YMCA Camp Ralph S. Mason

Breakfast:
Pancakes, 2 Fruit Toppings, Warm Syrup, Bacon, a selection of Cereals and a fresh fruit bar. Orange Juice or Milk was available for Juice.

Lunch:
Hoagie Sandwiches with Ham, Turkey, Hummus, 3 types of sliced cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions, Coleslaw and corn chips as well as a selection of salad items on the salad bar.

Dinner:
Pasta and Meat Balls, Red sauce, Sausage, Peppers, sauteed fresh veggies, warm breadsticks and a freshly stocked salad bar.
Desert is Ice Cream Sandwiches.

Here at Camp Mason we pride ourselves on being prepared for any kind of event or situation where the safety of our campers is at risk. In order to practice this effectively all staff are trained to respond to our Emergency Procedure Plans A – F when informed over the radio, in person by Head staff or at the sound of three blasts of the Air Horn!

This week, as with every session, a random drill was to be enacted in order for campers and staff to practice what to do during an emergency or situation where campers are at risk.

Today, the drill became unnecessary when inclement weather provided the perfect opportunity to put into action one of our Emergency Procedures. This procedure was alerted to the whole of camp with a triple blast of the Air Horn repeated once a minute. For the trained staff of Camp Mason, this triple blast of the Air Horn informed them that all campers should be returned by staff to their cabins immediately as a prolonged bad weather front was approaching.

Within minutes all village leaders were able to confirm that their campers were in the appropriate cabins. The storm front took some hours to pass and campers were able to enjoy some indoor games that each Cabin was prepared for!

Breakfast:
Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browned potatoes, sausage patty and biscuits on the hot cart while on the cold breakfast cart was a selection of fruits such as Bananas and mixed fruit salad or a large selection of cereals.

Lunch:
Baked potato bar with chilli, broccoli, chopped onion and sour cream as well as a freshly stocked salad bar.

Dinner:
Chicken Fajita’s with rice, black beans, salsa, guacamole, onions and peppers as well as the salad bar.
Desert tonight is fruit salad.

All meals have juice and Peanut Butter and Jelly is available at every meal!

This summer we have lots of new activities and one in particular which has become an instant success is Back Yard Games! Back Yard games are 16 all time favourite games that Campers choose from in one activity.

At the start of the week the campers choose four of the sixteen games they would like to play that week. Some of the games they can choose from are; Whiffle Ball, Kick Ball, and Gaga. In the last fifteen minutes of each day – the group works on a game of their own devising.

Jordan Katcher – one of our counselors who was also a camper here at Camp Mason is leading this activity this year. After only one day he was able to tell me that so far they have four great ideas for the game of their own devising and he can’t wait for tomorrow!

Camp Mason is excited to announce that this year Bunk1.com will be hosting our Camp Mason Photos and Camper E-mails. Bunk1.com is a fantastic resource allowing parents, relatives, campers and staff to find photos of a particular person quickly via the search option and purchase merchandise of their photos. The e-mail facility allows parents to send e-mails to their camper with the camper being able to send a hand written e-mail back to the parent, friend or family member.

To register for Bunk1.com go to www.ymcacampmason.bunk1.com where you will have the option to ‘Register Now’. If you are a parent or guardian, you will have received literature in the post with regards to Bunk1.com including a pre-approval code to enter upon registration. Once you are registered and approved, you are able to start sending e-mails to your camper and to view the Camp Mason Photos.

The feature to allow you to ‘search’ for a particular person on Bunk1.com can be found once you enter the Photo Gallery. Look down the left hand side of the screen and you will see the ‘Photo search’ bar where you can enter a name and only the photos of the person you have searched for will appear in the gallery. You can also search by Cabin Name or Village Name. Once Summer Camp starts Photos will be updated every weekday at approximately 5pm and Sunday afternoons.

The Camp Mason News including the Daily Menu, Director’s message and activity articles will still be found here on the Camp Mason website under ‘News’.

Should you have any questions with regards to Bunk1.com or any other questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us an e-mail here at Camp Mason.

Old friends were re-united and new friends made as campers settled in for their first day and night on camp!

First off, campers had a tour of camp with their cabins followed by a swimming test. This year we had many campers obtaining the Green swimming band allowing them to swim in all parts of the pool! There was even a little extra time for campers a quick swim due to the smoothness with which the testing went!

Program Sign-ups was an exciting time for campers with many new programs on offer and, having had a brief taste of the Programs on offer on the Basketball Courts earlier in the evening, Campers knew exactly what they wanted to take and went straight to the appropriate sign-up sheet!

