Only Twelve Weeks to Go Until Summer!!!!

Spring is upon us. My garden finally has flowers in it. Days are warmer. And what does this mean? It’s almost time for camp! Get excited, because we have a fantastic season planned for you all...

Our New Theatre is Ready to Go!
New theatre, you’re thinking? What new theatre?
Well, if you were at camp in session 4 last summer, you will recall a bunch of strange men in bright yellow hats staring thoughtfully at the side wall of the gym theatre, while laying down coloured pieces of string. If you’d assumed they were setting up for a fun evening program to take place the night after you left camp - you’d be wrong! Construction on our new theatre space began literally moments after our last camper departed... so the building is now finished, and ready to go! The lovely new space will be smaller than the gym theatre, and will be dedicated to theatre performances... while the gym theatre remains dedicated to music, dance and musical theatre.
Hm. We have a problem here. I can’t keep calling them ‘gym theatre’ and ‘lovely new space’!!! So - since campers named our interim theatre in the basement of Richie Hall - what do YOU think the two performance spaces should be called? Do we move the name ‘Cat’s Eye’ over to the new theatre? Call the gym ‘Orion Theatre’ (which was the name of the theatre we used to have)? If you have any ideas for names, please let us know!

Parent Manual is Ready!

If you are new to camp this summer, you are probably full of questions right now. What time do you arrive on the first day? What should you bring? Where exactly are we? Is it a fashion faux pas to wear blue jeans and a green shirt? If you need help with that last question, don’t ask us (you should see what we’re wearing right now!) - but we can help with everything else. Today, we loaded up the brand new Parent Manual to our website. It’s full of useful information and tips, for campers new and returning. In just a few weeks, we’ll also have an online store for you to browse, with camp goodies like cool T Shirts, nifty hats and snazzy water bottles (in case you’re wondering, ‘nifty’ and ‘snazzy’ have to be said with a British accent). We’ll also be notifying you by email when you can download the all-important, essential, manditory, extremely critical, please-fill-in-soon "Health History Form".

News on our Fifteenth Anniversary Performance Marathon!

If you’ve snoozed through the last few newsletters, you may not know that on
24th May, an extremely important event will be taking place at the Lower Ossington Theatre , Toronto. Twenty Five of your much-adored Centauri staff members will be working non-stop on creative projects for total of 15 hours, to raise money to build a school in Nepal. Over 15 years, Centauri has become a nurturing, supportive, inspiring community unlike any other. Now, we want to give back... by empowering a community in the developing world, through education.
Please support us! If you would like to sponsor a Stupendous Centauri Team Member, you can go to: www.centauri.on.ca/marathon. We’re also looking for donations for our Silent Auction - if you can help with items, please email us. Otherwise, please come along on 24th May, and see your beloved counsellors and PeeDees in action! More details of time and location to follow soon.

Check out the web site at www.centauri.on.ca/marathon

A Taster of the Fun to Come!

Right now, our staff are busy planning many of the spectacular activities you will get to be a part of at camp! As a ‘taster’, you can look forward to a Wizard of Oz Festival...and an evening program based on the popular series, ‘Lost’. Jordi and Jeanette will be running a spirit supper and evening program based on the Twilight Saga, and we have a special evening program based on "Where the Wild Things Are". We’ll also be hosting Julius Caesar’s last banquet (!!!) - and a belated birthday party for Shakespeare! If you’re attending in Session 2, then you can look forward to an amazing day trip... to see Driftwood Theatre’s production of The Comedy of Errors. The session one day trip is still in the planning stages.

Check us out on Facebook!

Centauri has an official Facebook page! Search for Centauri, and you’ll be sure to find us! We’ll be posting news about camp, as the summer schedule comes together.

Summer 2009: Please Help us Spread the Word!
Do you have a cousin, brother, neighbour, classmate or friend who  would enjoy a summer spent exploring the arts? Then why not tell them about us? If you refer someone, and they book for summer 2009, you will receive a free gift in the mail! Although several programs are now full for the summer, we still have space for boys and girls in all four sessions. You can point your contacts to our website at www.centauri.on.ca or send us their addresses by email, and we’ll forward them a brochure in the mail

Leadership Tour to Mexico, March 2010!

Centauri is planning an exciting new international tour option for March Break 2010. Older campers will have the opportunity to join us as we travel down to Mexico, to offer three days of arts workshops at a Mayan school in the Yucatan. The trip will include sightseeing - the colonial city of Merida, and the ruins at Chichen Itza - as well as a chance to live in a traditional Mayan community. This is the school I taught with a few weeks ago. It’s a unique opportunity for older campers to design and plan their own arts workshops, engaging in a unique travel opportunity, and gaining valuable volunteer service hours along the way. More information will be available in the summer, but likely this tour will be open to just 12 campers aged 15 and over.

More news very soon, now that summer is just around the corner!