Hey, Campers!

Any fan of summer camp already knows that they aren’t the only one who enjoys the summer camp experience. After all, the summer camp experience wouldn’t be what it is if you were the only one enjoying it! ‘A lot’ barely begins to describe the multitude of summer camp lovers. There’s an entire army of summer camp advocates which includes most famous people.

Why are they such big supporters of summer camp? Because the impact it had on THEIR life was so influential, they want the same for every kid these days. Patrick Dempsey, for example, became a part of the Camp Wekeela family.

Located on Little Bear Pond in Hartford, Maine, Camp Wekeela is about much more than just a fun camp stay—it actually provides its campers with an education of life and self-discovery. Patrick (or should I say, McDreamy) will certainly attest to the wonders that summer camp works on the younger generation—look at what it did for him!

You may know him best as Dr. Derek Shepherd from the hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy but he’s been in much more than that! Aside from some other television appearances, Patrick has been in great movies like ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ ‘Made of Honor,’ ‘Enchanted,’ ‘Freedom Writers,’ the ‘Transformers’ movie ‘Dark of the Moon,’ and much more.

Not just interested in acting, Pat exercises his passion for race car driving. He’s got more than a pristine collection of exclusive sports cars; he’s actually experienced in public competitions like pro-am events as well as the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race, Patrick actually seems to love auto racing even more than acting. He once made the comment that if he only could he would “walk away” from his acting career to focus all his time on motorsports.

Camp showed Patrick Dempsey what he was capable of and he sought out the things he was passionate about to incorporate them into his career. What will camp show you?

- John

Hey, Campers!

Today’s blog post features Reese Witherspoon who, at one point, was a summer camper at Camp Monterey—a camp for girls in Tennessee. It wasn’t long after her experience at summer camp that she landed her first feature role as the female lead in the movie ‘The Man in the Moon’. She was only fifteen when she starred in it.

That same year she made her way onto television for the cable movie Wildflower. Appearing in roles here and there throughout the rest of the nineties, she hit a pivotal point for her career in 2001, playing the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and then again two years later in Legally Blonde 2.

Reese has been in other box office hits such as Sweet Home Alabama, Twilight, and she won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role alongside Joaquin Phoenix for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in the biopic Walk the Line.

Reese has seen success since she turned seven when she was selected to be a fashion model for a florist’s commercial. This gave her the motivation to take acting lessons and eventually pursue her acting career.

She’s known to be expressively proud of her Southern upbringing that taught her responsibility, good manners, and “a sense of family.” She’s also known to be a method actor in her films. That means that she tries to act out her roles in her own everyday life—not just in front of the camera.

It’s easy to see that Reese is very passionate about her acting career. When she starred in the movie, Election, she may have played her character too well. After receiving a rank on the list of 100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time, she found it difficult to find work. She even commented about her struggle, “I think because the character I played was so extreme and sort of shrewish—people thought that was who I was.”

Several years ago, Reese started her own company called Hello Sunshine which has put out several acclaimed television series. She also produced the films Gone Girl and Where the Crawdads Sing which were both adapted from novels. Forbes Magazine listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2019 and 2021. Wildly successful, Reese Witherspoon is one of Hollywood’s timeless actresses.

Until next time, Campers!

Hey, Summer Campers!

You know who else had a great time at summer camp? Everybody’s favorite Country Music star, Mr. Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band. While never a camper himself, he’s played quite a role in the summer camp community. Starting out as a camp counselor at Camp Mikell and Camp Glisson in Georgia, Zac began to see why summer camp was so good for kids.

“To me, there is nothing more worthwhile than helping kids,” says Zac. “I grew up working with kids while on staff at summer camps and remember how they were impacted during their visits.” This insight is what led Zac to founding his own summer camp, Camp Southern Ground.

Zac was born and raised in Cumming, Georgia. When hearing how big of a family he has, you get the sense that he didn’t ever REALLY miss out on the whole summer camp experience when he was little. After all, with 11 siblings, his entire childhood must have felt like a year round “summer” camp!

He’s been into music his entire life. When he was only seven-years-old, he’d already learned to play classical guitar! This led to his solo gigs around town when he was a teenager. He’d cover pop music and country songs. It was also somewhere between his high school and college years that he volunteered as a counselor for summer camps.

After his college years at the University of West Georgia, Zac got the band going. With five studio albums and ten hit singles that saw Number One on the Country Music Billboard charts, Zac Brown Band has toured all around the country and played a slot on the Bonnaroo Music Festival in 2009 and 2010.

Zac Brown saw the importance of summer camp! What will you see in it?

- John

Hey, Campers!

Did you know that well over a hundred of your favorite celebrities have gone to summer camp? Today I’m talking about Hank Azaria. Hank, when he was your age, was one of those kids where you could tell he was born to be an actor. In his youth he loved memorizing and reciting film scripts, TV shows, and bits from stand-up comedy.

When he was your age he spent some time away at Camp Towanda, located in the Northeast Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. The camp is intended for shaping fun, friendship, and good memories. At this point, despite Hank’s interest in movie lines and laugh-out-loud stand-up material, he still hadn’t really thought much about acting.

It wasn’t until he played a part in a school play at the Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills. He was 16 when he began to realize that he was obsessed with acting even when he allowed it to interfere with his studies at school. His parents were huge fans of all kinds of show business which only encouraged him even further.

He went on to study drama in college at Tufts University. Hank knew that he’d regret not be a professional actor if he never tried which was continuous incentive for him to continue studying and pursuing acting. Hank went straight for television despite his ideas of being a movie star because he saw more options there.

He got his start (in 1989) as a voice actor on The Simpsons. He provides the voices for such characters as Moe Szyslak, Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, and Carl Carlson. He’s still doing their voices today. Hank kept to voice acting for a while but began branching out to live-action movies in the later 90’s. Hank was in Godzilla, Mystery Men, Along Came Polly, and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. He was also in The Smurfs.

Hank was obsessed with acting ever since his summer camp days. Are you obsessed with anything?

Hey, Sports Fans!

The NBA has certainly seen its share of amazing athletes. Names like Shaquille O’Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar live on in infamy. But there’s another name—a basketball legend with whom we are ALL familiar. He’s said to be “the greatest basketball player of all time”—NBA all-star, His Airness, himself—Michael Jordan!

If you’re a fan of this former professional basketball player (and who isn’t?) then this Blog post is right up your alley! Did you know that he’s a big fan of summer camp? He actually plays quite a role in the summer camp department.

While Jordan never did actually ATTEND a camp when he was younger, he obviously understands the influence that summer camps have on their campers. That’s why there’s the Michael Jordan Flight School. It’s one of the best youth basketball camps in the world.

If you’re passionate about basketball, then you definitely want to see what the Michael Jordan Flight School is all about! Join one of the two, five-day sessions within the first two weeks of August to learn the fundamentals of the game from Michael Jordan himself as well as his first-class coaching staff. They teach campers the skills involved in dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, and playing defense.

The camp provides age-appropriate activities which are designed for children at all different stages of athletic development. It's not just about the physical training either. The goal is also to engage and inspire the kids.

As Jordan puts it, “The Michael Jordan Flight School offers boys and girls the opportunity to learn the same principles that allowed me to become the player that I was…Come fly with me!”

If you want to “Be like Mike,” who better to teach you than Mike himself?