The first night at camp came to a close with the first Camp Fire of the Summer! Counselors from each village produced a huge range of skits from 'Repeat-after-me songs to a fashion show! There was alot of laughs and a particularly moving version of 'Lean On Me' led by Don his Guitar!

Breakfast:
French Toast with warm Syrup and Butter and accompanied with Bacon. A large selection of fresh fruit such as pears, peaches and pineapple was also available. Cereals such as Cornflakes, Bran Flakes and Cheerios are on offer every breakfast. The juice today was Orange Juice.

Lunch:
Chicken Patty Sandwiches with 2 Types of sliced cheese, Sweet Potato Fries and the Salad bar were featured with a vegetarian option of Vegetarian nuggets.

Dinner:
Baked Ziti without meat, green beans, cooked carrots and Italian bread with butter. A salad bar with a range of items including salad and cucumber. Desert was Chocolate pudding with cream.

New to Camp Mason this summer is our Aquatics Director who comes to us from Davenport, Iowa. Lauren has 15 years of competitive swimming experience and has been a Swimming Instructor for 8 years.

Lauren's role as the Aquatics Director involves scheduling for 15 Lifeguards, programming for the entire Acquatic Programs, Swimming lessons and all maintenance of the pool.

Lauren is most excited this summer about the new swim lesson program she has put in place which includes certification for any accomplishment in the water!

Dinner:
Barbequed Chicken Wings with corn, baked beans and potato salad. The salad bar was fully stocked with cold beans, lettuce and tomatoes to name a few items.

Desert:
Watermelon

he Camp Mason staff of 2009 all had a chance to experience Camp as a Camper would experience camp. It was a great day for the trial run with the sun out and the international staff getting their first taste of the heat of New Jersey.

The day started off with Flag and Don's word of the day 'Whizbang' followed by a fantastic breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages. After breakfast Cabin groups set off on various activities. A quick recall at the Basketball courts revealed cabins had participated in various activities such as field games, ASE, Arts and Crafts and a Core Values Scavenger Hunt which was highly entertaining and successful according to the photos I saw.

The day has since progressed through the various activities, free time and a highly appreciated 'Free Swim' this afternoon to cool down after the heat of the day!

This evening staff will have a chance to dress up for the staff dance which has been a highly anticipated event by staff so should be alot of fun. All photos of today and tonights dance will be on Bunk1.com after 4pm tomorrow.

This past week Camp Mason has seen A LOT of rain! There have been times when we thought it would never end! Today though, has been a definite ray of sunshine with temperatures rising and the warm clothes discarded for summer shorts and t-shirts! It couldn’t have come at a better time with staff having completed some concentrated staff training and next on the schedule were work projects. This afternoon, staff are all across camp weed whacking, painting, cleaning and getting the cabins and camp ready for Sunday.

I caught up with our new Camp Shannon Day Camp Director Mary Beth Journe and Program Director Mike Seidel who were doing training with their team this morning. They have some really exciting changes for this summer including new staff who will be doing both Day Camp during the day and with a cabin group in the evenings. They have lots of new activities and are very excited about this summer!

This afternoon all the camp is coming back together to meet at the pool in time for an Aquatics orientation with the Aquatics Director Lauren Lehenbauer followed by an open swim for all staff to cool down after an afternoon of work projects!

Descended on Camp Mason this weekend was 60% of our Summer Staff! From Switzerland and South Africa to Australia and the United Kingdom – they came for Camp! The energy walking around camp is amazing with counselors meeting in cabin groups with towels slung across their shoulders ready for their swim tests and others still pouring in with suitcases and smiles! Summer Camp feels like a heartbeat away!

The tone of this week’s staff training was set with the high jinks of Head staff at the Camp fire skits and Don, Marcus and Dave giving a verbal tour of Camp Mason’s history, our Mission for this Summer and the core values that define us; Honesty, Caring, Respect and Responsibility!

The first day of all staff being on camp ended with the counselors in each cabin gathering around a candle and reflecting on the day during cabin chat!

As many of you will recall our Apache Village Leader last year was Amanda Meehan who this year has taken on the challenging role of Program Director. Amanda is very excited by this opportunity not only because there are many new programs to offer but also because she gets to work closely with Don Jennings!

As program Director Amanda’s role is to facilitate and co-ordinate with staff all the programs we offer to campers. From the basics of helping staff design the most exciting lesson plans to ordering and providing the equipment necessary to get the programs up and running. One of her most important jobs is in the scheduling of all the programs with staff to run each activity.

