April 26th, 2022 Video with Jared and Jackie

Greetings from Camp Ramaquois! We’re really excited to share our new video with you. I am Jared, one of the directors here at Camp Ramaquois. Very excited to be here on today’s video. With me, as usual, is my friend and colleague Jackie. Hey, Jackie, say hello.

Hi, everybody.

Jackie is one of our assistant directors here at Ramaquois, and we’re really excited to address some of the questions that you’ve been sharing with us over the last couple of weeks since our last video. And as always, we will be as transparent with you as possible given all the information that we have right now. There are some questions that are still too early for us to be able to answer about certain health and safety protocols, but we’ll certainly do our best to give you all the information that we have. We have three different topics that we’re going to be covering in today’s video. Those topics are what are some things parents should be doing right now, so reminders for parents. Number two, what should you be expecting from us over the next two months? And then, number three, what opportunities will there be for first year campers to come visit Camp Ramaquois? I’m so excited about it. I get tongue tied. Each of these topics will have a timestamp. So if you want to jump ahead to one of these questions when you watch the video, you can do that as well if you want to cut down on some of the listening to the things we have to say. So without further ado, I think that we should get started. Jackie, I’m going to throw the first question to you, and that is what are some reminders for parents? What should parents be doing right now to prepare for camp this season? Okay, thank you, Jared. So right now, parents should really be working on the forms. On the parent website, there are forms for every camper. If you have more than one camper, please click each camper’s name and fill out the forms for each one of them. The forms are due I say due in a funny way by May 1 because we are asking that you submit them by May 1 so that we have the information we need to start to get to know your campers. If it comes May 2 or 3, that’s fine too. But please work on getting them in as soon as possible. There is a transportation release form for each camper, a personality profile for each camper, a health history form for each camper, and a camper medical form. The Camper Medical Form is the only form that actually needs to be printed and given to a physician for the physician to sign and complete. At that point, you can scan it and email it back to us. You can have your physician send it back to us. All the instructions are on the form that is the only form that is not completed electronically online. The other forms will only take you a few minutes, so please visit the website and get those submitted for us. That would be very helpful. The other thing that parents should be doing now for sure is to order the clothing. Ramaquois is a uniform camp. Two T shirts per camper are included with your tuition, but you do need to go online and order them. You may visit ramaquois.com/clothing and that is a direct link to Amerasport, who is our clothing vendor. They are wonderful. They’re ready and waiting. They have the inventory and they’re waiting for your orders. I am going to share my screen for a moment so that I can help you a little bit through the ordering process because it can be confusing. While Jackie is doing that, I just want to point out she’s going to be sharing directions for ordering the required clothing. But there are other links if you want to kind of check out the rest of the site there you can you can never have too much Ramaquois swag is my personal feeling, but go ahead Jackie. I agree. Okay, so right now this is the ramaquois.com/clothing. We’ll take you to this homepage at Amerasport. If you can see on the top line where I’m moving my cursor Junior Camp, Girls’ Side, Boys’ Side, co-ed, complimentary and then some other stuff. So for the sake of description and not to go through each side of camp, I’m just going to click on Boys’ Side and you can see here that there are different options on each side of camp. Whatever tab you were to click, you will see that there is a shirt that looks like uniform shirt that has a sunburst that says complimentary limit two per camper. The first thing that you want to do is put two of those T shirts for each of your campers into your shopping cart. Those are the ones that are included with tuition. If that is all you want to order the two T shirts per camper, put it in your shopping cart, check out. We pay for the shirts, we pay for the shipping. They will arrive at your home. If you would like additional clothing, even if that additional clothing is just some extra T shirts depending on your laundry habits. If you see on the left here where my cursor is now hovering, it’s the same exact shirt. It just doesn’t have the sunburst that says complimentary. This is where you would purchase the additional T-shirts. Click on that item, put as many as you would like into your shopping cart and then you can proceed to the checkout. Also feel free to peruse all of the other options on any of the tabs. Upper