Hey, Camp Fans!

Having brought in almost 30 entries The ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing here at Everything Summer Camp saw a great response, making us eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today, I post our last Camp Story from 2015 about Emily Y. and her great time at Camp

“2015 TAW 2nd Session

T.A.W. did not open until 8:00 am. I got there at 6:00 am. When I unpacked, I had my lice check, and then we had a camp cookout. My dad was so hungry and he loves cookouts. There were hamburgers and cake with fruit on top. After the cookout my mom and dad left. The camp went to the gym to sign up for the activities. After, I had a swim test. I didn’t pass. Then we went to our cabins for a few hours to play. After that we had dinner and E. P. (Evening Program). In the morning I got up and did the morning routine, Then I Went to breakfast. Then we did cabin cleanup and then we would do three activities. After that we would have lunch. Then we had happy nappy my favorite. Then we did three more activities, then dinner and E. P. and I did that for three weeks. On the day before we left we pack day and night. I left the next day. I cried when I left. Camp is Awesome!!!

God Bless Ton-A-Wandah.”

Thanks for your camp submission, Emily! Sounds like camp meant a lot to you! Camp IS Awesome! Maybe you can pass your swim test next summer! To anyone else interested in Camp Ton-A-Wandah, be sure to check it out for yourself. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Having brought in nearly 30 entries The ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing here at Everything Summer Camp saw a great response that made us eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today’s post is from Tali R., reviewing her favorite camp memories from

“These are my best (and most embarrassing) camp memories:

My 10-year-old friend Leora broke into bunk G10 and she didn’t get in any trouble. Her 13-year-old sister was in G10. She looked around and saw a bra chain and thought it was really funny. She didn’t get caught.

On the second to last day of camp I got so much canteen I literally barfed. I bought orange soda, cotton candy, razzles, corn pops, nachos, smart fries and M&M’s. My stomach still hurts thinking about it.

My most embarrassing moment was when I was answering a question in front of the whole camp and I farted. I will never forget that!!

At our overnight camp out, me and my friend Rami were in a tent together and we heard a sound and we thought it was a ghost. But really it was our friend Moo Moo outside the tent making ghost sounds.

I was on the rolling log in the lake and my friend Isabella pushed me off. I had to get out of the water and there was lake water coming out of my mouth.

For color war we had swim races but I had red makeup on my face (GO RED!) and my makeup shmeered all over my face. It made me look all bloody. I will always regret this moment. The good news is that WE WON COLOR WAR!!!!!

We went fishing with nets and I kept catching the same fish over and over. It kept on jumping back into the water. It was so funny.

The camp food was pretty horrible. Good thing I had a package of ramen noodles.

On the camp out we heard lightning and thunder, but it wasn’t really lightning and thunder!!! It was just the counselor’s ring tone on their phone.

Mom’s packages from your website [everythingsummercamp.com] helped make camp a lot easier and fun! Until my friend Shelly robbed my silly string!!!! At least I still have my sleeping bag, it sure made me warm in the woods. Thanks!!”

Thanks again for all the memories, Tali (as well as the laughs)! To anyone else interested in Camp Moshava, be sure to check it out for yourself. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

The Everything Summer Camp ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing saw an excellent response with nearly 30 entries! That’s why we’re publishing each and every one right here on the Blog! Today I’ve got two submissions ready to go from Greyson C. as well as Nathan G.! They’re entries are both on the shorter side, but you can tell there wasn’t any shortage of fun at the camps they attended.

Here’s what Greyson had to say about his stay at Rock Eagle 4-H Center:
“I went to camp for the first time this year and had a great time! It was the first time I had left my parents and my mom was sad, but trying not to cry. My dad was sad, too, but not like my mom. He said go have fun and see you in a few days. Once we had my new gear packed on the bus, I decided to hop on, too. I was very excited to be going and be away from my parents for a week! We waited a long time before we got to leave and it was a long drive, but we finally made it. It was awesome! We got to swim, canoe, and hike. I also got to do archery and learned how to really clean up our cabin. It was a competition between tribes and at the end of the week, our tribe won! We were pumped! We stayed up late and got up early so when I finally got back home all I wanted to do was eat and go to bed. Of course, I had to hug my mom first. It was the best week ever!”

And here’s the entry from Nathan about the summer at
“Intro from Jason Sebell, camp director ‘Last night we had a sudden surprise in our closing campfire. A young man from Ithaca, NY tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could say something to the entire camp. This is what he said’:

‘So this is my first summer here, and when I got here I really didn’t know anyone. I had never even been here for a visit. I wasn’t sure that I would make any friends. Then I met this kid on the bus and we sat together and I knew immediately that we were going to be friends. Once I got to camp I was amazed at how many people were nice to me, and how comfortable I felt to just be me. I get to be me here. This place really surprised me. This was the best 7 weeks of my life. I just want to say thank you to everyone for helping make this my home.’”