Amanda is most excited about the Theme Weekends this summer which she has been working closely with the Village Leaders to organize.

If you have been following the Camp Mason news Over the Fall, Winter and Spring; the Camp Mason Staff, Volunteers and Alumni have been busy building and preparing for Summer 2009!

The dining hall is one of our most exciting renovations with a marble-like finish to the floor, new chairs, pictures of camp around all of the dining hall walls and brand new ‘heated’ food carts! The Upper Barn and lower barn have had a fresh lick of paint while new fire rings have been established for overnights along and near the Green Trail and the Beaver Pond. The Nature Centre program has been re-invented with a recently planted garden of vegetables and a farm of animals such as goats, rabbits and chickens.

A new program for 2009 is the CIT Program (AKA Counselors-in-Training) which will be run by our CIT Directors Kat LaFata and Will Watts. The aim of this program is to give young people who wish to become counselors; the skills and experience required to be a counselor next year as well as learning how to operate as a team and contribute to camp through a Service Project.

The LT program has also been given an overhaul and this year will be focusing on teaching leadership skills such as survival and trekking through two big trips during the two week session. Brad Nagle and Sara White are the LT Directors this year and they are very excited to get going!

The Summer is gearing up with Staff Training beginning this week and continuing next week! It has been great to see many familiar faces and lots of new faces! This week has involved the Leadership team scheduling and organizing the summer for their villages, LT and CIT programs.

Ali Beatty, the Nature Director is getting the nature area ready for the arrival of the goats while Carrie Lander; the Arts and Crafts Director has been ordering lanyards and clay and lots of other exciting equipment ready for the many activities she will be running this summer. Lauren Lehenbauer, this year’s Aquatics Director has some new Pool Games she is preparing while I have started getting photos up onto Bunk1.com and preparing for another exciting summer.

To find out more about Camp Mason or about donating to Camp Mason, information is available at the Camp Mason Website www.campmason.org

Did you know that Camp Mason offers family camp weekends? In our busy, modern lives we all seem to have far too many distractions that pull us away from the things that really matter. We say family foremost! Quality time with the family when you can all be together seems harder and harder to find. But, the YMCA has a solution - a tradition that spans seven decades. Family Camp!!!

Our program is designed to be a fun-for-the-whole-family weekend of things to do, indoors and out. Do as much or as little as you like. Relax at camp, or hit the trail! Throughout the weekend we will be offering various camp activities you can enjoy as a group - or divide up for a time so each can sample the activity they most enjoy. Some activities are self directed while others are supervised by our helpful, caring staff. The weekend also includes planned group events. Evening programs include exciting presenters, treasure hunts, and a traditional campfire complete with s’mores

Interested in Scrapbooking, Quilting, crafts of any kind? Are you and your friends looking for some peace and quiet to focus on what you love? Here at camp we will take care of everything for you, providing meals, lodging, a place to work on your projects with plenty of activities available when you want to take a break.

Looking for a weekend where women have a opportunity to spend time together in the outdoors? All activities are outside, social and designed to provide a retreat from daily life. “Get away from it all” with other like minded women.

Grandparents, what better way to spend time with your grandchildren than spending a weekend away with them at camp! All activities available at our traditional family camp weekends will be available this weekend.

July 3-5: Olympics – A theme with an international flavor, this weekend’s events will be defined by Olympic-type competition and mixed-village, mixed-cabin teams representing a wide range of ‘nations’. Prepare for the thrill of victory!

July 17-19: Future Camp Mason – Everything from Star Wars to Star Trek to Lost in Space, this theme will focus on the future… any future. A huge range of costumes and activities is available – from astronauts and aliens, to robots and rockets. Start planning now to get your future on at camp!

July 31-Aug 2: Shipwreck – Pirates and galleons and Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island – this theme presents an amazing array of costume opportunities. Events will include all things island-y, so get ready enjoy a deep sea weekend!

Aug 8-16: Heroes – Comic book heroes, movie heroes, literary heroes, imaginary heroes, side-kicks, villains, and secret headquarters – this theme has it all!

Thanks to everyone who showed-up for Family Day at Camp Mason. More than 100 people – parents and kids and friends and families – turned out for an afternoon of sunshine, snacks, tours, and fun-filled camp activities. The weather was beautiful and camp looked great. With only three weeks left until Opening Day, this event was a great start to the summer season. Don’t miss it next year!

Remember, there’s still room in every session – tell someone you know about the summer camp you love! We’ll be accepting registrations up until Opening Day and beyond. Don’t forget that tuition assistance is available. Why not give your child the gift of summer camp?

