Sign up now!
Polar Bear Registration (featuring first pick of sessions, first pick of classes, and the lowest rate we offer...) ends on December 31st.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Summer 2020 Registration...NOW OPEN!
Sign up now!
Polar Bear Registration (featuring first pick of sessions, first pick of classes, and the lowest rate we offer...) ends on December 31st.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Two Days Till POLAR BEAR REGISTRATION!
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| Yes, Registration for Summer 2020... |
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| Opens this Friday, |
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| November 15th! |
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| And if you were feeling... |
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| Like it was still TOO EARLY... |
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| For Polar Bear Registration to begin... |
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| This little bit of snow... |
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| Arrived at 4-H Camp... |
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| To reassure us that we're right on time. |
Register online during Polar Bear starting on Friday!
Get in touch with us at the Camp Office (973-948-3550) with any and all Summer 2020 questions.
Monday, November 11, 2019
New Classes for 2020!
POLAR BEAR Registration opens this Friday, November 15th, so let's keep getting pumped for Summer 2020 by taking a look at our three new classes!
Extreme Crafts
(Offered Period 1)
4-H Camp always tries to take a good idea as far it can possibly go, and that’s exactly what we’re going for with the new take on an old idea that is: Extreme Crafts. No class is more “classic Camp” than Arts and Crafts, and our new Extreme Crafts class is taking it out of the Craft Shop, putting it on a way larger scale, and seeing just how wacky “arts and crafts” can get. The agenda is filled with mud-painting and mixing, some large and unorthodox canvas creations, eco-art challenges, and who-knows-what-other-wild-ways-to-create memorable and larger than life art all over 4-H Camp.
4-H Camp always tries to take a good idea as far it can possibly go, and that’s exactly what we’re going for with the new take on an old idea that is: Extreme Crafts. No class is more “classic Camp” than Arts and Crafts, and our new Extreme Crafts class is taking it out of the Craft Shop, putting it on a way larger scale, and seeing just how wacky “arts and crafts” can get. The agenda is filled with mud-painting and mixing, some large and unorthodox canvas creations, eco-art challenges, and who-knows-what-other-wild-ways-to-create memorable and larger than life art all over 4-H Camp.
Sustainability
(Offered Period 3)
4-H Camp is home to all of us, and we all take care of it together. But Camp can also help us learn how to best take care of all of our many homes: our towns, our communities and our world. 4-H Camp is a wonderful small-world laboratory to discover some tactics for responsible living. Our new Sustainability class will let our campers experiment hands on with how best to treat our Camp resources by learning how to conserve water, control food waste, compost for our Canoe-nity Garden, and create the best environmental impact possible in our day to day Camp-life.
Lawn Games Tournament
(Offered Period 2)
(Offered Period 2)
We’ve super-charged our Lawn Games class with the new Lawn Games Tournament! Central to everything we do at 4-H Camp is the notion that it’s just fun to play outside, and Lawn Games Tournament is built on that idea.Teams will be formed, team names christened, chants chanted, and campers will experience both the glory of victory and the laughter of leisure game defeat. Ladder ball, bags, bocce ball, can jam, horseshoes, and all sorts of others (including some good Camp-only creations) will be on the docket as campers take the concept of just enjoying playing outside to the next level.
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Of course, in addition to these brand-new classes we have over 30 different class options to choose from each summer, ranging from old favorites to exciting recent additions (new favorites). At registration, campers select THREE to enjoy during their week.
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Of course, in addition to these brand-new classes we have over 30 different class options to choose from each summer, ranging from old favorites to exciting recent additions (new favorites). At registration, campers select THREE to enjoy during their week.
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Check them all out in our Course Offerings Guide to start planning your sessions for Summer 2020!
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Friday, November 8, 2019
Summer '19: Video O'Clock!
Yes, we are only ONE WEEK away from the opening of Registration for Summer 2020!
We usually just stick to photos on the ol' Camp Blog, but to celebrate the imminent start of registration (and since 2020 is decidedly the FUTURE), we're sharing a few videos our campers have sent our way!
We've got a montage of some of our good, beloved Camp scenery from Fall Family Hike Day:
And, we've got an original Camp tune captured in time from one of our closing campfires:
And, while you're at it, you can check out a Rutgers University promo highlighting last summer's generator project!
