Hey, Camp Fans!

The end of the summer season means lots of changes, but it’s still good to look back and reflect on the fun that was had. We’re happy to proceed with our third year of the Everything Summer Camp ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest. We’re very excited to post the stories we received right here on the Blog. All participants receive a $15 gift certificate and seven lucky winners will receive larger prizes of $25, $50, and the grand prize of $100.

Tune in tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday to see our other $25 winners. The following week, we continue on Monday and Tuesday for our two $50 winners and then on Wednesday, we’ll announce our top prize, $100 winner. Once our winners have been announced they’ll receive an email with the gift certificate code. We’re announcing the first four winners of the $25 gift certificates this week—starting right…now!

Today’s winner is….

Ella D.! Congratulations, Ella! You’re our first $25 prize winner! Ella spent some fun summer days at Gold Arrow Camp this year pushing her limits and facing some fears. Read all about it in this excellent entry:

“When I woke up that morning I was ready for what I thought would be just another perfect day at Gold Arrow Camp. I threw on a shirt and jeans, ready to face the day. Little did I know, I was in for a crazy ride.
       lChattering mindlessly with my fellow campers of Cabin Zero, we made our way to the dining hall. A couple of my friends ran to the activity board eager to know what fun we were going to have that day. Would we be pontooning? Kayaking? Personally I hoped we were going to have Knee/Ski/Wake.
“Yes!!” Zoey exclaimed. She ran back over to me, grinning from ear to ear. “We have High Ropes!” She squealed. Immediately my heart sank. It was a well known fact to my cabin that I was TERRIFIED of heights. High Ropes was torture for me.
       lFor the rest of the day I worried. Through Arts and Crafts, through Mini Motor Boats, and all through lunch. By the time we left for High Ropes, I’d worked up quite a sweat. I dragged my feet all the way to the ropes course, thinking of ways to get out of doing it. When we arrived I craned my neck to look up at the course. There I saw a very flimsy wire, seemingly miles up. I gulped. There was no way I would make it out alive. I walked up to the rope ladder and started climbing.
       l“Agghhh!” I made the mistake of looking down. I had successfully gotten to the top platform, with only one more obstacle to go. The problem was, this was the worst of them all. The Wire. I had to walk across a half inch wire, with nothing to hold on to. The wire would shake and spin, so I had to somehow keep my balance, while walking to the other end. In other words, it was impossible.
       lI had no choice though, The Wire was the only way out. I tentatively placed my right foot on The Wire. It wiggled. I put my other foot on. It shook. I placed one foot in front of the other until I was halfway across. Then I slipped. “AHHHHHHH!!!!!” I squealed sounding like a dying pig. I kicked my legs franticly trying to get back on The Wire. Then I heard them.
       l“You got this, girl!” Zoey screamed. “Go Ella!” Vivi chimed in. All around me, my 11 cabin mates urged me on, giving me the strength to keep going. I swung back onto the wall, and made the rest of the journey across. Once I was on solid ground, I felt so accomplished.
       lLooking back, I am in no hurry to do it again, but it seems a little less daunting now. I’m glad I did it. I learned a lot and made great friends because of The Wire. Camp made me a stronger, better person.”

Thanks again for your submission, Ella. We’re so glad to hear how much you loved camp. But you make yourself a better person! Camp only helps. For anyone else interested in Gold Arrow Camp, you can check it out right here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

By now, I hope you’ve heard about our third annual ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest from Everything Summer Camp. That’s right! For a third year now, we’re offering $15 gift certificates for our website—or maybe more—in exchange for your camp stories! We want you talking about all those accomplishments, friends, fears that were overcome, favorite parts at camp.

August is coming to a close, which means your time is up! Get your submissions into us now—there’s only one week left until our cutoff date on August 31!

We’ll be selecting seven randomized winners with our first-place winner receiving a $100 gift card for our website, two winners who will get $50 gift cards, and four winners who receive a $25 gift cards. Everyone else who submits will be getting a $15 gift card just for your participation!

To help you along, I offered some suggestions last month when I first announced this year’s Contest, in case some campers aren’t sure what to write about. I go into more detail in the previous post which you can read by clicking here, but here’s a short list of ideas:

l    •    Tell us about what was the most fun at camp.
l    •    Tell us some things you learned, like athletic, artistic, and thinking skills.
l    •    Tell us about all the great friends you made.
l    •    Tell us how it felt to be away from home and away from your parents.
l    •    Tell us about the inspiring beauty of the nature that surrounded you at camp.

In your submissions, be sure to mention the summer camp you attended and what you loved the most about it. Make sure you include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp. We loved hearing about your summer for the last two years. We can’t wait to receive a fresh new collection of your summer stories from this year! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Summer gets busy fast—especially near the end; we all want to fit in as much fun in the sun as we can before the season ends. But make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunity to share your camp stories with the widespread camp community, not to mention win a cool participatory prize from Everything Summer Camp!

