Hey, Summer Camp Lovers!

You know who else went to summer camp when he was younger? Batman! Okay, I guess I really don’t know whether Bruce Wayne went to summer camp in his fictional youth or not, but Ben Affleck did. An alumnus of Crossroads For Kids which is located in Massachusetts, summer camp was a great influence on Ben when he was a kid.

Not just an actor, Ben Affleck has made his name as a screenwriter too and has won an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe for his roles as a director and co-writer for the film Good Will Hunting. Lots of films that Ben’s been a part have been summer blockbusters and classics.

With leading roles in films such as Armageddon, The Sum of All Fears, Pearl Harbor, Daredevil, The Town, and lots more, Ben Affleck has become an incredibly successful and recognized Hollywood figure.

Though born in Berkeley, California, Ben’s parents moved to Massachusetts when he was quite young. When he was eight, he met a neighborhood kid—a 10-year-old Matt Damon. Matt Damon (the other co-writer of Good Will Hunting) is actually Ben’s tenth cousin, once removed. They went to school together and became the best of friends even though they weren’t the same age or in the same grade.

Ben found himself pursuing his acting career in Hollywood before finishing college. Knowing his potential, he quit school to focus solely on acting. And now that he’s made his claim to fame already, it seems that he’s just getting going as he is now stepping into the role of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego, Batman.

The sequel to the 2013 film Man of Steel is currently being called Batman vs. Superman and is set to come out in 2015.

So the lesson to learn from Ben Affleck, kids, is that going to summer camp can land you a position as a superhero. Are you up to the task?

Hey, Camp Kids!

You know who went to summer camp when he was about your age? Kenneth Brian Edmonds—or, despite his 55 years of age, more commonly known as Babyface. There’s bound to be hundreds, thousands, millions, maybe billions of fans of this ten-time Grammy-winning, American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer.

The talented Mr. Edmonds, or Kenneth, went to CYO Camp Rancho Framasa in Brown County, Indiana for his summer camp days. CYO Camp Rancho Framasa boasts a beautiful bounty of land on the summer camp site. Kenneth spent his days at camp hiking the woods, appreciating nature, and having fun!

He had a pretty normal childhood. Brought up with five siblings (all of them brothers), he maintained a shyness in his youth for which his songwriting was a major source of emotional expression and quickly became a healthy outlet for him from an early age.

Tragically, when he was about fifteen, Kenneth and the rest of his brothers lost their father to lung cancer. With no one else to raise the six kids but their mother, Kenneth found the determination he needed to turn his simple means of self-expression into a musical career.

He played with other performers such as Bootsy Collins who was the one to give Kenneth his nickname, Babyface, for the “cute” boyish face that stayed with him through his teens. He also played guitar in the group Manchild and then became the keyboardist for a group that called themselves The Deele. Both groups were known rather well for the hits they had.

As Kenneth shaped his solo career, he has also produced and wrote lots of music for so many artists that I can’t actually list them all in this Blog post. To name just a few, there’s Carole King, Al Green, Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Michael Bolton, and Paula Abdul.

Most recently, Kenneth is working on a new album of duets with his longtime friend Toni Braxton. The album is supposed to come out some time this month.

Till next time, R&B buffs!

- John

Hey, Film Fans!

Well, Blog Buddies, in the time that we’ve been blogging—which hasn’t been incredibly long—we’ve talked about a good number of celebrities who have gone to summer camp. Today I have another great celebrity to tell you about who attended summer camp—two of them, actually—when he was about your age.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m talking about Iron Man, himself—Robert Downey Jr. Robert attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts located in Hancock, New York as well as Stage Door Manor in Massachusetts. From a young age, Robert expressed his passion for acting and while attending both camps he was very involved in the plays that they put on.

Robert’s first appearance on the screen came at a young age—before he ever went to summer camp! He debuted in his father’s film, Pound at the very young age of five. Afterwards he played roles in the films Less Than Zero as well as the popular cult classic, Weird Science.

In 2000 he won a Golden Globe Award for his new role in the hit television drama, Ally McBeal. With growing popularity, Robert has been seen in a bunch of more recent movies, but none of them quite so popular as the three Iron Man movies in which he plays the role of Tony Stark. Iron Man started out as a Marvel Comic Book superhero but is now better associated with Robert Downey Jr.

Robert has become incredibly successful over the years making billion dollar movies like The Avengers (another Marvel Comic Book movie), and Iron Man 3. He is now one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors at $75 million in this last year!

And just remember kids, Robert Downey Jr. liked summer camp so much he went to two of them.

Hey there, Summer Campers!

For today’s blog post, I’m going to tell you about a very “pretty woman” that we all know as Julia (Fiona) Roberts. Like many other famous people- not just in Hollywood, but from all sorts of different scenes- Julia Roberts went to summer camp when she was around your age.

She actually attended her uncle’s summer camp, Camp Birchwood, located in beautiful Minnesota. Camp Birchwood is a summer camp with whom we here at Everything Summer Camp are proud to work with. She once stated that "All the coolest things I know how to do - I learned to do at camp."

But it wasn’t long before she reached for stardom at the young age of 23 and caught it! Now, having been an obviously caring and charismatic character in Hollywood for the last few decades, Julia has stolen the hearts of millions.

Known for such classic movies as My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, and Mirror Mirror, Julia Roberts has also voiced for animated films like Charlotte’s Web, as the voice of Charlotte the Spider, and was the voice of Hova in the Ant Bully. She has received multiple accolades for her acting and continues to bring warmth and beauty to the big screen.

Julia married Daniel Moder on July 4, 2002. Daniel is a cameraman whom she met on the set of one of her films where they fell in love. Still together, they are now a family of five with their three children. They have twins, Hazel Patricia Moder and Phinnaeus (or “Finn” for short) Walter Moder and also Henry Daniel Moder.

Julia Roberts went to summer camp and went on to find success, love, and happiness, what will you find? Thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

Hey, Campers!

Are you ready to boldly go where no camper has gone before? If there happen to be any trekkies reading this post, you’re in luck! Today I’m talking about the captain of the USS Enterprise, James T. Kirk himself—William Shatner, ladies and gentlemen!

It may be hard to envision it, but Mr. Shatner himself wasn’t always out there exploring the final frontier—when he was your age, he was exploring the twenty acres of private forest where Camp Massad is located, just north of Winnipeg, in Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba, Canada.

There at Camp Massad, William enjoyed the ginormous outdoor pool, the paved tennis courts, basketball courts, the outdoor stage, jungle gym, acres upon acres of private forest, and the beauty of the nearby Lake Winnipeg.

More than just an actor, William Shatner is also a musician, a singer, an author, a film director, a spokesman, and a comedian. Of course, it was his acting on Star Trek from 1966 to 1969 that turned him into a cultural icon for his role as James T. Kirk. He became famous the world over!

Originally, Shatner was cast as the James T. Kirk of the second pilot for Star Trek which wasn’t called Star Trek. It was called “Where No Man Has Gone Before,”—not nearly as catchy as Star Trek! After that, William was contracted to play Kirk for Star Trek.

He also did voice work for the animated series of Star Trek from 1973 to 1974 and he was in seven of the feature films of Star Trek that came out between 1979 and 1994. In the early nineties he hosted the Rescue 911 reality-based television series.

He later starred in the television series the The Practice as well as the spin-off of The Practice, Boston Legal as Denny Crane. He won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his portrayal. Maybe you’ll win an Emmy or two after your through with summer camp!

Till next time, Campers. Live long and prosper. And, as always, thanks for reading!