camp wears gray, but the Boys’ Side has a blue and gold logo and the Girls’ Side has a light blue and dark blue logo. So all of this is pretty clear on the website, but it’s a complimentary versus the non complimentary that some people have a little bit of an issue with. For example, you’re ordering five T shirts, Ramaquois pays for the first two, you pay for the second three. I’m going to stop sharing my screen, and I know that went very quickly. We’re happy to help you with any questions. Junior Camp wears gold, Girls’ Side wears light blue, Boys’ Side wears navy. Upper Camp wears gray. The Girls’ Side logo, as I described, has a light blue and dark blue logo, and the boys has a navy and gold logo. One other form that’s new for this year is when you log in to the parent site. Again, at Ramaquois.com/parent when you log in to complete all your forms electronically. There is something new for this year and that is that you have an option to either upload your child’s COVID-19 vaccine card or you will have to then choose a link for a waiver. If you have decided to not vaccinate your child for COVID-19, you will need to complete a waiver form that states that this is a choice that your family has made. This is an important step for us because while we don’t yet know specifically what the guidelines for camp will be, we are under the impression that certain quarantine and isolation rules may be different for campers based on their COVID vaccine status. So having the vaccine information is something that will be really helpful to us and we will be requiring families to complete a waiver for any children whose families have chosen for them to not receive the COVID vaccine. We understand that there are many campers attending Ramaquois this summer who are not yet age eligible, all of those who are under the age of five. You will not have to complete that waiver form because it’s not a choice for you to vaccinate your child. But that is something we will be collecting and will likely have an impact on our quarantine rules and other guidelines regulations as it pertains to COVID-19 and camp regulations while we’re still waiting for information from the New York and Rockland County Departments of Health. But that is another link you’ll see when you log into the parent site and a pretty important one as it relates to our protocols this camp season. All right, so parents, you have a lot of work to do. If you haven’t done that already, make sure you order your clothing and fill out your forms and get that information to your physician if you haven’t already done so. All right, our next question. Question number two, what should parents expect from us? So, Jackie, I’ll let you tackle this one. Also, what are the things that parents can expect from us over the next two months? Sure, I’d be happy to. So over the next few weeks, actually, each family is going to be receiving an email from your side director. The side director is going to introduce him or herself to you and also introduce your camper’s division leader. If you have campers on more than one side of camp, you will be getting more than one email. We wanted to make sure that we don’t miss anybody. So each director is taking care of their side. So if you have a Junior Camper, a Boys’ Side and/or Girls’ Side camper, you might get one, two or three emails from the side directors introducing each child’s division leader. After that happens later in the spring and certainly before your camper’s session, every division leader is going to call every family, new and returning families. The division leaders want to have a quick conversation about your camper, get to know them as much as possible so that we can be the most prepared for when they arrive at camp. So the division leaders will call prior to your camper’s session. If you’re a second session camper, you might get the call a little bit later in the spring or maybe even once camp has started. But the division leader will touch base with every family prior to camp. What they tend to do is send an email to the family to make an appointment, to speak on the phone. And that’s how we’ve been doing it. It’s worked really well. What else can parents do? Final payments are due May 3. It’s approaching. That should not be a surprise. That’s been on all of our literature. The final payments are due on May 3. And what we’ve been getting calls about already, and I understand that this is what most families are most anxious about is the grouping and the bus information. That information will be shared when it is finalized, which is not until about a week before camp. Bus routes are being tweaked. Groups are being tweaked until the very last moment to make sure that we have everything right. And as soon as that information is finalized, we will share it. It will be on the parent website and you will get an email when that information is available. But it is not until much closer, about a week before camp. And I think that is pretty much what to expect. The other thing is to expect an email about family camp, which Jared is going to talk about in a moment, which answers the third question about new families having an opportunity to come and experience a little