the possibility of extending their camper's time here at FLC beyond their current session. If your son or daughter is interested in staying, please let us know as soon as possible so we will be able to secure their cabin placement. The number of campers will continue to grow in the next session, and we would want to insure that your camper is all set with their placement as soon as possible. If you have any questions about their ability to stay, please call the office - we would love to have them!
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How FLC has Changed me...
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I'm sending a quick message to wish all of you a happy July 4th!
I hope camp has got off to a good start and that 2010 is a great summer for everyone.
I think about camp often and how lucky I am to have been a part of FLC. I am also grateful for the positive changes that have happened in my life since camp. It opened up my eyes to different career opportunities I would never had come across had it not been for camp.
From working in a very boring city bank job prior to my first summer in 2007, I returned to work for an outdoor education company as an instructor in the south of England and I am now putting to use my finance experience and interest in the outdoors by working as their finance manager at a camp style activity centre in the beautiful countryside of highland Perthshire in Scotland.
I hope FLC continues to provide positive experiences and development opportunities for campers and staff for many years to come.
All the best for summer 2010! Hope to have the chance to return to FLC again in the future.
Matt Scales,
Counselor: '07 & '08
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Slide into FLC for a Tour!
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We already have a number of inquiries about our 2011 season. There's no better time than now, while camp is in session, to see FLC in action and get a true idea of what a fabulous place this is! Please know we are always available for tours should you like to visit us. Alums - you should know you are always welcome to come visit camp too! Touring camp will bring back all those great memories, not to mention we'd like to hear the stories you have! For families still considering 2010, we do have limited openings available for 2, 4 and 6 week stays. We encourage you to let us know as soon as possible if this is still an option for your summer. So, come visit us! All we ask is that you give us a little heads up so we know we'll have visitors! You can either call the office or email us. We look forward to seeing you soon!
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New Soap!
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This summer, True Body Products were kind enough to gift all our campers with a bar of their 100% natural soap bars. You can find out more about True Body at truebodyproducts.com |
A Word from A Returner and First Time Counselor Gordon Price
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Another tradition continues here at FLC: the tradition that the first week is the most hectic of the session but also the most exciting.
Many new faces and many old ones have come to camp for another year bringing different backgrounds from different countries and cultures to FLC.
Color sorting was also a big hit. Each new camper became a part of a team and competed for them. A new addition to the color sorting process was the sorting of the counselors to compliment those counselors who were campers before and thus already have an affiliation.
I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer holds.
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New Staff Member,
Alex Dalman
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Hi, I'm Alex and I'm all the way from Manchester,
England. This is my first year at camp and I'm one of the Senior Girls
counselors who teaches arts & crafts and most sports including
lacrosse, netball and soccer. The girls have enjoyed
learning these
new sports even though teaching them not to move or bounce the ball in
netball was a big challenge!
My cabin is very multicultural with
girls and counselors coming from as far away as Italy, Ireland, and
Mexico. It has been really fascinating comparing each each countries
phrases and sayings. We even translated a Beatles song into four
different languages to sing at campfire.
I didn't have a clue
what to expect from camp, but as soon as I got here the other counselors
made me feel so welcome and I have definitely made some friends for
life. The campers have all been keeping us very busy too. There's
definitely never a moment to get bored!
We have played every game
under the sun, sang chants at dinner, had color war matches, and even a
4th of July Carnival celebrations.
We're only a week in and I already feel like I've been here forever! One of my favorite meal-time chants which sums up Forest Lake Camp really well is as follows - "Forest Lake Camp, 2 camps, one love, peace!"
Alex.
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Happy 4th of July weekend! Happy 4th of July weekend!Happy 4th of July weekend!
Well, we've just completed our first Camp week of the season - Yeah!
It's been quite the week. We've had two sets of overnights for four of our cabins. Our color sorting ceremony was one of our best yet, and our opening week campfire featured some of our favorite songs and stories. Camp activities are well underway and our campers are learning the basics or improving their already honed skills in many activity areas.