With August in full swing, there’s no time to dally! Get your memories written up and send your submissions into us—our final call is just two and a half weeks away on August 23.
Don’t forget: Everyone who submits gets a $15 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp! Once we have everyone’s submissions, we’ll select seven randomized winners–four $25 gift card winners, two $50 gift card winners, and then just one first-place winner who will get a $100 gift card for our website. And all participants will get a $15 gift card just for submitting!

Writing is an extremely useful means for campers to cement all the fun memories and valuable skill sets that they learned at camp. It’s great to jot down new experiences to help yourself process and reflect on what you learned. If you aren’t sure what you’d like to write about, you can check out some ideas on the previous Share Your Camp Story post I wrote last month. 

Please include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp in your submissions. Parents are more than welcome to send us their submissions based on their camp experience as well.

We love hearing your summer camp stories and can’t wait to receive a fresh new collection of stories from this year! Share your stories by clicking right here. And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Summer Camp Fans!

Everything Summer Camp’s ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest is BACK!! Now that you’ve returned home and have had some time to reflect on your camp stay, we want to hear how you liked it. This contest has seen great participation in our previous years and we love reading all the submissions we get. We can’t wait to hear all your stories from this summer!

Tell us about the single, most fun and exciting activity or talk about all the great people you met. No matter what you have to share, we’d love to hear about it! Include your first name and the initial of your last name, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp. 150 words will qualify, however, we’d rather see submission’s that are closer to 250. Tell us about the camp you went to and why you think it’s the best! And, if you include a picture with your submission, we’ll post your camp story on Instagram!

What to Write
There are a million things you could talk about. But what will make the best submissions are the parts of camp that meant the most to you. Tell us about the things you learned at camp. Tell us about all the friends you made while you were there. Tell us how it felt to be away from home. Tell us about the beautiful landscapes and natural surroundings you saw at camp. Or submit a journal entry style to chronicle a day in the life!

Submit your written story about your summer camp experience by clicking here. There’s no entry fee. If you’re under 18 years old, you’ll need permission from your parent or guardian to enter this Contest.

Speaking of parents—we love hearing from you too! Don’t hesitate to give us your own submission if you have a story to share. How was the experience? Has your kid exhibited a change in behavior? How did you cope with your kid being gone? Did you learn any lessons from this year? Tell us whatever you want. We’re all ears!

Everybody gets a $15 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp with their submission!
Seven random winners will be chosen. Our first randomized winner will receive a $100 gift card for our website. We’ll then randomly pick two more winners to receive $50 gift cards to our site. After that, four random winners will get our $25 gift cards. Everyone else who submits will get the $15 gift cards.

Tell us how camp went and share your stories right here on the Blog! Check out further details on the entry form by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

The Everything Summer Camp ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing saw an excellent response with about 30 entries! That’s why we’ve published each and every one right here on the Blog! Today I’m posting the last of our submissions. We received a handful that weren’t long enough to qualify for our contest, but we thought we’d at least share them on the Blog.

First is this entry from Cassie S. who attended Wisconsin Badger Camp:

“I enjoyed participating in nature, arts & crafts, swimming, music, camp songs, going on a Camp out, going for hayrides, badger ball, meeting new friends and my old friends and meeting all the new staff and the staff that was at camp last summer! I had so much fun at camp during week 10 that I didn’t want to leave. I cried when it was time for me to leave to go home.”

Next up is a submission about Caleb S. and his time at Canadian Camp Ramah:

“I am writing this on behalf of my 9 year old son. His name is Caleb and he had an amazing month at camp this summer! The highlight for him was learning how to waterski. He was able to get up on two skis and to cross over the wake. He also made some great new friends and showed incredible independence. It was such a pleasure and honor to be able to welcome him home after such a transformative summer. There is absolutely no experience outside of summer camp that brings kids together as friends for a lifetime. Thanks Camp Ramah in Canada!”

Then we got word from Avery B.’s mother about her daughter’s time at Camp Greystone:

“1610 miles in 2 ½ days to pick Avery up at camp was totally worth every second in the car when she talks about how much closer she feels to God and how awesome her counselor’s devotions were! Thank you, Camp Greystone for loving my baby and helping her grow in her faith as well as so many other ways. Maybe next year she will run up and hug me, instead f crying that she doesn’t want to leave…but I’m not holding my breath!”

We also heard from Louie B. who attended Camp Beber:

“My favorite thing of camp was hobbies. I love hobbies because you get to do what you want. I liked to do waterskiing and aqua park. I liked the cabin activities also; those were fun. I liked Makor Mania. The best part was the camp out! I can’t wait for next year at Beber Camp and three day trips!”

Mia I. wrote in to us to tell us about her big swing at Camp JCA Shalom:

“I was afraid I would fall. So high up. I was ready to pull, that red rope. Finally,123…tug. There! I did it. I did not regret it. The giant swing was soooooooo fun. I am definitely doing that again.”

And, last but not least, we have a camp submission from Lainee A. who went to The Pines Catholic Camp:

“On the blob I went with my legs straight and I was supposed to a L Jump and then I landed on my Nose.”

A thank you to everyone for submitting and sharing your camp memories with us, Camp Fans! It’s great to hear from all of you. Look into these camps for yourselves if you’re interested and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John