bit of a taste of camp. Right. So that leads to a third question, is what opportunities will there be for first year campers to come visit the camp before the camp season? And we’re finally prepared to provide that answer to you. So we will be offering three separate days of family camp, and that will be open to any first year campers and their families. Family camp will take place on Saturday, May 14, or Sunday, May 22, or Saturday, June 4. On each of those three dates. Again, May 14, May 22 June 4, families will have the option of choosing one of two sessions on each of those days. There’ll be one at 9:30 AM, one at 12:30 PM, and you can choose whichever of those six sessions I just mentioned that works best for your family. For any first year camper and their families, when you come to camp, you’re going to have a mini camp day experience. You’ll be able to go on a boat in the lake, do a craft, play a sport, make some s’mores, eat some s’mores, anything that just gives you a fun camp experience. But most importantly, meet some peers, meet some people, feel comfortable, feel relaxed, and get a feel for what a camp day at Ramaquois is like. For those that have never attended Ramaquois during the camp season, we will be sending an email, a separate email to you over the next few days that will have a link for registration. But you now have the dates if you want to start planning, if you have friends, other families who also have first year campers, people that you’d like to come experience the family camp with and be together in a group, make sure you organize which session or which date works best for you. And when the registration comes, each family will register separately and this will all be explained in that email. But each family can register separately and choose the same group to be together. If you don’t know other families that will be attending for the first time, no worries. We’re going to pair you up with a few other families who have children the same age or at least relatively close in age so that your child can make some new friends, be with some peers, meet some administrators at camp. You’re not likely going to meet your child’s counselors, but you will have opportunities to meet many of our leadership team, our administrative staff, some of our key staff here at camp. And hopefully when you leave that day, you’ll feel very relaxed, comfortable and excited about the upcoming camp season. So again, this is for all first year campers and their families. You’ll have that opportunity. So keep an eye out for that email. I think that covers everything about family camp and opportunities for new campers to visit. So we can’t wait to see all of our new campers and then ultimately see all of our returning campers as well. Join us here at camp. I think we tackled all three questions, right? I think we did. All right. Wow. Kudos to us. So I guess we’ll do our usual closing for all of our videos here. If you have any questions or want to reach out to us anytime, you could always send an email. My email is Jared@Ramaquois.com. That’s Jared at R-A-M-A-Q-U-O-I-S.com. And you can also email Jackie if you like. That’s Jackie@ramaquois.com. And feel free to send us a message. We will get back to you very quickly and answer any questions, help you with any forms that you need. Please don’t forget that we’ll be sending more videos like this. So probably in a couple of weeks you’ll get another email with another video and if you enjoy them, hopefully you’ll get more information and more questions answered. So keep an eye out for that and all the information Jackie mentioned you’ll be receiving over the next few weeks from us. If you want, please follow us on social media. We try to post things there regularly, either fun things or informational items. One thing I will mention is that this summer is the 100th anniversary of Camp Ramaquois and we’ll be having a big Alumni Event this summer on a weekend. So we’ve been posting some information on social media. So any parents out there who are alumni, we hope and expect to see you on our 100th Anniversary celebration and there’ll be other celebrations this camp season as well. We’re really excited and flattered and honored to be able to celebrate that. We’re always looking for amazing staff members. You can never have too many great staff people, so if you know of people that you think would be a great part of the Ramaquois team and be an asset to Camp Ramaquois, please feel free to send them our way. You could have them email us at the aforementioned email addresses or they could check out our website and complete a staff application if they’re so inclined. I think that covers everything for us today, so I want to say thank you for taking the time to view. We’re aways excited. We love the great feedback we get from people. We welcome the constructively, critical feedback as well. So feel free to reach out with any information and I think we’re going to end our video the way we end all of our videos and all of our lineups here at camp. It’s a big thing at Ramaquois to close everything out with the following, so I will say thank you for viewing and have fun, there’s a camp out there!

Bye everybody!