We had a couple of chilly days this past week, so bring on the heat that's expected through this weekend and well into next week. Double Waterfront periods sound good to me!
Our 4th of July Celebration began with a loud wake-up on the girls side and some truly great renditions of "America the Beautiful",
"Take Me Out to the Ballgame", "Party in the USA", and of course, "The Star Spangled Banner". Sunday's Inspirational talk, given by Bob Duffy, centered around being thankful for things in life, particularly relating to camp. In the afternoon we had a fantastic carnival experience with staples like bean bag toss, shaving the balloon, and face painting.
I hope everyone not currently at FLC is having as wonderful a summer as we are all having!
Enjoy the newsletter - we've got some great stories and articles we'd like to share with you. I hope you like it!
~ Sara Robertson-Ryan, Director
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From the Boys Camp
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First week impressions from two campers...
"I didn't know it would be this fun! My favorite activity has been riflery. The food is good too. I also like Waterfront. I have liked everything so far. The color wars are fun. I am looking forward to next week!!!"
~ Junior Camper, Jack M.
"After one long school year, I couldn't wait to come to camp. When I finally arrived I set everything up in my cabin, said hi to some old friends, and greeted some new campers who could become future friends.
The first night of my fourth year here at camp was peaceful: still awaiting campers and introducing ourselves to each other if we didn't already know them. An interesting thing for me that night was to have traveled all the way to the Adirondacks to make a friend that lives around the block.
My first week I didn't encounter much difficulties or problems with other people at camp. My first week was more pleasant than I expected; make new friends and see my old friends.
My favorite thing that I did this week was on Saturday night when most of the guys in my cabin decided to play some tricks on Rove, the extra counselor supervision on the hill, in the Boys Camp. Some were just bizarre while others contained a bit of sanity. One of the pranks we played on Rove was army crawling all the way to the hill office. I had to army crawl and see how far I could get, which was to the rim of the hill office. My cabin decided to turn the army crawl into a run/jog to the hill office. We ended up getting caught. ;-)
Overall, my first week at camp was great and I hope for it all to continue."
~ Senior Camper, Nick V.
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Announcing FLC 2011!
| Something new comes your way... We are one week into our 2010 season, and already are we planning for 2011! We continue to strive for excellence and make each summer unforgettable for our FLC family. The following are our 2011 Traditional Summer Camp dates: 2 week* dates: June 26 - July 9  July 10 - July 22 3 week dates: July 24 - August 12 4 week dates: June 26 - July 22 5 week dates: July 10 - August 12 7 week dates: June 26 - August 12 So, you may have noticed that we aren't doing 8 weeks next year. That's because we are planning something new, and are very excited about it! Skip to this article to read more! *Our two week option is only available to campers age 10 and under, and campers who will be attending their first year at FLC |
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Alumni Stories & Weekend
|  In 1950, four intrepid counselors (led by Norv "crazy"
Mathie) from Forest Lake Camp set out to paddle the Hudson River from Camp to
Long Island where the founder of the camp, Harold Confer met to congratulate
them on the completion of their trip. 
In 2000, after hearing this story regaled to them at an
opening day campfire, a new group of counselors (Richard Alker, Kelly Fair, Paul Goodwin and Carrie Patch) endeavored to complete this
journey themselves. Sadly, due to time
constraints, this second group never made it all the way to the Island. They did however complete a remarkable 200 miles of
paddling, perspiring and portaging. A
very fine effort indeed.