Greyson, it’s great to hear that you had such an awesome camp stay! It’s amazing how summer camp makes everything more fun—even cleaning your cabin! And thank you, Nathan, for your touching submission! Summer camp truly is a home away from home! If anyone else is interested in one of these camps, you can check out Rock Eagle 4-H Center for yourself as well as Camp Kenwood (which includes Evergreen along with it!). As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

The ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing here at Everything Summer Camp has brought in an awesome response of about 30 entries! That’s why we’re eager to publish every single one of them here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today’s post features Kayla N.’s camp entry about her favorite part about her summer camp stay at
“Saturday. At Camp Kohahna, Saturday was the big cleanup day. Not just sweeping the floors, make our beds and neatening up the clothesline. We had to do EVERYTHING! Our trunk had to be cleaned, our clothes had to be perfectly folded, our hair brush couldn’t have a single hair in it and so much more! Now maybe I’m making it sound so hard to do but. IT. WAS. SO. FUN. Yeah we were cleaning but our entire cabin was together! Saturday also was the only day we could listen to music!

‘Cleanup will be done in ten minutes’ yelled Kathleen, the Director of the Camp, on her megaphone.

‘Ahhh’ I squealed loudly, running around the cabin crazily trying to do the finishing touches on my bed. I still had to sweep the porch!

I grab the broom from the inside of the cabin and race outside. SLAM! I slammed the door behind me. Whoops!

‘A spider will land on your bed’ yelled Jules. That was a cabin inside joke. Let’s just say black widows are scary enough outside but the inside by your bed. Yikes.

‘Sorry’ I yelled, still in a panic as I sweep the shoes off the porch crazily. I was in a really big rush!

I finally finish. I take a deep breath. I walk back in the cabin as all my other cabin mates were finishing up their jobs. Lucy was double checking everyone’s square corners on their bed. Annabel was doing a quick third sweep around the cabin. Jules was double checking the indoor clothesline. Olivia was fixing the outdoor clothesline, and Katie was double checking everything. We were all doing this while singing along to pop music.

‘One more minute everyone. After cleanup everyone meet me at North Star’ yelled Kathleen.

‘I wonder why we have to meet at Northstar’ I think aloud… The only times we meet at North Star is meeting for the evening activity but obviously it wasn’t evening yet…

‘TIMES UP’ bellowed Kathleen, ‘ please come to North Star for a quick meeting about the rest of the day’.

‘Come on girls’ Lici said, trying to get us out of the cabin. Lici was one of our counselors.
Everyone walks outside and heads down to North Star. We get there just in time because Kathleen was about to speak.

‘And a hush fell over the crowd’ she said, ‘HUSH’ everyone replied. Then Kathleen began to talk.

‘Ok there is a lot of good news and a tiny bit of bad news. So I’ll start with the bad news’ Kathleen said nicely.

‘We will be having dinner about an hour late’. Everyone groaned. ‘But the good news is that I will be telling you right now what our evening activity will be’.

Everyone cheered in reply. I could tell people were getting super excited… But of course they were getting excited! Normally we have to wait till dinner to hear the evening activity!

‘Drumroll please’… ‘Your evening activity tonight will be… LIP SYNC’!!!

Everybody screams happily! Lip sync is so so much fun! We get to plan a cabin lip sync and a dance and perform it on stage! I was so EXCITED!

‘Ok girls. Settle down. Ok the thing is since our dinner time is later tonight you will practice before dinner, then we will perform right after. Ok now instead of going to beach period you guys will pick your song and practice your dance. Ok? Great now go have fun.’

Everybody races to their cabin, humming songs, and doing small dance moves excitedly.

When I get back to the cabin the cabin was already talking about what song we should do.

‘How about What makes you Beautiful by One Direction’ mentioned Jules while everyone was talking at once.

‘Girls, girls, girls’ said Lici laughing at how hyper, crazy and excited we were, ‘chill’!!

‘Yeah, girls, let’s not talk all at once. Okay Jules said What makes you Beautiful. Any other suggestions’ asked Anne. Anne was our other counselor.

‘How about Don’t Stop Believing’ said Lucy.

Lici played the song on her laptop as I dance around the cabin seeing how the choreography would go.

‘I know’ said Lici excitedly, ‘how about Classic by MKTO’.

‘Yeah’ I say jumping up and down excitedly, ‘my friends jazz dance was to that song! I love that song!!!!!!!!!!!!! We totally have to do it’ I say squealing! That song was a really fun song.

