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Hi Everyone!

No don’t worry – I am not talking about Brendan Faser’s terrible movie from 1999….I am talking about this past week counselor Gez Evans came back to the States for a visit and we got to see some Fernwood Cove folks from past years! It was a terrific time!!!

Gez came here to see camp in the winter – something he has always wanted to do. You can check out a ton of his photos on the Fernwood Cove Facebook page!! Other than enjoying a week in Maine fishing and hunting with Jim, Gez and I had the opportunity to see some old FC faces.

We saw 2004 counselors Kelly Melcher and Kim Hampton, as well as 2007 senior Julia Hermann, 2006 senior Sam King, 2008 CITs Emily Mitchell and 2008/2009 CIT Maddie Rudman!! We also got to see 2009 counselor and former camper Caroline Glovsky! It was a terrific visit!

It’s always fun to see current and past FC folks! Let me know if you are ever around for a visit – you too may make the blog!

Happy Winter!

-Marran

Hi Everyone!

I just spent a wonderful 4 days in the DC/Baltimore area and I wanted to share it all with you and let you know who I saw! If I had been more on top of things you would have seen pictures…but you will just have to imagine how awesome it was!!!

THURSDAY

This was my first day – so it started with an early flight out of Boston and then picking up my rental car in Baltimore. I thought I was getting an SUV…but no…I got something else that I can’t pronounce. Oh well – it worked! Thursday night was fantastic, I had dinner with staff members Burt Stanko, Carrie Bacharach, Hope Snodgrass, Krisia Jones and Abby Himmelrich! It was great – we went to Thai Derm – someplace Burt recommended and we spent hours talking about camp!

FRIDAY

I actually got to sleep in on Friday before heading to Rockville to hang out with former camper and cit Ayla Gudelsky and her mom! We had a blast. We had lunch at Panera…which turns out to be 2 minutes from Ayla’s house…but I didn’t know that so we drove…only for Ayla to tell me – she doesn’t walk. Ha ha! If she comes back to camp, we better keep that golf cart locked down!

Friday night I left Rockville and headed slightly south to Chevy Chase to have dinner with Session 1 families – Annie and Maya Small, Abby Alpern-Fisch and Jessica Mason – and all of their parents! It was friday so do you know what we had for dinner? Pizza Pizza Pizza…every friday night…and yes we sang the song!!! The table was even decorated with little pink flamingo confetti in honor of 2010 Senior – Annie Small! Oh and we had ice cream sundae’s for dessert – YUM!!!

SATURDAY

This is what I call – Bethesda Day – I spent ALL day in Bethesda, MD!!!

It started with a fantastic breakfast with session 2 – Bella Godes and her cove pal and 2009 senior Lilly Mudge! We had so much fun – Bella showed us her Wii skills and I think Lilly may have scored a babysitting job!!

Next on the list was afternoon hot chocolate with second session Meredith Bergman! It was so much fun. Turned out Meredith had been at a Bat Mitzvah earlier that morning and ran into her FC friend Rachel Ordan…who I was going to see later in the day – what a small Fernwood Cove world!!

Later on Saturday I went to visit session 2 former campers 2005 senior Ellie and 2007 senior Alex Rogers and 2010 senior Emily Rogers at their house with many others! I had a chance to see session 2 campers Rachel Ordan, Hellen Warren and Grace Steinwurtzel!! I also got to see former session 2 campers 2005 senior Nicole and 2008 senior Natalie Berkman! We had so much fun! After everyone left it was just me and the Rogers and I have never laughed so hard while eating dinner…which by the way was thai food – if you have ever had the thai mango salad…not so good – thanks for that suggestion Berkman! Rogers – thanks for allowing me to see a true Roger’s House dinner!!!

SUNDAY

This day started off driving to see session 1 Gabby Eng! I had a terrific breakfast of waffles…and even got to see Jackson the dog come back into the house carrying a deer foot…yup – yuck! After breakfast we played a game of Qwirkle – BEST GAME EVER!!! Gabby is going to bring it to camp. Oh I won – maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

After my killing at Qwirkle I headed to Reisterstown to watch the Patriots/Ravens game with session 1 former camper, current counselor Abby Himmelrich and her sister former camper 2008 senior Molly Himmelrich. Also there was counselor Krisia Jones and former camper/current counselor Carrie Bacharach and her sister former camper 2008 senior Laura Bacharach. But how can I forget the Shapiros – yup current camper Rebecca Shapiro, her sisters current CIT Leah Shapiro and former camper/cit, 2007 senior Rachel Shapiro were there with their parents. We had a blast, although the Ravens put the smack down on the Patriots!!! It was a terrible game for me – but a great day hanging out with my FC friends!

