Dream.

My life goal is to open a camp.

The simple explanation is that it will serve youth-at-risk from September - June and be a *regular* / *traditional* camp for the summer. Of course, no camp that I create will in any way be regular or traditional, but that would be the simplest explanation. In addition to a summer camp for children, two weeks out of the summer (one in June and one in August) will host adult camp, a time for the rest of the population to relive their youthful glory (and occasionally sneak out late at night to cause trouble). Ideally the facility will be a conference center as well and host weekend groups year round.

I was inspired by projects such as Nature's Classroom and NorthBay Adventure, both of which meet school requirements for a 4 - 5 day *field trip* program (the latter serving youth-at-risk in Maryland).

Everyday my imagination creates a more detailed picture of this *camp* experience. Based on experiential education techniques mixed with a fairly sophisticated ubiquitous technological back end, our mission will be to inspire everyone to make better life decisions and see that there's a fork in every path...

Get ready for Camp V.

Oh I see...

I really want to write about the potato canon, but I don't have a lot of time and I'm on someone else's computer (!)

Hm. Here's a chant:

The Binary Chant [done in military style]
1010101
(repeat)
1010101
(repeat)
10
(repeat)
10
(repeat)
10...10... 11!
(repeat)



Enjoy ;-)

Commercial Break

A fairly common element of Summer Camp is the *Talent Show*. At my previous camp, this event came only once at the very end of the summer. There were 2 days: kids and staff. The oldest campers would sometimes be invited to perform their skits / whatever again at the staff show if they were a big hit.

The kids talent show was broken into 2 chunks as well, as the youngest campers deserve to participate, but cannot possibly take an entire afternoon sitting. They would do their customized event somewhere else and then join the rest of camp for the last hour or so.

Anyway, I was the MC along with my constant sidekick, Bryan. The first year I did MC duty, I wanted to regulate time - which meant that I needed my own little group of mini-skits to use as filler. Another director and I found a couple of CDs of old advertising jingles from television and... well... basically used the interstitial time for ad placements. Of course, it normally included dancing around incredibly silly and then smearing the product all over ourselves... I think that I ended up chugging ketchup one year because of this...

But the whole thing was very humorous, well-received and successful. The reason I bring any of this up is because I am seeing "They Might Be Giants" tonight and they happened to cover one of the songs we used (completely coincidentally!). The song is called "The Middle" and is a Public Service Announcement for safe road crossing...

Hooray!

New Song!!!?!?! "Crazy Moose"

I was just sent this CRAZY / AWESOME song from a camp in... um... well, I have no information on the camp, beside that the caretaker is crazy... crazy-awesome... like the song!

CRAZY MOOSE

This is a repeat after me song (This is a repeat after me song)

WITH ACTIONS (WITH ACTIONS)

There was a crazy moose (audience repeats each line after you sing)
Who liked to drink a lot of juice
There was a crazy moose
Who liked to drink a lot of juice

[CHORUS:]
Singing way-way-oh
A-way-a way-a-way-a-oh
Way-oh-way-oh
A-way-a way-a-way-a-oh

This moose’s name was Fred
He liked to drink his juice in bed
This moose’s name was Fred
He liked to drink his juice in bed

[CHORUS]

He drank his juice with care
But once he got some in his hair
He drank his juice with care
But once he got some in his hair

[CHORUS]

Now he’s a sticky moose
Full of juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuice...
On the looooooooooooooooooose!

[CHORUS]

[*update*]
Here's a link to the video from my new friends out in Washington!

The Fastest Growing Game Show Sensation...

I don't have a lot to write today - mostly because I'm completely overtired. I think (perhaps) I may be coming down with something... or maybe I should just adjust my bedtime!

During the Morning Announcements, I liked to host a game show that includes the tag line "The Fastest Growing Game Show Sensation." I believe (and I may be corrected by one of my old employees) that the first appearance of this idea was somewhere in the woods during an activity area. I started with "Win Pete's Money," a nature variation of a show called "Win Ben Stein's Money" and then eventually came to "Will it Float?" a popular time-waster from "The Late Show with David Letterman."

Anyway, the kids loved "Will it Float" and in actuality they just loved the idea that it was the fastest growing game show sensation (in Germany, it turns out).

Further down the road, I used the line for a game during "Wet and Wacky Day" which I used basically as an excuse to soak counselors... and then it became a Morning Announcement ritual.

The game changed constantly. Sometimes it was a trivia question... sometimes something else. Last Summer one of the more popular games was... hmmm... Food, Animal or Both... or something like that. The question was posed in German and generally it was anyone's guess what the answer was!

[more 2 come]

Empowerment.

So...

What to write about today?

The PENNY CARNIVAL!!! (woooooo!)