‘Looks like Kaya’s excited’ Katie laughed, ‘I do know that song and it is good and very fun. Lici do you have it on your laptop’ asked Katie.

‘Yeah I do’ said Lici enthusiastically. She plays the song once. Twice.

Everyone dances around singing and dancing to the song. Then in the middle of the third time we were listening to it Lici paused the music.

‘Okay girls’ said Anne, ‘lets vote’. ‘What do you think Olivia’ asked Anne kindly.

‘For sure Classic’ she said singing the chorus happily.

‘Annabel’ asked Lici.

‘Either Classic or Don’t Stop Believing’ she said sounding unsure.

‘How about you Kaya’ asked Anne…..

‘Hmmm…’ I thought aloud, ‘Classic or What makes you Beautiful’ I say.

‘What do you think Lucy’ asked Lici.

‘Classic’ said Lucy, nodding her head.

‘Jules’ asked Anne.

‘What makes you Beautiful.’

Okay, I thought. I know Classic is going to win for sure. I better start thinking of a dance. I could tell most of my cabin mates were thinking of the same thing.

‘Okay Katie. Last but not least. What is your vote’ asked Lici, doing a small drumroll with her fingers.

‘I think… Classic’ Katie announces happily.

‘Okay. It’s 11:20 that took us a half an hour to figure out the song’ laughed Anne. ‘Let’s go outside to the back of the cabin to do the dance.’

We only got through barely a minute of the song when the bell rang throughout the camp loudly.

‘That’s lunch girls’ said Lici…..

‘WHAT’ I say, stunned.

‘What are we going to do about the rest of the dance’ Katie said freaking out as much as I was.

‘Don’t worry about it I bet we will have more time to practice’ said Anne, sounding unsure.

‘Okay’ I say nervously.

After lunch we had rest hour. I never sleep during rest hour. I can’t! Even if I try! So even though we couldn’t get off our beds during rest hour I sat up in my bed running through the part of the dance we did practice. I felt sort of confident after that but we still didn’t finish the dance!

When the bell rang for the end of rest hour Kathleen’s voice spoke loudly on the megaphone.

‘You guys will have thirty minutes to practice your lip sync and dance’, she said calmly ‘then go to your normal morning activities.’

I took a deep breath, relieved.

So the entire cabin went behind the cabin and practiced well. During practice Kathleen went to each cabin giving them snacks so we won’t be too hungry because our late dinner.

I loved the dance and when MKTO rapped Olivia, Jules and I go closer down stage, put on sunglasses and lip synced the rap. I was so so so excited!

When the bell rang for our activities I went up to the Great House for dance. During dance we practiced a dance we were going to perform next week.

Great. I think, just another dance to remember. But both dances were actually not to hard so I tried not to worry about it.

Right after dance I went to camp crafts. In camp crafts we build fires and learn how to survive in the wild. It’s actually really fun and surprisingly I’m good at it!

We had cabin time after the activities. We just hung out around the cabin practicing our dance, talking and complaining how hungry we were. Finally the bell rang for dinner!!!!!!! Yay!

That night for dinner we had pasta. But I was too excited to eat.

After dinner we went back to the cabin and decide on what we were going to where. We finally decided on summer tank tops and denim shorts. Also the rappers had sunglasses. We changed and listened to our song one more time! I was so excited! When we went back to the Great House we sat in front of the stage. Also for some reason Lici went to the Great House early.

When we got to the Great House I didn’t see Lici. Hmm. I thought, that’s weird.

Then a voice comes from behind the curtains of the stage, everyone quiets down. Then two people in black gowns come out on stage. Right away I could tell they were counselors Jo and Doodle. Jo was the Water Director at camp and Doodle was the waterskiing counselor. But of course that’s not how they introduced themselves.

‘Hello ladies and more ladies, we will be the host of this Kohahna lip sync’ said Doodle in a French accent.

‘Yes, yes we are’ said Jo. I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

‘Well. I think it’s time to introduce the judges.’

First Lici came out on stage. That makes sense, I thought! She’s the drama counselor! She would be a perfect judge. Lici was the judge on appropriateness. When Lici came on stage and walked through the small path through the crowd to sit in her seat she was wearing black leggings, a white top and a blue, sparkly blazer. She talked in a super high pitched, sassy voice.

Second Muffin came on stage. Muffin was the ceramics counselor, she was judging the costumes. When she came out on stage and walked to her seat she was wearing a teal sequined tight, strapless dress with a black sweater over it. She was also wearing really cute sunglasses. Muffin spoke in a really sassy voice. It was really funny!

