Hey, Camp Fans!

In mid-July, I asked Blog readers to share their camp stories. We got nearly 30 entries so we’re posting them on the Blog now! Everyone who submitted got $15 gift certificates and seven lucky winners got larger prizes of $25, $50, and the grand prize of $100. I’m announcing the third $25 winner right now!

*A-a-a-hem*

Aaaaand… Molly Y.! You’re our third $25 prize winner. Your Camp Story was great!

Molly tells us about her summer at Camp Ton-A-Wandah

“My name is Molly Young and I am writing about my camp, Ton A Wandah.

Chapel is where you wear green and white. You sit on benches.Then our camp owners say a prayer. After the prayer someone speaks, after that there are singing teams that sing for our camp. Before chapel we go to breakfast in our green and whites or our pajamas. For breakfast, doughnuts and bagels.

On the last chapel two girls on Hilltop made a song and sang it. It was called Sisters.

The lake is very big. You can go on a water slide or do the blob with a water trampoline and a floating dock or a high dive and diving board. Also paddleboarding, kayaking, canoeing and if you like Weezie’s 20 laps is going on a paddleboard, canoe, or kayak around the lake 20 times before breakfast.

Archery is behind tennis. There are a lot of bows and arrows. I shot and almost got a bullseye. Archery is the best sport in the world.

The barn is where the horses and ponies stay with two donkeys. 28 all together. You can do daily riding, ride, or horsemanship, and the horse show. I did daily riding and was in class two with my friends. The riding instructors are Kendall, Ashley, Shonna and a B.I.T. Bella (and more).

I wood burned a lot of wood. I once wood burned a puppy in a yard for my sister, more stuff for me and some for my mom and dad.

On Wacky Wednesday, you eat wacky food and dress up wacky. In daily riding you teach your teachers. Wacky Wednesday is very wacky! It is the best day at camp.

Camp TAW has been open for eighty-three years now. Before Camp TAW was old it gave Camp Merry Times (cancer kids) to come and stay for watching and doing. Ms Judy and Captain Billy’s family have been the owners of Camp TAW for eighty-three years now. An Indian village used to live there. Their chief’s daughter was named Tonawandah.

Tennis is very fun. Tennis is a sport on tribe day. Racquets and balls go together like peanut butter and jelly. There are two kinds of courts: a single court or a double court.

In Secret Agent, we once had to go from the hilltop showers to the gym. I got caught, but my friend Eleanor did not. My sister was in my class too. Once a girl from woodburning got out of class to make sure we got to the gym.

In paddle boarding one time we played charades on paddle boards. We did jumping in the water competitions. My teacher was one of Emily’s counselors. I wanted to get in the water so much. I so so so loved paddle boarding.

One day in Crazy Cardio we danced to Bumpy Ride. Now I love Bumpy Ride. Once we went one a hike. It was so much fun. We ran some times and mostly stretched.”

Thanks again for your submission, Molly. Everyone else, you can check out Camp Ton-a-Wandah right here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

In mid-July, I started asking our customers and Blog readers to share your camp stories with us. We got nearly 30 entries so we’re excited to share them now with our Blog followers. Everyone who submitted got $15 gift certificates and seven lucky winners got larger prizes of $25, $50, and the grand prize of $100. I’m announcing the first of the $25 winners today—right now. Get re-e-e-a-a-a-dddyyyyyy….