Enjoy, and we'll see you next week with more Summer 2020 news!
Monday, November 4, 2019
Donna MacNeir, Former Camp Director, Inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame!
One of our own has made the big time!!!
Yes, we are so proud of Donna MacNeir, a long-time member of our 4-H Camp community, who on October 11th was inducted into the National 4-H Hall Of Fame at a ceremony in Washington, DC.
During her time at 4-H Camp, Donna was in charge of rental group recruitment, facility maintenance, recruitment and training of summer camp staff, and more. Notable accomplishments during her time in this position included a financial gift for infrastructure upgrades at the NJ 4-H Camp from the Dean of Cook College and another award to establish a fishing program. (As fishing is one of our campers' favorite methods to while away a Camp morning or afternoon, we're still grateful for that!)
Here's Donna on her multitude of roles at 4-H Camp:
"I’m not at all good talking about myself, but here I go: I started to attend 4-H Camp when I was 11. It was just something our 4-H Club, in Camden County did. Camp back then had a different delivery model; each County had an assigned week and 4-H leaders and teens served as counselors. I made lifelong friendships and keep in touch with many through my camp experience.
So I attended county camp as a camper, counselor, one year as a camp staff member, then again as a counselor for winter camp weekends, organized County Camps for Camden County; volunteer at “work weekends” to get camp ready for summer and then in 1983 was hired as Assistant Director at Lindley G. Cook. I held that role, until I became Interim Director. I retired from Rutgers in 1999 to move to Iowa, to become the State 4-H Camp Manager. And I have met Lindley G. Cook. What a man!"
Appropriately for autumn, Donna also shared one of her favorite photographs of the drive down Struble road toward 4-H Camp:
Donna continues to be a wonderful support of L.G. Cook 4-H Camp, as a donor, a long-distance support, and an active member of our Camp community.
Or as Donna put it:
"Most importantly, I am humbled on how many former camp staff are my friends on social media. I was their boss and now they are friends."
We know this honor is well deserved, and we're thrilled Donna received the recognition. Congrats from your 4-H Camp family!
During her time at 4-H Camp, Donna was in charge of rental group recruitment, facility maintenance, recruitment and training of summer camp staff, and more. Notable accomplishments during her time in this position included a financial gift for infrastructure upgrades at the NJ 4-H Camp from the Dean of Cook College and another award to establish a fishing program. (As fishing is one of our campers' favorite methods to while away a Camp morning or afternoon, we're still grateful for that!)
Here's Donna on her multitude of roles at 4-H Camp:
"I’m not at all good talking about myself, but here I go: I started to attend 4-H Camp when I was 11. It was just something our 4-H Club, in Camden County did. Camp back then had a different delivery model; each County had an assigned week and 4-H leaders and teens served as counselors. I made lifelong friendships and keep in touch with many through my camp experience.
So I attended county camp as a camper, counselor, one year as a camp staff member, then again as a counselor for winter camp weekends, organized County Camps for Camden County; volunteer at “work weekends” to get camp ready for summer and then in 1983 was hired as Assistant Director at Lindley G. Cook. I held that role, until I became Interim Director. I retired from Rutgers in 1999 to move to Iowa, to become the State 4-H Camp Manager. And I have met Lindley G. Cook. What a man!"
Appropriately for autumn, Donna also shared one of her favorite photographs of the drive down Struble road toward 4-H Camp:
Donna continues to be a wonderful support of L.G. Cook 4-H Camp, as a donor, a long-distance support, and an active member of our Camp community.
Or as Donna put it:
"Most importantly, I am humbled on how many former camp staff are my friends on social media. I was their boss and now they are friends."
We know this honor is well deserved, and we're thrilled Donna received the recognition. Congrats from your 4-H Camp family!
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Happy Halloween!
Yes, we hope you enjoy your costumes and your candy and whatever else you do to keep yourself entertained on the last day of October!