Last but not least Anna came out on stage. Anna was the trips counselor, she came out dressed as phantom of the opera! She was judging darkness! It was hilarious!!!

The judges gave us points out of five. My cabin, was the 5th cabin to go on stage. All the lip syncs and dances were so awesome!

‘Next up… Windward’ yelled Jo.

We got up and ran behind the stage. We got in position. The music started. Then we danced our hearts out!!

When the song ended we were all grinning from ear to ear! We felt really good! We walked back to our spots in the audience then look at the judges table.

First Lici went, ‘I’m going to give you a…Three and half.’

I look at her in dismay. WHAT?! I thought. What was inappropriate!

‘I loved the dance but the song was not one hundred percent appropriate’ Lici said wincing.

‘Well I loved your costumes! They were so cute! I’m going to give you a four’ said Muffin.

I smile. Thank you Muffin, I think. I looked at Olivia who was next to me and I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

After Muffin, Anna immediately started talking.

‘It didn’t have enough darkness’ she said darkly, ‘but I’ll give it a three and a half.’

I sigh. Oh well I thought. We danced our hearts out and had a lot of fun doing it! Later on the last lip sync came on. Cabin Trails end the counselors in training. They started in the audience. The music started. The song was Survivor by Destiny’s Child. The dance was so good. When the music stopped I clapped and cheered loudly. So did everyone else. Then people started chanting.

‘ENCORE, ENCORE, ENCORE then the music played again as they did their dance a second time. It was just so cool!

Each judge either gave them a five or a four and a half!

‘The winner is, drumroll please’……… ‘Trails End’!! Yelled the judges all at once! Everybody screamed happily and cheered them on!

The the two host came on stage.

‘Congratulations to the C.T’s’ Doodle said smiling and clapping. ‘But now it’s time for a….’

‘DANCE PARTY’ yelled both of the host at the same time! Everybody cheered. The first song that came on was Cheerleader by Omi and we all had a great time singing and dancing crazily.

That night I was super tired out but so so happy. The cabin had a great time and I could just tell we became closer.

This year at Camp Kohahna was probably my favorite year! The girls in the cabin of Windward were such great people and I hope to see them next year. I’m so so so grateful for Camp Kohahna!”

Thanks again for your submission, Kayla! It’s great to hear that you are had such a good time this summer and made some good friends! I hope you have a great time next year at Kohahna. To anyone else interested in Camp Kohahna (or Leelanau), you can check it out right here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Bringing in about 30 entries The ‘Share Your Camp Story’ drawing from last summer here at Everything Summer Camp saw a great response that made us eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today’s post features Norah D.’s camp story which talks about a much needed two-week-stay she had at
“Hi, I’m Norah. I am 10 years old and according to my Mom, going on 16. I just got back from Camp Eagle Ridge in Mellen, WI. Those two weeks of camp were the BEST weeks of my life.

You see, my little brother William, who I affectionately call my Little Bother, has Down Syndrome, Autism and seizure disorder. William has taught me more than I’ve taught him. He has taught me patience, unconditional love, empathy and understanding of those who are different.

My Mom and Dad do their best to give both William and I equal time. I know my Mom and Dad love me so much, but William does take a lot of their time. I get it! My Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when William was just 15 months old. M.S. has taught our whole family patience and caring. My Mom had to leave her career of 25 years because of M.S..

It sometimes makes her very tired, unable to walk, or unable to remember things. My Mom is the strongest person I know. She laughs at herself and let’s us all just relax. Even if she is tired or weak, she still finds time for me and William.

Which brings us to camp. Camp gives me TWO WEEKS JUST ABOUT ME! It’s like reverse respite for me. It allows me to do what ever activities I want. I get to try so many new things that I’d otherwise never have a chance to. I get to meet new friends from all over. I think these friends will be part of my life forever! I miss my family when at camp, but I am learning so much and becoming a leader when at camp. Camp has taught me so many Leadership Skills.

From deciding what activity to do, to working as a team during some games, trusting in other friends or just listening to others ideas. These skills will help me forever. In Grade School, High School, College and my career.

My family’s love, guidance, patience and honor, along with the leadership skills, independence and self confidence I learn at camp, will help me to succeed in everything I am presented with in life.

I love my Family and I love Camp!

Sincerely,
Norah D.”

Thanks again for your submission, Norah! I’m glad you got a chance to take a break from your family (as much as you may love them). Summer camp is great for showing you a different side of living than what you’re used to! Your family sounds so strong and close-knit! It must have been good to get back to them when your two weeks came to an end. To anyone else interested in Camp Eagle Ridge, be sure to check it out sometime and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John