Congratulations to Josiah R.! You’re our second $25 prize winners for your Camp Story! Josiah tells us about his summer at“When I first came, all I thought I would do was have a bit of fun, learn about diabetes, and leave, but, I had a lot more than just that. We were inside this place called the S.A.C. They checked my temperature and checked for lice, I also chose my meal plan. We drove down a road which a cabin labeled “Brown Boyz” and I spelled that correctly, “Brown Boyz”. This, was my cabin, the youngest of 4 boy cabins. I walked in and immediately started making friends before I could even unpack my things. Lunch was fun. That lunch we ate chicken strips, and every time this camp has chicken strips, they sing a chant and make noise… Each table makes as much noise while saying “We love chicken strips yes we do, we love chicken strips how about you!” as loud as you possibly can. After lunch, we go to med lecture, Med lecture is where we actually learn about diabetes, each Brown boy camper had a little brother group, one counselor was there big brother. In our little brother group, we did beading, beading is when we talk about the other campers in the brother group, we said good things of course though.  After we leave here, we will usually go to the cabin and clean up, everyday every little brother group (except 2, and those to groups change daily) had to do one “chore”, weirdly, my little brother group usually didn’t even get a job, even though it was the oldest group. After we did this, we go to our 4th activity, mine, the first week, was Ultimate frisbee. Before we go to 4th and 5th classes, we go to “snack attack”  we usually had different snacks each day, my favorite snack was the chex mix, just because I love chex mix, and because we get a bigger quantity then other snacks. Ultimate frisbee is fun, you throw the fribee across the field to someone else, except to another goal, there are a few people on your team, once you have the frisbee in your hand, you can’t move to another spot, you can only swivel on one foot. Once you get to a goal, you score. After ultimate frisbee, there’s usually diet soda’s outside, inside an icebox, or cooler, when I finish drinking some Sprite zero (My favorite), I go to rock climbing, rock climbing was especially fun, I thought I was good at it. Dinner is pretty much the same as lunch, but, no mail call. After dinner, there is flag lowering, flag lowering is when they… well, lower the flag, we also stand and watch as people get called up for word of the day, the people are campers, and they answer a question, when they answer the question right, they choose an envelope, which, has either bonus, winner, or 10 tokens. 10 tokens. I think either is really cool. 10 tokens is 10 merit tokens, which you can use to buy things at the camp store. Winner chooses either a kindle, or Flip speakers. Bonus is really just a random prize everyday, like a Nintendo DS, or a hammock, or a puzzle cube. We then do a night activity, which is different every night. Once we’ve left here we eat a bedtime snack with our bedtime insulin. The snack varies, but is usually better when we eat it during a night activities, like at a lot of campfires, we’ll eat burgers, but in the cabin the best thing was a delicious BLT, but…. the burgers were more delicious. We get in bed and they will occasionally give out free food, which is carb-free foods, our foods that contain less than 5 grams of carb, which, I had learned in med lecture. This schedule is the same throughout the same, but somehow it was totally different eachday, like, even though everyday we played ultimate frisbee.”

Thanks again for your submission, Josiah. Check out Camp Sweeney for yourself and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

About a month ago, I started asking our customers and Blog readers to share your camp stories with us. We got nearly 30 entries so we’re excited to share them with our Blog followers. Everyone who submitted got $15 gift certificates and seven lucky winners got larger prizes of $25, $50, and the grand prize of $100. I’m announcing the first of the $25 winners today—right now. Drumroll, please….

Congratulations to Taylor P.! You’re the first of our $25 prize winners for your Camp Story!

Taylor tells us about her summer at“I like summer camp because it is lots of fun at Camp Mystic with all the activities like camp craft, horseback riding, drama, and swimming. In drama we did a play called Lizzie Mcguire. It was really fun because I was Fronkas’ helper. We also got to play some fun acting games. In horseback riding we went down some very beautiful trails and in the ring we practiced for a horse show. I had to carry a tennis ball under my neck and walk around a barrel, then a pole, and then another barrel with bucket on top to put the tennis ball in. There’s the same thing but with a bow and arrow and you have to balance it on your arms.

 In camp craft we got to tie dye t-shirts. I tie dyed mine royal blue, turquoise and yellow. We also hiked up to Sky High and saw the ‘Mystic’ sign there. There was a little shade area that was nice because it was really hot that day. We also hiked up to God’s mountain. You could see the whole camp. It was awesome! We also made banana boats and orange cakes. A banana boat is where you cut a banana open and stuff it with marshmallows and chocolate chips, then put it on the grill. An orange cake is where you hollow an orange and put cake batter in it and put it on the grill. I got a spoon full of batter for each time I massaged a counselor! They were delish!