This is a simple... simple... simple idea. Did I say simple?

Basically, your camp has a bunch of teens who are generally uninterested in doing anything. I'm not talking about the Counselors in Training, who are also uninterested, but somehow get away with it... No, I'm talking about that teen program that has always needed a little revamping.

Are you with me so far?

Anyway, these teens need empowerment wherever they can get it. Sure, they may be too young to be given huge responsibilities, or too immature to handle serious work... and, in reality, we have to remember that they are campers and should be given the same amount of activities as everyone else. But empowerment creates motivation.

Let me clarify.

I'm an angsty teen who doesn't want to do anything. At all. I have an iPod hidden in my backpack, a PSP in my pocket and my cell phone on vibrate. I want nothing more than to sit around and talk and avoid any authority figure that may change my current state.

Put me in charge, and all that changes.

If you don't believe me, have a Reading Day for your youngest campers. Take the teens and allow them to run the entire program. They'll love it and surprise you.

The main gist of my entry for today is giving the teens the grand responsibility of creating, designing and running the Penny Carnival. Will they succeed? Of course. Will they exceed expectations? You bet!

They setup everything. You give them a week to design the games - no more than 2 or 3 teens running each attraction - and let them decide where the pennies go. During lunch they put everything together and then *BOOM* release the campers! Hehe.

Of course you have to pay attention to the little things > there cannot be too many of one attraction; a strict level of appropriateness needs to be enforced (shooting games are out); the amount of "tickets" or prize certificates needs to be regulated; and etc.


In the end you'll see some of the most creative projects... and you'll see motivated teenagers - which can be as rare as a Bigfoot sighting.

NEW SONG! "The Lion Song"

I was inspired by a very positive comment... So I wrote a song!

"The Lion Song" (the words in the brackets are for the song leader to shout... they do not interrupt the beat!)

[Lion!]
Roar!
Uh uh uh
Roar!
Uh uh uh
Roar!
Uh uh uh
...

[Baby Lion!]
Meow!
Uh uh uh
Meow!
Uh uh uh
Meow!
Uh uh uh
...

[Sea Lion!]
Glub!
Uh uh uh
Glub!
Uh uh uh
Glub!
Uh uh uh
...

[Dandelion!]
Sun!
Uh uh uh
Sun!
Uh uh uh
Sun!
Uh uh uh
...

[Detroit Lion!]
Block!
Uh uh uh
Pass!
Uh uh uh
Score!
Uh uh uh
...

[Autonomic Ganglion!]
Sway!
Uh uh uh
Sway!
Uh uh uh
Sway!
Uh uh uh
...

[Coach Lion!]
Freeze!
Uh uh uh
Listen Up!
Uh uh uh
You're It!
Uh uh uh
...

The New Hotness

One day, Bryan came to camp wearing a LiveStrong bracelet. I had never seen one, nor had many of the kids or staff. Somehow he had found out about the fund raiser directly when it started...

Anyway, during our morning announcements, he showed off his new bling, referring to it as the "New Hotness." Since the bit was pretty well received and seemed fairly harmless, I started talking to everyone about the New Hotness.

"Do you have the New Hotness?"
"Oh snap! Look at his hotness..."
and so forth.

This started a ridiculously popular LiveStrong fad at my camp, just months before the rest of the world became enamored with the little yellow rubber bands.

Shortly after, Bryan started a New-New Hotness. He was working under the assumption that fads are short and need to be periodically replaced by something equally silly and simple. So Bryan convinced the campers to wear goggles on their heads all day. My competing Hotness, as I hated the strap digging into my ginormous head was to wear a winter hat during the summer.

Neither of these New-New Hotnesses were as successful as the LiveStrong bracelets, but they were quickly adapted and created positive murmurs throughout camp. The following years we integrated several other kinds of Hotness, all achieving some level of success.


This picture is NOT of the New Hotness, but it's still pretty darn funny. How else do you deal with campers constantly pestering you for the schedule?

The Weather Coconut: Part Deux!

My brother Fred sent me this photo of *myself* admiring the lovable weather coconut in all of it's glory...

From Board #1:
"Do Not Touch
* If it is moving, it must be windy
* If it is not moving, there is no wind
* If it is not there, it was stolen!!!
* If it is white, it is snowing
* If it is wet, it is raining
* If it is going "Tink, Tink, Tink", there must be hail
* If it is on fire, run!
* If you cannot see it, it is foggy
* If it was swallowed by the earth, there is an earthquake"

From Board #2:
"* If it is acting bored, there is no weather
* If it is casting a shadow, the sun is out
* If it is involuntarily bobbing up and down, there is a flood
* If there are steaming rocks raining down upon it, there is a volcanic eruption
* If it ends up in Oz, there was a tornado"

Of course, that was our first coconut which had limited meteorological abilities. With our expertise at choosing better weather predictors, that list will not only expand, but also be a more accurate!