When all that's done with and November hits tomorrow, here's a few fall photos of 4-H Camp to look at as we remind you what's involved with Polar Bear Registration:
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| Polar Bear Registration opens on November 15th and runs until the end of the calendar year on December 31st! |
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| Polar Bear is our Early-Registration period for Summer Camp, and offers campers first pick of sessions, first pick of classes, and the lowest rate we offer! |
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| Polar Bear is also a great time to join our Lantern Family Program... |
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| By referring a brand-new camper to join us... |
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| For Summer 2020! |
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| And, come on out for a little wintertime Summer Camp reunion on December 7th when we hold our... |
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| Winter Gathering! It's an afternoon get together with some holiday crafts, winter activities, and Camp family warmth around the fire. RSVP here! |
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| Okay! I think that's it! All the mid-Fall news fit to print. |
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| (Remember, Polar Bear Registration is the ONLY Early-Registration Period for Summer 2020, so be sure to sign up before the end of the year!) |
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| Okay. NOW that's it! |
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| Happy Halloween! |
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Themes for Summer 2020!
Yes, it's time for one of the most exciting announcements of our whole Camping year!
Yes, it's time for....
Session #1: July 6th-11th
Winter Carnival
Usually our very first Camp session falls during the 4thof July, but due to an anomaly in the calendar we’re starting the 2020 season after the 4th– SO FAR after that it’s accidentally become wintertime again! Thus, we’ll be launching the summer season with Winter Carnival Week! The session will include a wintery version of our beloved Wednesday Night carnival, a Friday afternoon filled with frozen variations of our famous, larger-than-life All-Camp Giant Board Games, and other wacky events that are bound to occur when you’re celebrating the start of summer in the middle of winter. We’ll drink some hot cocoa, gather ‘round the campfire, and probably have a melted snowball fight. Of course, the biggest draw of this session is the excitement that comes along with being around for the very beginning of a brand-new summer season – even if it happens to be in a winter wonderland.
(Enrollment in Session #1 also comes with a special perk – Sunday, July 5th, we will hold our Camp Eve Celebration, open to all Session #1 attendees for an extra fee of just $25. Campers who partake in Camp Eve get to arrive a night early, meet the staff and their fellow campers, enjoy some special summer kick-off celebrations and traditions, and get a head start on the summer season. Our standard Monday morning drop-off time will of course still be available as well.)
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Session #2: July 13th-18th
Epic Tales...Of Mythic Legends!
Our hit new theme from last season is back with a second chapter! 4-H Camp’s about a bunch of things, but one of our favorite things that Camp is about is storytelling, and we’re bringing all the stories we can find and then some to Epic Tales...of Mythic Legends week! Knights, castles, dragons, royal courts and all the medieval drama that comes with ‘em? Sure thing! Wizards, unicorns, and other mystic fairy tale creatures galore? You know it! Woodland lore, forest folktales, lake adventures, raccoon raconteurs? Why in the world not!? Too many descriptive storytelling words in the session’s title? How could we do it any other way!? 4-H Camp runs wild on wild imagination, and we sure won’t be lacking any of it during Session #2, because this week will once again be...EPIC. And mythic. And legendary. And you get the idea.
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Session #3: July 20th-25th
CamPandemonium
Camp (proper noun) - Colloquial shortened term referring to L.G. Cook 4-H Camp, your classic-rustic-tech-free-new-friend-making-caring-community-building-more-fun-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-summer-home-away-from-home.
Pandemonium (noun)- Wild and noisy disorder and confusion. An uproar.
CAmPaNdeMoNiUM (noun) - Just you wait and see.
As the above definitions clearly show, CAmPaNdeMoNiUM is one of our newest and zaniest additions to the summer schedule. It’s a switch-up, change-up, up-change, up-switch kind of week: Camp locations will shuffle, activities will jumble, roles will rearrange, an uncontrollable panda may appear, nothing is quite as it seems, and no session we have is quite as chaotic as CAmPaNdeMoNiUM.
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Session #4: July 27th-August 1st
Pirates of Lake Shawanni
It’s an even-numbered year, which means it’s time for the return of one of our campers’ favorite themes! Lake Shawanni will once again become our seven seas, our animal groups will be feuding crews, and all the campers shall be mateys together. Shores will be ahoyed, timbers will be shivered, and treasure will be plundered (as talking like a Pirate constantly and certainly more than necessary will be key to the week.) Though we’ll still have Battle for the Island for all the land lovers out there, it will be joined by a legendary All-Camp-Game exclusive to Pirate Week: Battle for the LAKE! And of course, Captain Sompton O’Rudder will almost certainly once again be up to no good. Through all the fun, adventure, and misadventure of Pirate Week, we’ll also be sure to avoid scurvy with our supply of fresh fruit.
