SCATICO BLOG
Virtual Cooking with Ally
We’re pumped to announce that this #ScaticoThursday we’re getting ready for making s’mores brownies (the clear vote winner) with Chef Ally!
Get ready to make s’mores brownies (the clear vote winner) with Chef Ally!
If you couldn’t catch Sunday’s instagram live, here are all the ingredients and tools you’ll need, plus Chef Ally’s demo and recipe.
Remember, send photos of your completed project to nicki@scatico.com— for every submissions we’re donating to Feeding America!
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Grease your baking pan to prevent sticking
Add 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or whichever kind you have!) and 1 stick of unsalted butter into medium saucepan. Place on stove over LOW heat and slowly stir with cooking spoon until fully melted. This may take a few minutes; keep mixture moving for smooth consistency (and so nothing burns). When fully melted, take off heat.
Add 3/4 light brown sugar and 3/4 cups granulated white sugar to melted chocolate chip and butter mix. Mix well with whisk or cooking spoon. It’s OK to substitute whatever sugar you have available! Mixture should be pretty thick when finished.
Make sure your mixture is cooled. Add four eggs. Mix well. Mixture should now have the consistency of batter.
Add 1tsp vanilla. Mix in.
Slowly add 1 cup of flour. Fully integrate the flour into your batter. Add it slowly so your flour doesn’t get all over the place!
Add 1/2 tsp salt and mix in. Put batter mixture to the side.
Line the bottom of your greased baking pan with graham crackers. Don’t crumble them! Treat the graham crackers “like a puzzle” and fit in the pieces as best you can. It’s ok if you need to break some into smaller pieces, and it’s a little uneven.
Pour the batter into the pan on top of the graham crackers. Make sure you spread it out evenly and don’t get any on the sides, which will burn!
Put pan into the oven for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven, and add mini marshmallows (or larger marshmallows torn up) and 1 cup mini chocolate chips to the top of your brownies. Feel free to add more or less marshmallows or chocolate chips depending on your preferences! You could also do 1/2 pan regular brownies, 1/2 with s’more topping !
Put pan back into the oven for 10 minutes, until marshmallows and chocolate on top melty. If you’d like, you can broil for 30 seconds to get that golden s’more quality on your marshmallows afterwards.
Let sit and cool for around 40 minutes and then eat! YUM!
S’MORE SUBMISSIONS
Hover to see the caption!
Virtual Novelty Challenge
Our next virtual activity is… a novelty challenge!!!
VIRTUAL NOVELTY CHALLENGE
Our latest virtual activity … a novelty challenge!!! It’s hard to recreate the communal feeling of a College Bowl or Tribes campfire, or the intensity of a Color War activity, but we can still feel the Scatico spirit through the screen.
See all the virtual submissions in the video below:
Scatico March Madness
Welcome to the official page for all things Scatico March Madness!!!
Welcome to the official page for all things Scatico March Madness!!!
ANALYSIS + RESULTS
SCATICONIAN BRACKETS
What do people have in their final four? Check everyone’s brackets below, listed alphabetically by first name!…
AIDAN ROGERS
ALEX GOOGEL
ALEX (PERU) JARAMILLO
ANDREW BIALEK
BEN MOYAL
BEN (BUBBA) + ALLIE PUTZER
BENNET SANDERS
BETH METZENDORF
BRETT SIMONS
BRYCE HOLDEN
CHARLIE WEINSTEIN
CHARLOTTE MARK
CORY SCHWARTZ
COURTNEY LESSER
DANIEL KOVACS
DAVID FLEISCHNER
DIANA WALLERSTEIN
DIEGO GROOM
DORI CHAIT
DREW WINIARSKI
DREW SCHWARTZ
ELLIS + DAPHNE ZUCKERMAN
GEORGIE LOIGMAN
HANNAH HOLDEN
IRWIN SCHWARTZ + HENRY MAX
JAKE SCHUMER
JAMIE ROSH
JAMIE SEGAL
JAMIE SILVERMAN
JANE GREELEY
JARED SIMONS
JENNA + MARLY FASS
JIM HOSKING
JON HARRIS
JOSH TRICHON
JULIE GREELEY
JULIA METZENDORF
KATE GREELEY
KATE METZENDORF
KERRI WINDERMAN
LEXI SCHWARTZ
LINDSEY SHERMAN
LOLLI KAHN
LUCY CHESTLER
MADORSKY FAMILY
MAGGIE BROWN
MARK GRETTENSTEIN
MARLEY VOGEL
MATT STUTTMAN
MIA GROOM
NICKI FLEISCHNER
OLIVER MARK
OSCAR STRICKLAND
OZ + LILAH RUBINSON
RAFAEL GROOM
RYAN DERASSE
SADIE VANDERCAR
SAM RYAN
SAM JOSEPHSON
SAMARA CHAIT
SARAH MOYAL
SOOPERS 2011!