Following the game – it was off to Annapolis to hang out with session 2 camp nurse MJ Eckert and 2010 senior Libby Eckert! I arrived to their house before MJ – so I had the chance to help out Libby with her math homework! We had so much fun I think we both LOVE geometry now! Thanks for letting me help! After a wonderfully home cooked meal – it was some more hanging out until it was time for bed!

MONDAY

This was the sad day – I had to leave my friends in DC/MD – I hopped on an early flight out of there and got home in time to take a nap and recover from my fantastic trip! Now it’s off to do laundry!

Thanks for the fun times! I can’t wait to see everyone back at camp – or next year when I return to the area!

From all of us at Fernwood Cove we would like to wish you a happy, safe and healthy holiday season to you and your families!!

Enjoy the holiday season! Fernwood Cove will be enjoying it as well, our offices are closed for the holidays and will reopen on Monday, January 4th, 2010!!

See you next year!

Hi Everyone! I found this poem and thought I would change some words and share it with you all…I promise I did not write this!

Twas the holiday month of December…
So much to do, so much to remember!

For months the campers have been gone
The Feeder and Chick no longer filled with song

Snow has covered camp’s tree lined path.
Missing the noises from campers and staff

On Facebook walls you all have posted
To last year’s great season you have all toasted.

We are patiently waiting for the warm summer season
Counselors and campers, to return, I know you don’t need a reason

We hope you enjoy this holiday time
And of course enjoy this very clever rhyme.

We can’t wait to see you all at Fernwood Cove in 20-10
We hope that you think of us again and again!

Happy, Safe, and Healthy Holidays to All!

Right now, as I sit here and write this blog my outside temperature thing (thermometer) is reading 9 degrees…yes 9…that’s not in Celsius. It’s freezing! It’s hard to imagine at this time of year that we are working hard on camp for next summer and planning for a time when the temperature will be WAY higher than it is right now. It’s hard right now to imagine the green grass, the sunny sky, and all of our campers running around camp in their green and whites!

But that’s the job of a camp director – and it’s probably what gets me through this cold weather – thinking about camp, the fun times and most of all, the warm weather!

People always ask me, what are you working on this time of year? Well, with the big New York reunion behind us, last years staff starting to let me know if they are able to return, our enrollment almost full…now it’s time to think about what we can do to make camp even better than it was last year. Let me tell you, we already have some fantastic ideas and some great things planned!

As of now, we are currently building a brand new state of the art culinary arts building – I hope to have pictures soon! This will allow so many more campers to take cooking classes – this will also allow us to do more cooking mini courses and use this building for many other things! Hey – someone save me a cookie!

We also have our infamous and very popular senior ski weekends coming up next month. We have so many seniors coming on this – it’s going to be fantastic!

We are working on programming – how to make sure everyone gets all the activities that they want…we are working on once again hiring the best staff that we can…we are working on some brand new evening programs – which trust me – they are AWESOME!!!

There is a lot to be done with camp even in this cold weather and a lot more to do before we start up in June. While we do take a short break for the holiday season, you can be assured that we are working hard, we have some great ideas…but mostly – we can’t wait for the warm weather again!

So to all, happy holidays!

Hi Everyone!

This past Saturday (December 5th) was our annual camp reunion in New York! Although the weather was questionable that day – yes there was snow, a sure sign that the summer is over and winter is upon us…it was a fantastic day!

There were so many FCers there in each session, it was so great to see everyone reconnecting, hanging out with friends, ice skating…eating pizza (even though it was a Saturday and not a Friday) and eating some REALLY good cake!

Yeah that was pretty much the day…we did some ice skating (well not me, but everyone else – even Sylvie), hanging out, we ate pizza and cake and talked a LOT about camp!!

I hope everyone had as awesome of a time as I did! It made me want the summer to come even quicker so that we could all get back to camp together!

I am going to try and post some pictures of the event!

-Marran

I just got an email from a Fernwood Cove counselor (names are excluded of course). She was asked to write about how her life was changed for the better due to camp. We often hear about this from the camper’s perspective but not often from the counselors.

I feel that what this counselor wrote is extraordinary and I wanted to share it.