Send me a pic of your Weather Coconut!

Picture Perfect.

What is the purpose of this blog?

At first I wanted to keep a repository of new songs as I learned them - in an easily maintained place (as opposed to greenghoulie.com which is brutal and in definite need of an overhaul). Once I started writing stuff, I concluded that I could share some of the many camp secrets I've come across over the years...

Now I've decided to chronicle my own camp career in order for others to observe and absorb some of my knowledge.

This is why the last post was about Dr. Underpants (among others). Since I'm mostly posting from work, my access to camp pictures is limited (currently), but I will fix that in the coming weeks. Even though this is my hobby and at times I cannot work as hard on this as I desire, this is my love - CAMP is my love.

I need to get to a couple camps this summer for some singin'. If you would like a special guest (at a very low cost), I am more than willing to take a vacation day to entertain some campers. Whether it be 5 or 500, I have a couple tricks up my sleeve that will really excite and charge the kids and staff alike....

*Just let me know*

A Bad DAY :-P

Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

I missed a plane today - :-/

Oh well. You just have to try your best, right? :-)

Anyway, hmm... So remember morning announcements? They're incredibly important, etc, etc... Well, one of the fun things about morning announcements are the skits.

At first, Nacho and I reenacted famous scenes from movies (something from Star Wars was the first one, if I recall correctly)... That got uninteresting fast, so we had to come up with some original material. We built off of the Superhero / Villain dynamic that kids loves and made some ridiculously wacky personae.

Dr. Underpants, for instance, (who, BTW had nothing at all to do with "Captain Underpants") tried to take over camp several times and was always thwarted by the resident hero, Captain Tepee. The plot started simply and then evolved into a multi-character soap opera involving Major Pain, The Dark Lord of the Tepee, Princess Tepee, Shiny Shirt Man and Bold Man to name a few...

Eventually they all fell to the cunning and daring of Captain Tepee (or Princess Tepee)... except for Shiny Shirt Man who *did* successfully take over camp a couple of times.

[more 2 come]

The Princess Pat...

Someone recently pointed out that one of our favorite songs, "The Princess Pat" is based on a very similar song about the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry.

From Wikipedia.org:

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) is an infantry regiment in the Canadian Forces (CF), belonging to 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (1 CMBG). It is one of the most decorated regiments in the CF. It currently consists of four battalions, three in the Regular Force and one in the Reserve Force (militia). The PPCLI is ranked second in the order of precedence for the regular infantry, and 38th in the infantry militia. The regiment's RHQ is located in Edmonton, Alberta, with its three regular battalions located in Alberta and Manitoba. The regiment acts as the "local" infantry regiment for western Canada.

If you check out the entry, you'll see the original lyrics toward the bottom of the page. Those, of course, are the *official* serious verses. At some point in history, these words were adapted by children's artists and campers to be more accessible to children. For example, instead of "light infantry" we use "lived in a tree." This makes the song something else entirely: namely a style parody, where the subject is completely changed.

Another similar song is "The Ants Go Marching..." which was a children's version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (which itself was a variation of an anti-war song).

Isn't history fun?

My Bonny Variation (Thanks Jess!)

A fan the site sent me a variation of one of my *personal* favorites / specialties, "My Bonny."

She says that this is the "Alaskan modification," although I would think they have polar bears, not black bears... but what do I know? [I did make some slight modifications to her version, only for *appropriateness*]

My Bottom (variation of "My Bonny" from Alaska)
[stand or sit on every "B" word]

My bottom was bit by a black bear
My bottom was bit by a bear
My bottom was bit by a black bear
Won’t you bandaged my boo boo for me
Bandage, Bandage
Won't you bandage my boo boo for me for me
Bandage, Bandage
Won't you bandage my boo boo for me


[video coming soon]

The Importance of...

When I started working at my old camp, there was no opening or closing ceremony. In fact, there was nothing really to mark the beginning or end of a day besides the bus drop-off / pick-up. I'm sure there are many staff and camper alike who would swear that such a thing existed back in those days, but the truth is that they didn't... The days came and went, any major announcements being done through paper handouts (yuck!).

I became the Special Events / Specialist Director after a couple of years and took control of the entire schedule. Every day was to have at least 20 minutes before and after camp for announcements, songs, skits and fun.

Since then the morning announcements and closings have been a staple of that camp: a completely necessary and essential part of the day. Although sometimes they drag on a bit or don't really make sense, I recommend that all camps do something similar...

[more 2 come]

...

sad day...


a former employee and friend of mine was lost.


...



"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life." - John Muir.