SOPHIE ROSEN
TEDDY WEINSTEIN
TYLER WINDERMAN
VIVI LOIGMAN
ZACH CHAIT
ZACH WAYNE
Virtual Art + Talent Show
Over 40 Scaticonians across 3 continents (and including campers, staff and alum!) participated in the virtual art and talent show!
VIRTUAL ART + TALENT SHOW
Over 40 Scaticonians (campers, staff and alum!) across 3 continents participated in Scatico’s first-ever virtual art and talent show! The evening served as a true testament to the power of camp and connection, even amid extraordinary times. Soaking in all of the submissions, in some ways it felt like we were right back in Elizaville— taking a tour of the “gallery” in the canteen extension and settling into our seats in the amphitheatre as the sun dipped below the tree line.
The show also served as a much-appreciated reminder of the creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience of our camp community. Every submission had its own unique twist, its own touch of camp spirit, even though they were pulled together at a moment’s notice. As camp people we’re used to working with tight time frames. Forty minutes to choreograph and memorize a routine for evening activity that same day? No problem.
We know the coming weeks will bring unexpected challenges. Whenever you need that dose of camp magic, you can always revisit the art and talents right here! We know we’ll be doing that plenty….
ART SHOW SUBMISSIONS
** Hover your mouse over the piece to see who it is by!!**
Talent Show Submissions
Virtual Scatico Announcement
To Our Scatico Family,
In times like these, we need our communities and support systems more than ever. We have been thinking of you, and of our favorite Scatico moments— walks along the tree-lined path, a jump in the lake on a super hot day, the crack of a softball off a bat in twilight league.
As Scatico, we always say we live 10 for 2… and we thought now would be a great time to bring that motto to (virtual) life. So every week we are going to celebrate a #ScaticoThursday with a different camp-focused activity, project, or moment of connection for us to take part in and share from our homes.
You can follow along on both our Facebook and Instagram pages, or we’ll also be posting all the calls to action and submissions here on our blog!
Even though we can’t physically be together, we can keep the magic of Scatico alive!
Boys Color War!
For a maybe first in Scatico history (at least in David’s memory) boys Color War broke at the morning flag-raising on Saturday, with a color war sign hidden in the folded flag that the Upper Seniors raised. Everyone thought it was going to break the night before, when the boys camp buried a time capsule at the site of the old stables (more on that in our next blog post).
The next few days are for all-out competition, tradition, spirit, and sportsmanship! Best of luck to both the green and grey.
Girls Color War!
Following dinner on Sunday night, girls side was in for a surprise. Fortune cookies containing the messages “We see green and grey in your future” and “Divided into teams, but united in spirit” were for dessert. It could only mean one thing…. COLOR WAR!
Following dinner everyone rushed to the tennis courts to observe Sooper tennis and participate in divisional dodgeball in order to learn their team colors. Over the next week Green and Grey will compete in a wide range of activities: sports, art, singing, swimming, are more. Can’t wait to see what Color War 2019 has in store.
CIT Trip to the DR
Our 25 CITs are on the north coast of the Dominican Republic this week…
Our 25 CITs are on the north coast of the Dominican Republic this week, working with local non-profit The DREAM Project to run a day camp for some 80 Dominican kids. Follow along with their adventure at citdream.wordpress.com.
Summer 2019, Edition #3: July 10 - July 17
A funny thing happened in the off-season this past year.
Something surprising happened in the off-season this past year. While at the Tri-State Camp Conference— a huge convention that brings camps from around the country to Atlantic City in March each year— David Fleischner had an unexpected run in. He was walking the vendor floor, where various companies sell things like lake inflatables, magician services, peanut butter alternatives, and logo-d gear (you know, camp stuff), when a woman stopped him.
“Scatico?” she asked, pointing to the name emblazoned in the corner of David’s shirt. “Where did you get that name from?”
