Staff Spotlight - Oliver Rockman

Add Oliver Rockman to the list of Big Ten men. At North Star, its a fairly big deal when you celebrate your 10th summer at camp. We honor that achievement with a special evening program roast, the date and time of said Big Ten being a surprise to all of camp. We're looking forward to telling some great stories about Oliver, who started off at North Star as a young camper from Omaha, Nebraska.

Oliver shows his passion for Nebraska Cornhusker football very openly. This fall, he went to several of their road football games, in part because he's now wearing another shade of collegiate red. Oliver is a freshman at Indiana University, but that hasn't changed his allegiances. We're thrilled to have Oliver back as a riflery and golf instructor. 

More about Oliver

Favorite Tombstone pizza type: cheese

Favorite project at camp: riflery

Your top three movies of all time: 1. The Godfather 2. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 3. Macgruber

Preferred Wanegan offering: Charleston Chew

Best evening program at camp: Night off… Just kidding, Friday night services

Favorite cartoon Character: Sterling Archer

Favorite camp (card) game: Isn't Euchre the only card game allowed to be played at Northstar?

If you could have lunch with any two people, dead or alive, who would they be?: 1. Didier Drogba 2. tie between Marlon Brando in character as Don Corleone and Will Forte in character as Macgruber.

What is your dream Job: Village Director or Head Coach at Nebraska

A little Known fact about yourself: Was a water boy for the Indiana football team.

It was no accident that Oliver ended up with the red cupcake

Staff Spotlight - Zach "Blumy" Blumenfeld

Zach Blumenfeld  is a guy of many talents... as if being a Presidential Scholar and a contestant on Jeopardy wasn't enough. He hosts live music on his radio show The VU Backstage at Vanderbilt University, where he's currently a sophomore. He joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity and served as Philanthropy Chair this spring.  He's also been playing club water polo, and was just appointed the first-ever CEO of RVU Records, Vandy's student-run record label.For spring break, Blumy went to to Glen Canyon as an Alternative Spring Break leader with Vanderbilt. He and a senior led a group of 10 other students on a community service project. 

Blumy returns for summer number ten. In honor of this accomplishment, we are going to try to find a new camp song for him. At camp, he instructs fitness training and swimming.

Favorite Tombstone pizza type: Meat Lovers

Favorite project at camp (that you don’t necessarily instruct): Waterskiing

Your three favorite movies of all time: Pulp Fiction, Pulp Fiction, Pulp Fiction

Preferred wanegan offering: If they offered (Norske) Nook pies every time I'd be in heaven.

Best evening program at camp: Friday Night Service

Favorite cartoon character: Finn the Human! (from Adventure Time)

Favorite camp (card) game: Euchre

If you could have lunch with any two people, dead or alive, who would they be?  Teddy Roosevelt (my favorite President) and Benjamin Franklin (maybe the most well-rounded person of all time)

What is your dream job: ROCK STAR

A little known fact about yourself: I drive a 2001 blue VW Beetle that always smells like crayons...no one knows why!

Staff Spotlight: Scott Goldberg

Log rolling is one of many hobbies for Scott (R)

Hey everybody- my name is Scott Goldberg, and I am one of North Star Camp's Village Directors. This upcoming summer will be my 12th, so there are plenty of reasons to keep coming back. I am in my third year at Middlebury College studying Economics and Italian. Fortunately, I am spending this semester abroad in Florence in a language-immersion program studying Italian linguistics and history. 

At camp, you can find me teaching windsurfing, sailing, and climbing. When I'm not on the projects, I'm always up for a nice game of Monopoly or a rousing game of softball. I love camping, and I can't wait for the summer of 2013!

Favorite Tombstone pizza type: Lots of cheese!

Favorite projects at camp (that you don’t necessarily instruct): Fishing, continuous dodgeball, Ultimate Frisbee, Windsurfing, and logrolling, some North Star favorites.

Your three favorite movies of all time: Wall-E, La Vita è Bella, and a tie between Shawshank Redemption and The Dark Knight

Preferred wanegan offering: Though it has never been offered, Kinder Bueno!