A Counselor’s Story

Well I have no idea where to start with this….I began my camp experience back in 2005 when I was still at university. I wanted a change to the usual summer holidays where by I get a job with no prospects to earn the minimum wage.

Myself and a friend went along to a presentation evening for working at a summer camp. Now I have to say I wasn’t that keen on the idea before seeing the presentation, I just wanted to get away and not have to deal with kids, especially American ones at that! It must have been about 1 minute into the video they showed us that I was hooked. I went home and applied straight away.

I ended up being recruited for an all girls camp called ‘Fernwood Cove’ in Harrison, Maine. Little did I know this would become my ‘home away from home’ for the next 5 summers. This little camp in the middle of nowhere became a magical place where I learnt not only how to deal with kids, but who I was and where I wanted to be in life.

Now, my home friends (This is how I distinguish my friends now, home and camp ones) on the other hand had a completely different take on this. They never remember the stories of ’round the campfire’ or ‘trip days’ all they can think of when I; for the twelfth time that day say ‘this one time at camp..’ is that we wear white on a Sunday and sing Grace at the dinner table. To them this is an ‘American cult.’ I know I’m not the only one with friends like this but this did not put me off going back every summer. I became the friend that everyone knew would be out of the country and uncontactable from June through to September.

I have just had my 5th summer at the cove and can honestly say I would not be the person I am today without it. My best friends are from all over the world because of it, which is not ideal but I feel extremely lucky that I have found them and know no matter how far away we are form each other we will always be lifelong friends.

From my camp experience I have learnt many a new hobbies along the way I can now: crochet, make hemp jewellery, wakeboard, climb to the top of the wall and abseil back down, use a water bottle to make a game out of, when stuck with 100 kids in front of you start a song that will always begin with ‘this is a repeat after me song’ to get the best results, find the best hiding spot for ‘counsellor hunt,’ take a nap in a bunk where 12 girls are singing at the top of their lungs and not hear a thing and lastly never leave the bunk at night without a torch!

There is so much more I could say about my camp experience, it was the best summers of my life and will stay with my forever.

I just found out a really cool story about a couple of our campers that I wanted to share with everyone (don’t worry, all names will be left out) – it really is exactly what Fernwood Cove is all about!!

It was a chilly day in April, a couple of years ago, when one of our campers, a returning camper, got the list with all of the girls who would be in her age group in the upcoming summer. While reading the list with her mom to see where all of the girls were from, her mother suggested to her that she pick someone on the list who was new to camp who lived in the area and invite the girl over for an afternoon. This way the girls could get to know each other and the returning camper could tell the new camper all about Fernwood Cove.

Not only did this happen, but the girls hit it off very very well. It was such a great experience that in the next year the two girls – now both were returning – decided together that when they got the age group list, they were going to pick two new girls in the area from their age group and invite them over and get to know them and talk all about their favorite camp!!

Now all of these girls are friends, they get excited for the summer, they see each other during the winter…this is truly in the spirit of Fernwood Cove!!!

Do you have an extraordinary story about camp to share? Let us know – we would love to share it with everyone else!

Happy Reading,

Marran

Hi Everyone-

I was just thinking the other day about how many people go to camp, work at camp, etc and thought I would do some research into this. Hey I don’t have homework to do, but since our campers and staff do, I figured that I could do some of my own…so here are some of the interesting things that I found out:

There are over 12,000 day and overnight camps in the US! 60% of those are overnight camps! But only 1 is the Extraordinary World!!!

Over 11 million campers go to camp every year! About 400 of those 11 million go to Fernwood Cove!

Camps employ over 1 million staff to work at camp every summer! About 100 of those 1 million work at Fernwood Cove!!!

These numbers are amazing – so I thought I would share them with you.

Keep watching this blog for other articles, facts, fun stuff, news, etc about Fernwood Cove and the world of camping!

Have a great day,

Marran

Welcome to Fernwood Cove’s Blog!!

Every so often we are going to update our blog with the latest news, notes, comments or anything else related to Fernwood Cove – so check back often!!!

First Few Things:

1) If you haven’t signed up for the Fernwood Cove Reunion 2009 – please do so soon! (This is for Summer 2009 campers only)

2) If you haven’t signed up for the Fernwood Cove Senior Ski Weekend – please do so soon! (This is for 2010 seniors only)

Hope to see everyone soon!

-Fernwood Cove