“I believe our camp was named for the Native American tribe that used to live around the area where our camp was founded,” David explained. “A lot of camp’s started in the 1920s and 30s did that.”
The woman smiled.
We soon discovered that she was none other than the spouse of the Sachem, or chief, of the Schaghticoke Nation… the very tribe Camp Scatico was named for. Her husband is a consultant on conservation and an environmental educator (who has even worked on projects for the United Nations).
As David always says, things happen for a reason. We knew this was an opportunity that the Scatico community could not miss out on— an opportunity to connect with our true history, and to form a new tradition at camp.
Hawk, Sachem of Schaghticoke Nation
And so this past week, we invited the Sachem, Hawk, and other members of Schaghticoke Nation to come to camp to lead a ceremony. They led one campfire on Boys Side and one on Girls, teaching us their traditional songs, about the plants they hold sacred, and what the Schaghticoke Nation is up to today. We learned what the word Schaghticoke actually means— “mingling waters”— a metaphor that works beautifully at a camp centered around a lake, where we welcome people from all over the world, and invite them to share in our community. We learned that cedar and sassafras trees— found all over camp’s property— possess important healing and ceremonial properties. On Girls Side, camp’s resident bald eagle even stopped by, and perched upon a low branch directly over the campfire site, as if he were participating in the night’s events. It was one of those magical camp evenings.
At camp, sometimes the unplanned, unexpected moments are the ones that eventually become the longest-standing traditions. Who knew a chance encounter at a convention center in Atlantic City, would help Scatico connect with its roots.
Looking up as the eagle flies by!
GIRLS SIDE
Over on girls side it has been a very busy week. From birthday ball to a fantastic media show, to tournaments and hikes, camp has hit its true jam-packed stride.
First up… birthday ball! To ensure every camper experiences the excitement of celebrating a birthday at camp, girls side hosts a birthday ball every year. A tradition started in the 1980s, for the special evening girls are divided into their birthday seasons and decide on a theme related to their season name. This year campers opted for some TV-centric themes: Stranger Springs (like Stranger Things), What time is it? Summertime (a Highschool Musical reference), Fall House (like Full House), and Winter Mifflin (like Dunder Mifflin from The Office). Campers and counselors spent the afternoon decorating murals to hang in the dining hall, and then before dinner got into costume for the dinner celebration! Naturally it all ends with birthday cake— with 99 candles, one for each Scatico summer.
This summer also brought us our inaugural Girl Side Film Festival! CIT DL Kate Rosenfeld, a longtime Scaticonian, introduced a media program to girls side this year, and for her first project the Debs and Subs created their very own original film shorts. Over the last two weeks, they have been hard at work, taking on every role involved in the films’ production including director, cinematographer, costumes, prop technicians, screenplay, editing, and acting. With popcorn in hand, the whole girls camp gathered in the social hall and watched the films together. Needless to say it was a successful opening night!
Monday we also hosted the Girls NAT Basketball tournament! With a record seven camps Participating this summer— Surprise Lake, Watitoh, Pontiac, Lenox, Wah-Nee, Eagle Hill, and Scatico— the competition was fierce. Our team played incredibly, winning both their first and second games, before losing to Pontiac in a close semifinals game. The bleachers (as always) were full of campers from both boys and girls side who kept the cheers going all day long.
BOYS SIDE
This week the boys kicked off their much-anticipated College Bowl competition. College Bowl is an event where campers are divided into four colleges: Michigan (dark blue), USC (yellow), UCLA (light blue) and Ohio State (red). Over the course of an evening and an entire day, campers compete in a series of creative activities including full- camp capture the flag on the golf course, full-camp dodgeball on back campus, mass softball on the ballfields, a slapball home run derby, and an apache relay. Two new games introduced this year included “the greasy watermelon” (yes, as strange yet fun as it sounds… involving boys in the crib of the lake attempting to get a floating watermelon to their side), and a Bucket Brigade. A longtime girls side Color War activity, the bucket brigade has boys in a line along the lake dock stretching from the deep end to the beach, passing buckets filled with water in an attempt to fill a giant garbage can with a ping pong ball in it. The first team to overflow their garbage can so that the ping pong ball floats out and onto the dock, wins. The day is then finished with a traditional boys side campfire.
Boys side also participated in the fan-favorite Gong Show on Wednesday evening! Always filled with hilarious and unique acts, this year the Sub Seniors took home the gold. Highlights included Diego Groom doing a strong man act that involved lifting counselors, and a ribbon dance performance (which the Sub Seniors learned in girls gymnastics) while Nick Mozga and Isaac Greenblatt discussed philosophical issues.