Best evening program at camp: All-camp capture the flag

Favorite cartoon character: Spongebob Squarepants @jeffmccormack #absorbentandyellowandpourisishe

Favorite camp (card) game: Euchre

If you could have lunch with any two people, dead or alive, who would they be?: Elie Wiesel and Steve Jobs

 

What is your dream job: I still haven't figured that one out yet… any suggestions?

A little known fact about yourself: I love puzzles, but sometimes my attention span can't handle them.

The March Siren is Online

After a brief hiatus, the Siren is back! We apologize for the delay, but things have been quite busy in the winter office. Our new addition, Laney Shlensky, has been a very welcome distraction! This new Siren has details and pictures of our new arrival, as well as all kinds of camp news. This Siren is filled with info on a fantastic group of returning staff, a great group of returning and new campers, and all of the exciting happenings at camp.

And if all you are looking for is more pictures of Laney, we would be happy to share! You can find our albums at www.picturesoflaney.shutterfly.com!

NSC March Madness

Once again its time for all North Star people, past, present and future to join the NSC March MadnessChallenge. If you're a current or future camper, staff or NSC alum or a parent of any of those, you're encouraged to participate. There is no cost to participate and winner gets a wanegan of his or her choice, to be redeemed at camp, during the summer of 2013.

...In true North Star tradition, this is not a competitive thing so even if you don't know much about college basketball, you should still join. As you'll see with the log-in info below, we're using ESPN.com again this year. We hope this does not offend some of the various NSC alums who work for other media outlets. Here are the links and log-in information:

Direct Link to group - http://es.pn/NSCmm13
ESPN March Madness Front Page - http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage
Group: The Council Ring
Password: Keylog

If you have any problems logging in, let us know. If you do not have an ESPN.com account, you are going to have to register before you can join. It is free of charge (you do not need ESPN Insider)

A few things. First off, please forward this to any and all North Star people. We want to make sure that as many North Star people as possible are included. We know that a lot of our current campers and staff will enjoy seeing as lots of alumni participate. Don't worry about sending this to someone who may have gotten it already.

If you choose to join in, please put your name and perhaps even the years you attended North Star within your bracket name or entry info. Feel free to be creative, but it will be nice for people to see some names and know who all is involved.

One entry per person, please.

You are able to sign-up now. You can fill out your brackets any time after selection Sunday and before tip-off on March 21st (you do not need to fill out brackets before the play-in game).

There is also a second March Madness that we want everyone to know about. The Camp For All Kids Foundation is having their 2nd annual March Madness competition. CFAK helps send kids in need to camp and is the organization that is responsible for bringing scholarship kids to camp. There CFAK MarchMadness is a great fundraiser aimed at making camp possible for more kids. Find that fundraiser here:
http://campforallkids.org/marchmadness.php

As always a big quick keylog to Doug Willson who opened up his Crunch Island Challenge to North Star guys many Marchs ago.

Keep those fires burning!

Past Winners:
2012: Charles Eisner
2011 - Zach Garfinkel (http://bit.ly/h14ywY)
2010 - Alex Sharrin
2009 - Peter Tauber
2008 - Eli fried
2007 - Kenny Grider
2006 - Jeff Schrager
2005 - Alexander W Heldman

Winter Pics

Mandy, Robyn and former camp nurse Rachel went up to camp and Mandy skied the Birkie! Check out the pictures from their trip!

North Star in Dallas

Howdy folks (I had to do it... its Texas!).

Dan is heading down to Dallas for the week for the American Camp Association National Conference as well as two camp fairs. If you're still looking for camp for the coming summer, we hope that you'll stop by one of the fairs and come see him at the North Star booth.  If you know of anyone looking for a camp for the summer, please let them know about the fairs and have them come see us! We appreciate any and all referrals.

Here are the fair details:

Tips on Trips Fair:

Saturday, February 9 from 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Episcopal School of Dallas

Middle and Upper School Campus

4100 Merrell Road - Dallas, TX

Summer Fun Live Camp Fair

Saturday, February 16th from 10am - 3pm

St. Alcuin Montessori School

6144 Churchill Way - Dallas, TX

Dan is also available for home visits over the course of the week.

Of course, if you're already signed up for camp, stop by and say hi!