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Session #5: August 3rd-8th
Camper Vs. Counselor Olympics
The first week in August 2020 is during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, so that means we’ve got to have a Summer Olympics at 4-H Camp too! Our four groups of campers will compete in various feats of skill, feats of brains, feats of cleverness, feats of creativity, feats of energy and enthusiasm and feats of overall Camp campiness as they go for the gold, the silver, the bronze (and one other kind of medal we’ll make up since there’s four groups)! Only the twist is, there AREN’T only four groups! Yes, as you may have surmised from a close reading of the session’s title – for this week only, we are adding a FIFTH group as the counselors will compete against the campers in all the above feats! (Looks like we’ll have to make up TWO more kinds of medals.) Events will range all over Camp, from the archery range to the waterfront, and will culminate in our world famous ALL-CAMP Relay! In between all the action, campers can look forward to our staff's pantomiming skills during our real-world Official Olympic Updates. The Summer Olympics only occur every four summers, so join us for this one-of-a-kind (or one-every-four-years) 4-H Camp event.
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Session #6: August 10th-15th
Broken Time Machine
Yup, Session #6 we’re scheduled to use one of our favorite, reliable, never-fails-us pieces of 4-H Camp equipment. We’re going all the way to the back of the maintenance shop, dusting off and hauling out the trusty Lindley G. Cook 4-H Camp Time Machine. Sure, it’s been sitting idle in the back of the shop for a couple seasons, but we’re sure the ol’ thing still works just fine. For Session #6, we’ll fire the ol’ contraption up and journey to all the great historic time periods, from the Stone Age to Ancient Rome to The Renaissance and off to the future and beyond. It’ll go great, and we’ll get to and from all our destinations with no issues or exciting mishaps whatsoever. Like everything else on our nearly 70-year-old facility, it’s held up fine and we never have any problems with it, so the Time Machine is sure to work perfectly. We mean, c’mon, there’s no way the Time Machine is broken or anything.
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Session #7: August 17th-22nd
S’moregasbord
Our traditional end of summer festival! For the final week of the summer we celebrate all the fun we’ve had all season long by bringing back some of our favorite themes and activities from earlier in the year, as well as enjoying all the classic summer camp elements that make L.G. Cook 4-H Camp so great. S’moregasbord week also features a handful of end-of-summer-only events like our End-of-Summer Fair, ceremonial launching of the Wish Boats, and collection of the greatest hits from the 2020 4-H Camp season. The last week of Camp for the summer is always a special one, so come join all the counselors and staff in wishing the 2020 season a fond farewell.
Registration for Summer 2020 opens online ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!
POLAR BEAR REGISTRATION is now our only Early Registration Period. We encourage all returning Camp Families to sign up during POLAR BEAR (November 15th-January 1st) for their first pick sessions, classes, and the lowest rate we offer.
We'll begin regular Summer Camp pricing on January 1st, so be sure to get your bunks before POLAR BEAR ends!
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Summer '19 In Review: Another Talent Show
It's a quiet autumn day on the Dining Hall Porch...
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| But as we reminisce about this past summer at Camp... |
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| It wasn't always so quiet! |
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| Yes, around two and a half months ago... |
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| On Thursday, Session #3... |
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| The Dining Hall Porch... |
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| Was not... |
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| Just a porch! |
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| It was... |
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| A stage! |
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| 'Cause what... |
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| Do we do... |
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| Thursday Nights... |
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| At Summer Camp!?!? |
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| (Everybody now.) |
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| TALENT SHOW! |
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| Talent. |
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| Show! |
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| Yes, |
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| There may be... |
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| No event... |
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| More... |
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| Iconically... |
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| 4-H Campy... |
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| Than we all gather... |
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| At the heart of Camp... |
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| To be both... |
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| Audience... |
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| And... |
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| Performer... |
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| In our week's... |
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| Penultimate... |
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| Evening's entertainment. |
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| And fortunately... |
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| We had these photos... |
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| Of just such a Talent Show... |
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| We never got around to sharing in the summer... |
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| Squirreled away... |
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| For when... |
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| We might need... |
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| Some good... |
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| Summer Camp... |
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| Memories... |
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| To help... |
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| Pass... |
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| The time... |
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| On a... |
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| Warm... |
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| October morning. |
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