This week also marked the official annual decoration of the boys HC porch. The porch has always had a pair of seats from the original Yankees stadium set up in one corner— a popular hangout spot during down time— with Yankee paraphernalia hung around it to match, but as soon as Cory Schwartz took up residence in the HC he made sure we evened out the fandom. Now an accompanying set of Mets seats are positioned on the opposite end of the porch, with accompanying Mets decor. The Subway Series setup has taken on a life of its own, with campers and counselors bringing their own photos, posters, and swag to add to the mix.
MYSTERY RIDES + OVERNIGHTS
This past week also marked the start of mystery rides and camp overnights! On Mystery Rides divisions head out of camp to a destination that is a surprise until they arrive. Some highlights from this week included the Upper Seniors trip to Art Omi, a giant outdoor sculpture garden, and blueberry picking at a local farm with The Centers. The Sophomore boys and Junior girls kicked off the summer’s overnights with evenings filled with s’mores and stories around the fire.
Juniors on their overnight
Next week stay tuned for some major camp events, including Scatico Legends (this year’s theme centers around overcoming obstacles), the brand-new Scatapalooza, Carnival, Minicamp, the Art Show and much more!
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Summer 2019, Edition #2: July 4th-July 9th
As a camp with decades of history, Scatico artifacts often spring up in the most random of circumstances.
As a camp with decades of history, Scatico artifacts often spring up in the most random of circumstances. While preparing for “Annie”— the Inter and Senior girls’ play, and the debut summer show for the Scatico Playhouse— we rifled through an old suitcase we thought would be suitable as a prop for Mr. Warbucks. Inside the suitcase were dozens of old Scatico papers, stationery, promotional materials, and more. One newspaper clipping, from a 1989 Sunday edition of the Albany Times Union entitled “Generations return to work and play at Scatico,” caught our eye.
The article was written after Scatico was featured in “Camp MTV,” a two-hour TV special, and is filled with quotes from campers— some of whom are now parents of campers today:
Boys soccer league
“Scatico does things pretty much the way it has since its founding in 1921,” the article reads. “‘I suspect there’s going to be a resurgence of this kind of camp… as our world gets crazier,’ says Adele Selleck, director of placement services with the American Camping Association in New York City…. Selleck said that one of Scatico’s drawing cards is that it ‘has a philosophy that is quite different than other camps.’ Campers are taught that winning and losing and competitiveness are less important than compromise, getting along, and treating others with respect. Virtually everyone at Scatico comments on the family-like atmosphere…. Returnees say it’s the people that keep them coming back.”
Now in week two of Summer 2019, it’s clear that in the 30 years since the article’s publication, these words still ring true. As we reflect on all the action of the past week— the Fourth of July Talent Show, first Tribes day, the Boys Nat, DJ Pure— it is still the people that makes Scatico, Scatico. It is the intangibles of living in a close-knit community where everyone knows each other’s names, where older campers walk younger to meals, and where cheering on the sidelines can be just as fun as making the winning shot that make camp the kind of experience it is.
Freshman boys take the stage at a boys dancing evening activity!
4th of July
Scatico’s supportive and spirited atmosphere is perhaps on no brighter display than it is on the Fourth of July. With campers dressed in red, white and blue, we had a full day of regular camp activities, followed by our first full camp, co-ed evening of the summer. Kicking off the celebration with a full camp BBQ on our new covered picnic deck (tentatively named the Tennis Patio) the celebrations then continued at the campi-theatre with a talent show. Always a highlight of the summer— and filled with unexpected talents and performances— there were 26(!) acts this year, and no two the same. From a rousing rendition of “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” with Jake Zirolli; to an original song performed by The Senior Boys; a dance to “Paper Planes” by The Upper Seniors; gymnastics with Isabelle Hellman; a full-division song with The CIT Girls; a stand-up comedy routine with Simone Strauss and Lily Pisnoy; incredible solo singing from Jojo Roses, Lily Nielsen, Sam Ryan, Leah Moscou, and Roy Goldstein; and a dance with some Debs, each act inspired all-out Scatico applause. The night finished with a surprise performance by the Scatico lifeguard staff, who seemingly magically transformed into a rock band overnight!.Performing a Bon-Jovi hit, the lifeguards got the entire camp up on their feet, before heading to the golf course to watch fireworks under the stars.