We also got to see some cool animals. During instructional swim and free swim we got to go on some really cool water mats and awesome buoys. In instructional swim we did some strokes and we had extra time so we got to go on the water mats. In free swim we did water mats and the buoys were so fun.

That was about it for my activities, next is about the tribes. There are two tribes, Tonks and Kiowas. I am a Kiowa and I wanted to be a Kiowa. Kiowas color is royal blue and Tonks are red. How you get your tribe is you draw out of a hat and if you get a blue piece of paper you’re a Kiowa and if you draw a red piece of paper you’re a Tonk. Then the older girls pick you up and run you down the aisle and put you in your tribe. There is tribe hill and tribe period. Tribe hill is where you have a secret song that you can’t tell the other tribe and if you follow your tribe training rules you get your tribe letter and tribe period is where you cheer for your team. There are tribe games on field day and one of the games for most points is KT trivia. You have to study for it. Kiowas won that game this year and the other game is the camp relay race. Kiowas also won that game, but the Tonks won a lot of the tribe games. But the Kiowas won this year!

On Sundays you have church. On the second Sunday you exchange warm fuzzes which are little fuzz balls. Its about giving and not expecting something back. The food there is so good you get ice cream every lunch and you get dessert every dinner. When your parents come to get you, a buffet brunch is set up. You get two hours to rest, then it’s commissary which is where you mail your letters and you get to get a drink and snack. The counselors are awesome and the people are so nice at camp Mystic. It’s awesome. I cant wait to go back next year!”

Thanks again for your submission, Taylor! Check out Camp Mystic for yourself! Tune in tomorrow to hear our next $25 winner and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Campers!

Here at Everything Summer Camp, we really want to know how your summer camp stay went! That’s why we’re asking for submissions about your summer camp stay. In mid-July, I asked you to send us letters about your accomplishments, friends, fears that were overcome, favorite parts of camp, or a diary/journal-style submission that chronicles the jam-packed days of your camp experience. And now, at the end of August, there’s no time to dally anymore! Only six days left, the deadline for these summer camp submissions is next week Monday! Get ‘em in now!

In case you forgot: Everybody who submits gets a $15 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp!

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.

As I advised last month when first announcing these children’s submissions, if you should find it difficult to single in on just one part of camp among all the fun the likely stretched from the beginning of camp to the end, here are some ideas:

Write about the one thing you did that was the most fun. Tell about things you learned whether they’re athletic skills, artistic skills, thinking skills, etc. Share stories about the great people and friends you made at camp. Describe how it felt to be away from home. Exercise your creative muscle and talk about the beautiful, natural surroundings you saw at camp.

In your submissions, we encourage you to talk about your camp and why you think it’s the best. Please include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp.

We would love to hear about your time at camp, so click RIGHT HERE to submit and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Campers!

How was your summer camp stay? Here, at Everything Summer Camp, we REALLY want to know! Tell us about your accomplishments, friends that you made, any fears that you were able to overcome, or you can tell us your favorite part about your summer camp experience. Submit a written entry that will appear on this Blog and a have a chance to WIN!

You may have had so much fun and done so much at camp that you’re not really sure where to even begin. It’s understandable! There’s certainly a lot going on at camp! If this is the case for you—I’m here to help…You could write about the one thing you did that was the most fun. You could tell about things you learned whether they’re athletic skills, artistic skills, thinking skills, etc. You could share stories about the great people and friends you made at camp. You could describe how it felt to be away from home. You could exercise your creative muscle and talk about the beautiful, natural surroundings you saw at camp.

Or—if none of these things spark the inspiration that you’re looking for—you could write a diary or journal-style submission, chronicling the jam-packed days of your summer camp experience as best as you can remember it.

In your submissions, we encourage you to talk about YOUR camp and why you think it’s the BEST. Please include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp.

Whether you write something that’s 100 words or 1000, we’ll certainly accept this submission and use it on the Blog but,if you’re looking for a guideline of how long this should be, we’re looking for something around 200 words.

You have until August 31 to submit your entries.

Everybody who submits gets a $15 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp!

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.

We’d LOVE to hear about your time at camp! Click RIGHT HERE to submit and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John