It is stories like these from our alum that we love to hear
and love then to be able to share. We hope that
during our Alumni Weekend (August 27- August 29) we'll hear many more great
stories. Stories of alumni lives since
camp,stories of friendships continued
through the years and hopefully many great memories of summer fun. An official invite will be making its way to you in the coming
weeks. However if you know now that you will be attending we would love to hear
from you as it will enable us to get a head start on logistics for the weekend
(food, accommodations etc.). Also if you have photos lying around on hard drives or even
have the opportunities to scan some in from the days of film we would love to
collect some (or all) of those. Please
send them along to info@forestlakecamp.com Please let us know if you have any questions about the
weekend and please continue to spread the word. |
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More Memories from an Alum
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I felt a part of FLC before I attended because my older brother Mark was a camper. I recall thinking of the kids in Cabin 3 as "the big kids" when I started in 1954. In our cabin we had Ken Cappy, Jay Cawley, Greg Denari, Manlio Vidoni, Gary Confer, Gerry Combs, Gary Barenklau, and counselor Tom Ford. Ollie began every day by asking who had a joke - some were really terrible, but he gave everyone a chance to be  a comedian. In 1955 the counselors, including Bob Blanck, got us up in the dead of night to stand around the flagpole - they told us it was a total eclipse of the sun. In 1959 with counselors John Willets and Ed Koudelka we excavated a building foundation about half a mile south on the road past the senior campfire site. We found bits and pieces of old dishes and cups, nails and tools. We thought it was a stage coach stop on the road from Chestertown to Saratoga Springs. Nine years later I worked on an archaeological dig in Israel, but the FLC dig was just as exciting. The canoe trips were the highlight of my older years as a camper. Once we put in along the Jessup River to paddle into Indian Lake, but a storm had knocked down all kinds of trees and we had to drag our canoes up and over branches and limbs for hours and hours - and there were leeches in the water. What fun! One night in pouring rain I mistook Bob Ness' snoring for a bear. Phil and Sally Confer gave me my first job - filling the Coke machine for $10 for the summer. As a waterfront counselor my fondest memory is Tom Allen telling stories about Lafayette (his college, class of 1925) and Rutgers (my college, class of 1967). I just bought a book on Lafayette athletics and Tom is pictured in there as one of the great track and field men in their history. Tom always took the beginners class in swimming - he was very patient and encouraging. When I later coached rowing at Rutgers, Tom was my role model, and I still draw on the lessons he taught. Best wishes for a successful summer season! ~ Mike Moran, FLCer '54-'70
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From the Girls Camp
| A few quick words from two campers about the first week...
"This is my sixth year at FLC, but I still manage to make new friends every summer. I have already done so many fun and new activities, such as kayaking and netball. I can't believe a week has already passed! I look forward to all the other activities that are in store, and I wish the summer will never end." ~ Senior Camper, Emma S."My first week at camp was a little difficult but also a lot of fun. At first I was daunted by making new friends, doing my chores and also all the exercise for our overnight hike and navigating the hills around camp! There's just so much to do at camp! But, it all pays off. Doing some of the hard things helps us to have the most fun. For instance, by doing our overnight cabin trip we grew closer to the people in our cabin, reinforcing friendships. I know it works for me, and so it works for everyone." ~ Junior Camper, Grayson P.
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For the Love of Dogs
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Did you know that Camp is not just for children
anymore? Joining us here at Forest
Lake Camp this year are Clara, Stinky, Fatty, Casey, Harley, Bo, Bella, Mocha,
Oscar and sweet little 8 week old puppy Riley! How exactly did they find Forest Lake you wonder? We think they hid in their prospective
owner's suitcase. They
are so glad to be here! Where else can you run without a leash, chase birds and
have so many playmates? 
The children love to see and play with them. Each dog, like our campers, has its own
unique personality. Every session
we have our horse show where our riders show off their new skills. At the same time we also have a "dog
show". It is amazing what these
dogs can do for a treat.
Some are more skilled than others so we give all a treat just for
participating. Remember, at
Forest Lake Camp all we ask is that you try an activity at least once even if
you are a dog! Stay tuned for our winner..something tells us it will be
Riley for just showing up! |
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Until the next time....
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We hope you've enjoyed this edition of our newsletter. We're always delighted to hear from any of our FLC family and you can reach us at sara@forestlakecamp.com
Sara Robertson-Ryan Graeme Marshall
Director Assistant Director
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