Boys’ side highlights
Dressed in green and grey (of course!) and signs ready, the campers on both boys’ and girls’ sides gathered together for the Boys Nat basketball tournament. The Nat, named for Scatico founder Nat Holman, is a camp tradition that remains at the heart of summer here. Invitees this year included Wah-Nee, Pontiac, Eagle Hill, Timber Lake, and Kinder Ring. While Scatico lost their first game to Pontiac, we won our second against Kinder Ring, thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Oz Rubinson.
Over in the arts programs, boys have been busy with very different kinds of projects. Our new boys Arts head Helen, an off-season instructor at the nearby Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, has been leading campers in the creation of unique stained glass and mosaic windows. Down in the Woodshop, Sergio, now in his sixth summer at Scatico, has been helping campers on a range of projects, including long-time favorites like pens, birdhouses, and even a Captain America shield! The Freshman boys are creating flower boxes for use on the Boys HC porch, and The Sophomores are building a new lost and found box (unfortunately, a great necessity).
Down at the lake, the boys partook in their first Polar Bear Swim— campers get up before reveille and swam the lane between boys’ and girls’ waterfronts (with some hot chocolate ahead of time to warm them up)— as well as our first Swim Meet of the summer at Camp Wah-Nee.The Senior Boys also won a night baseball game at Kenmont.
Girls’ side highlights
Over on girls’ side we had the first day of Tribes! Dressed in their red, yellow, blue and green, the day kicked off with the Swim Meet, which involves various lake races and competitions, including a plate hunting activity for the Jinters in the crib, and a life jacket relay for the Soopers. The afternoon was jam-packed with activities on the hill, followed by a Sing Down in the dining hall when it started to rain!
Tribes day one ended with a “campfire” (actually in the girls’ social hall, and involving no actual fire) where each team performed their Grace (a song we sing before meals in the dining hall) and demonstrated their Human Pyramid (somewhat self explanatory). The evening also incorporates random challenges, such as the Inters trying their best to guess the definitions of SAT words, and The Debs participating in a Talk Down (each girl is given the opposing side of a “debate,” such as Facebook vs. Instagram, and then do their best to talk about it simultaneously for a minute straight).
Another highlight this week was the choosing of Camp Sisters! As a tradition, the younger girls draw the name of an older camper out of a fishbowl, and the two are united as Camp Sisters for the duration of the summer. Girls side had its first Camp Sisters evening activity, which included a series of games— parachuting, line soccer, charades, and musical chairs— under the softball field lights.
Camp sisters!
Let’s Get Cookin!
Since its introduction to the Scatico program in 2006, Cooking has consistently been a favorite activity among boys and girls campers alike! We’re lucky to have Chef Ally— a longtime Scatico camper and counselor, head of cooking since 2006, and the head of NYC-based catering company Herb n Peach— back with us this summer, helping us whip up some delicious concoctions. Boys and girls started the summer with camp-style hors d’oeuvres like mini sliders and spinach artichoke dip, but desserts remain a camper and counselor ALL TIME favorite. We figured we’d share the (delicious) love, and the recipe for her famous S’more Brownie Bites!
Total Time: 45 min
Yield: 24 brownies
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup mini marshmallows
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs, or 4 large graham crackers, finely crushed
Special equipment: 24-count mini muffin pan, 24 mini-muffin liners
Directions:
Place an oven rack in the center of the over. Preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a 24-count mini muffin pan with paper liners.
Heat the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add 3/4 cup of the mini chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Gradually beat in the flour until the mixture is thick and smooth. Stir the remaining 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips.
Using a small cooking scoop, fill each paper liner with about 2 heaping tablespoons of batter. Push 3 mini marshmallows halfway down into the center of the batter. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of the graham cracker crumbs over the marshmallows. Bake until the marshmallows are puffed and light golden, 10- 12 minutes. Cool for 20 minutes and serve.
Boogie Time!
A highly-anticipated event of the summer is the evening spent in the Pavilion singing and dancing with DJ Pure, a local DJ who has become beloved by the Scatico community.
Playing summer hits and taking some specialty requests— such as “Paper Planes” so that the Upper Seniors could recreate their talent show performance— Juniors and Frosh through CITs kept moving all night long!
Next week!
Check out our next blog for more updates including; college bowl, girls’ Nat and our first divisional overnights.