Staff Reunion a Success!

On Friday we started our Staff Reunion weekend, our first reunion in over twenty years. We are thrilled at how great it went. I’d like to thank all of the former staff members that attended and really made this a reunion to remember. We had staff members come see us from as far away as Manchester, England and as near as right here in Palmyra, VA. We all had such a great time that we can’t wait to do it again in the near future. So to all of you I say visit our CF Alumni Directory page at www.campfriendship.com and get your name on the list so you don’t miss out on the next reunion. We hope to invite staff and campers in the future. Don’t forget to stay connected.

It was a real joy to see so many old friends together here at camp. Some of our visitors had not seen each other in over 10-15 years and it was like they had never been apart. I can honestly say we had lots of smiles and hugs to go around all weekend. Our Friday night Camp Fire started things off with a bang! The staff jumped right in with songs and dance without missing a beat. Like I said before, it’s like they never left Camp Friendship. We finished things off on Friday night with smores and time for old friends to catch up.

On Saturday it was time for activities like riflery, canoeing, mountain boarding, tennis, and high ropes which proved to be the most popular of all. It was very exciting to see how many of our former staff brought their little ones to participate in the fun this weekend. I was even more excited to see how many of them were already signed up to be campers this summer. I couldn’t ask for a better endorsement than that of a former camper and staff. After Lunch we got our hands dirty digging up a time capsule buried at camp during our last reunion over twenty years ago. It certainly smelled like it was that old! A lot of memories in that little box. Saturday came to a close after a wonderful dinner prepared by our Kitchen staff, a slideshow that seems to have been enjoyed by all, and a closing speech from our Owner/Founder Mr. Chuck Ackenbom.

Sunday brought our fun filled

weekend to a close. While many of us had a great time, as they say – all good things must come to an end. We bid farewell to our friends and we hope that these old friends will stay in touch and give these friendships another opportunity to grow. Thank you all for coming and we hope to see again real soon.

Cris

A Quick Camp Fall Update!

It’s a bit cold here at Camp Friendship but we are still hard at work preparing for next summer. Over the last few months our maintenance guys, Jimmy and Kenny have worked very hard on a variety of camp projects such as the soccer field, the tennis courts and quite a few others. These guys make sure everything is up and running around camp and they do a great job. We have also had some groups come and use our facilities for a variety of events, not to mention the wedding of our Director’s daughter, Leah, right here at camp. A very special event and we congratulate her and her new family. Zee our Groups Coordinator, has organized some great groups so far this year and already has more signed up for the following year.

Sam has also been hard at work preparing for next summer, with a ton of return staff already signed up for next year and some great programing magic up her sleeve. Sarah is working hard on getting the office in ship-shape with the help of Sheri our registrar and Amber our secretary. They are making sure all is in order and working on getting the Parent Handbooks ready along with other administrative responsibilities. Sarah has already signed us up for quite a few camp fairs and many more to come, I’m sure. I’ll go ahead and put my name down for the Italy or France fairs, sound good?!

Ann and Kim our ladies behind the scenes have also been hard at work preparing for next summer and helping Robin our store manager get everything ready for some future camp store plans, which I’m not suppose to talk about yet OOPS! Robin has also been helping with team building and ropes course events during the offseason.

Our website is going through a few changes and updates so please feel free to tell Alina our jack of all trades what you think of it. She’s worked very hard on it and will continue to do so. She loves all feedback so drop her a note at info@campfriendship.com. Alina has many responsibilities here at Camp Friendship, least of which is being a Mother to Nika and Tyler Ackenbom.

Barbara our Dining Hall Manager and Diane our Grounds Keeper have been helping with housekeeping and group preparation during the last few months on top of their other responsibilities. Barbara keeps the kitchen running for our other groups and any other visitors. Diane keeps our grounds looking beautiful all through out the year.

As for me (Cris) well I’m here doing my best to keep you informed about what we are doing and how it will impact you, our families. On top of that I’ve been working on an updated Mini Camp brochure with the help of Sam our Program Director. I’d also like to take a moment to remind you that Camp Friendship has a page on Facebook. This page is a forum for you our families to visit, ask questions, meet other past, current, and future families as well as current and former staff. It’s just another way we try to stay personally connected to our camp families.

As I look outside it’s obvious that I’m a little late with my Fall update since it would seem Fall is almost over, but don’t you worry I’ve got some photos. Great photos fix all problems, do they not? I took a few moments last week to drive around camp so that I could share with you the changes around camp, please feel free to email us with your thoughts.

Over the next few weeks some of our staff will be leaving on some much deserved vacations so we will not be as easily accessible. Fear not however, since there will always been someone to answer your questions during office hours except for on these dates, November 27th and December 25th.

I like to believe that it’s always better late than never so I’m also going to share with you a few photos from our visit to the Friendship Gymnastics Preschool Halloween festivities. Our staff stopped for a visit and shared some candy with many super heroes. We’ve also been trying too finish all of the left over candy ever since. It’s been a real chore!

As always thank you for choosing, considering, or just stopping by Camp Friendship.

See you soon,

Cris

On The Ropes with CF

The Camp Friendship Ropes Course is a very popular and important part of camp. The ropes course is used for vital team building activities for staff and campers, it offers challenging events both physically and mentally. Campers are able to participate in both low and high ropes course activities in the summer where they are presented with challenges to help them learn to work as a team and achieve specific goals.

This past Thursday we had a little refresher ropes course training ourselves. It was a great opportunity to work on our very own team building exercises. While not all of the CF year round staff were able to participate it was a great exercise for all who did. All staff who work for camp year round not only work hard in their specific areas but even help out with groups and other facets of camp. Our Ropes course is a big attraction for many of our visitors and this means we need qualified staff on hand. So our resident expert and Camp Director Ray Ackenbom took a few of us out on the course for a little refresher for those already trained, and beginner training for others. As always it was all good fun.

Alina shared some photos of the event with me since I was unable to attend. I have this silly need for having my feet firmly planted on the ground as often as possible. That’s not too say I haven’t entertained my tree climbing inner child in the past but that time has passed. Anyway I have some great photos to share of Zee, Ray, Alina, Robin, and even Sheri our registrar on the ropes just click the images for to enlarge and to see the rest.

See you soon,

Cris