Hey, Camp Fans!
We were please to receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 entries for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest here at Everything Summer Camp and so we’re eager to share each one right here on the Blog! After seven lucky winners of bigger prizes, all other entrants got a $15 gift certificate for our online shop! Today’s post is from Maddie S., who wrote in to tell us about her and her best friend, Lily who she met at camp. 
“I have been going to YMCA Camp Seafarer for 6 years. My mom went there 30 years ago. When I was 6, my parents sent me to starter camp. Starter camp is a one-week program that introduces you to the lifestyle of camp. There at starter camp, I met a nice 6-year-old girl, named Lily. That week I grew closer to her and we became best friends. We have been coming back together as best friends for the past 6 years. On starter camp pick up day, our parents met and, they too, became close friends. Lily’s parents even invited my family over to their beach house for dinner. The next year we stayed together the night before the two-week program that week. That program lets you go free without a counselor to any activity. You can go out with anyone and earn ranks together. Lily and I earned every rank together. The next year we went for a month. We got so much accomplished during that month. Since then, we have been each others cabin mates for the past 6 years. At the end of every session, we have awards and a fancy dinner. For the two-week and four-month programs that we have done, every year we have earned the Dynamic Duo in the award ceremony. At camp, I truly met my best friend. Now, our families are good friends, but we will always be best friends.
I hope you liked my camp story.”
We do like your camp story, Maddie! We do! How lucky you and Lily are that your parents sent you to summer camp!—And how lucky THEY are! Maddie loved her time at Camp Seafarer. You can check it out for yourself right here and, as always, thanks for reading!
- John
ed received a $15 gift certificate to our website! Today’s post is from Lucy B., who wrote in to tell us about her first year at overnight camp.
“This story starts back from a campfire on night two of ten. My tent-mate had received a care package full of goodies and sweets, but was lazy enough to just leave it out on his camp box. I was the first one coming into camp and when I walked down to our pod of tents, I saw four green eyes staring at me. I shined my flashlight and sure enough, there was a raccoon in our tent and one just outside of it. They had eaten all of my friend’s treats and were searching for more. One was on my cot! The whole entire rest of the night, my friend kept shining the flashlight to scare the raccoons off because they kept coming back. We called it Five Nights at Camp after the popular game Five Nights at Freddy’s. Later, my friend decided to hide the rest of his food; in a trash can, when we woke up, it too was all gone. He was really angry now. I told him that it was a bad idea but he didn’t believe. Finally, someone made a bag we could haul up into a tree to keep out of the reach of the little critters. I never moved my food, it was all safely in my wooden box.”
“My son went to Woodruff Boy Scout Camp for a week. I was very nervous about what to pack and how to pack to make sure he had everything he needed. I love the trunk he got from Everything Summer Camp. It really helped him stay organized. He said it was cool to have a trunk that was different from everyone else’s so he could find it easily. Then he said, “Mom, when I took out the wheels and popped them on..everyone was talking about it and that they wished they had wheels on their bin/trunk”. When my son came back from summer camp I could tell he was more confident and willing to try new things. One of the things he talked about was all of the new friends he met and how there were scouts from far away states. He thought that was so cool and he even exchanged info with a couple of scouts so he could keep in touch. He also said how we like the fireworks even though they got rained out but he kept dry in his rain gear. I never got a chance to go to sleep away camp, but I am glad he is able to go and make memories that will last a life time.”
if I could try another step. So I did, taking slow, calm, breaths, one foot after the other. And miraculously, before I knew it, I made it across the obstacle course, thanks to the encouraging cheers of the people down on the ground. I couldn’t thank them enough. From then on, leaving the ground and pursuing the sky wasn’t so hard anymore. I started taking on new challenges on my own, such as taking more difficult routes up the rock walls than I may have been accustomed to. Chimney Corners taught me that safe steps out of my comfort zone may actually allow me to grow. For any person with acrophobia (and especially the people with acrophobia who like to climb), CCC would be a great place to learn how to overcome that fear and start taking safe risks, like I did. Maybe next year at Chimney Corners, I’ll get over my cynophobia (fear of dogs) and malushygroviscosiphobia (fear of applesauce). Don’t ask.”