The American Camps Association has developed a wonderful video titled Because of Camp…™. The purpose of this viral, Web-based, campaign is to familiarize the non-camp population with the benefits of summer camp.

Because of Camp…™ consists of fourteen celebrities discussing how their lives have been changed… Because of Camp...™. As dedicated members of the ACA we at Camp Mason feel that this video represents many of the wonderful benefits of a summer camp experience.

Recent visitors to Camp Mason have witnessed long anticipated changes to our most important building on camp...our dining hall.

Our new dining hall floor has been polished (ridding us of the old painted surface), we have replaced much of the old decor on the walls, are acquiring new hot food serving carts, new lighting and new chairs for our round tables.

The dining experience for our guests is one of the most important goals for Camp Mason's staff and we hope that these improvements to our dining hall, in addition to new meals like asian sty fry and philadelphia cheese steaks will be welcomed by all.

Last weekend over fifty summer camp families, board members, outdoor center participants,alumni and donors converged on Camp Mason to participate in our spring Work Weekend.

Projects that took top priority were painting in our Dining Hall, the establishment of our Farm and Garden Program, routine trail maintenance and brush clearing.

All participants worked hard and by Sunday morning we even had time to give our Dining Hall tables and benches a new coat of paint . Thanks to all who participated.

Here at Camp Mason we’ve been busy planning ahead for another great summer of Adventure Bound Treks. This year you can expect to see some improvements to many of our programs. Two treks (Mountain Adventure and Spokes n Splash) have fun new itineraries and all treks will see an increased focus on leadership and team building. We’ll still visit all of the beautiful locations we’ve been going to for years: Rick’s Rocks, the Delaware River, Kittatinny Ridge, and more. Never been on an Adventure Bound Trek? Many of our trekkers are first-time campers. All you need is a positive attitude and a willingness to try something new! If you have any questions about Adventure Bound Treks feel free to contact Alissa at 908-362-8217 or Alissa@campmason.org.

All the best adventures in the area packed into two fun filled weeks! We’ll hike, bike, climb, and canoe our way through some of the most scenic places in New Jersey. Our trek starts with a bike ride along the beautiful Paulinskill Valley Trail. Later in the week we’ll advance to trails in High Point and Stephens State Parks as well as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Our hikes will be along the Kittatinny Ridge, affording us some of the most beautiful views of the region. We’ll also test our climbing skills as we progress from our climbing wall to some awesome local faces. The culmination of our trip will be a 2 night canoe trip on the Delaware River where we’ll paddle, swim in the refreshing waters, and camp out along the banks. Don’t miss out on this multi-sport adventure! Intermediate swim level required.
This trek will run from July 26th to August 8th.

You’re invited to join us on the weekend of March 27-29 for our Spring Work Weekend! We’re looking for a hardy group of volunteers – alumni, camp families, friends – to help us with a number of important projects around camp. We’ll provide the housing and meals – you provide the enthusiasm and muscle. Bring the whole family; There will be supervised children’s groups to keep the kids busy. And when the work day ends, there will be plenty of camp activities to enjoy. Best of all, our work weekend is completely FREE!

Come visit Camp Mason at one of the best times of the entire year. For more information about our Work Weekend, or to register, please visit the link below or contact the camp office.

Camp Mason's Camp Director was recently featured in an article in MetroKids magazine.

The magazine is distributed throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Circulation totals 130,000 copies.

On Sunday the 18th of January campers and staff gathered at the Princeton YMCA for some pizza, games, slide shows and catching up! Thank you to all our wonderful campers who attended, we were thrilled to see you all. Camp Mason is planning another reunion event at the Edison Branch of the Metuchen-Edison YMCA in February - look out for the details coming soon to your inbox.

Over the weekend of October 24th - 26th Camp Mason hosted Comfort Zone Camp, the nation's largest bereavement camp for children. Comfort Zone Camp runs camp programs in Virginia, New Jersey and California at no cost to participants. Information on Comfort Zone Camp can be obtained from their website by clicking here.

The New Jersey Herald also ran an article on Comfort Zone Camp's programs at Camp Mason on Sunday, October 26th. To view that article please click here. YMCA Camp Ralph S. Mason is proud to host Comfort Zone Camp and proud to be participating in this important service to our community

Traditional camp, Ranch Camp, Adventure Bound plus many new programs are currently open for enrollment.

Remember that all registrations that pay a deposit by Nov 1st receive 2008 prices and all registrations that pay-in-full by December 31st also receive 2008 prices. Two ways to save money! You save $200 on a four week session of regular camp and $50 on a two week session.