Hey, Adventurers!

Here at Everything Summer Camp, we really like to talk up our customer service because it’s truly something to write home about! One of the major factors of our incredible customer service is our Call Center Supervisor, Diane. She takes your calls and chats online as well as everyday office tasks like returns and the occasional ‘problem order’. She’s wonderful at helping customers along no matter what part of the process they’re at with their order.

You can always count on Diane for a friendly smile and a quick laugh to keep things light around the office. With a friendly attitude and an open ear, she’s always good to talk with (which is so clearly why she is now our Call Center Supervisor—we want all of you to get to talk to her as well)! Always striving to be a positive influence, Diane is also the founder of our Commit to be Fit Program around the workplace which encourages healthy living.

If given the opportunity to go to summer camp now in her adulthood, Diane said she would be most eager to go horseback riding.  

Ride Horse of Course
If you know Diane, you could have guessed that horseback riding would be at the top of her to-do list at a summer camp. Diane loves the freedom she feels on horseback and she loves being outdoors as well. She talked about it back in a post I wrote that featured her trip to Roatán which can be read when you click here.

Dolly and Diane
It’s no surprise that Diane is so in love with horses. She doesn’t get the opportunity all that often these days, but back when she was growing up on her family farm where she had her own horse, Dolly. She’d even ride Dolly bareback from time to time—no saddle.

Born in the Saddle
Life for kids growing up on a farm is a very different kind from those who grow up in the city. Diane mentioned that she wasn’t sure of her age the first time she was on a horse. “Six months old, probably,” she told me. Turns out she wasn’t sure because she had essentially always rode horseback.  

It’s cool to see Diane’s eyes light up as she talks about riding horses—especially her old pal, Dolly—and great that her love of horses, instilled at birth, has stayed with her all her life. As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hello, Fellow Readers!

You can all breathe a sigh of relief; you’ve made it through to the end of 2020 (the craziest year the world’s seen in a long time). We all know what a trying year it’s been—chock full of questions, concerns, and hardships. But we’re positive people here at Everything Summer Camp. Despite the difficult challenges we’ve faced this year in terms of both business and our personal lives, we have also found our own silver linings of 2020.

I asked around the office to see what good we all extracted from this year and the results were so uplifting, it’s only right to share them with everyone. Check out all the good things that happened this past year.

Mark
Our Vice President, Mark, was happy to get more time at home with his family. He was able to accomplish more around the house with time that he and his family typically spend traveling. He’s also been able to increase his efforts in physical fitness. For instance, he recently installed an impressive gym in his basement.

Brian
Operations Manager, Brian is excited about two new additions he’s made to his home as well. This year he acquired a video game arcade machine as well as an arcade style dartboard. A dead-eye when it came to darts in his younger years, Brian’s skills seem to need some sharpening. “Dartboard’s defective,” he told me. “Can’t hit bullseyes.”

Nate
Our manager of the Graphics Department, Nate used a calmer schedule and more time at home to work on projects around the house. He spent more time outdoors and enjoyed frequent golf outings. He also used this year to think on how to improve our products and processes here at Everything Summer Camp to better serve our customers in 2021!

Diane
Diane, our Call Center Supervisor, felt blessed with a slower pace of living this year. But, in much more exciting news, she was blessed with three more healthy grandchildren this year. Congratulations to her and her ever-growing family!

Amy
Thrilled just to still have a job, our Graphic Artist, Amy, has counted her blessings throughout 2020 and is glad that her family has stayed healthy. Her husband and their little boy, Charlie visited more state parks than ever before this year and had a wonderful time. 

Drew
Not hard for Drew to pick this year’s highlight, he excitedly responded, “I got hitched!” Earlier this summer, he tied the knot with his longtime girlfriend, Adrianna. Congratulations to the both of them!

As for myself, 2020 has been a year for the books! It’s been my first year in my new house, located in the same small town as the Everything Summer Camp headquarters: Boyd, Wisconsin. I love it here and, what with lockdowns and quarantines, I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time making my new home feel like mine!

While many of us faced tragedy and challenges throughout this trying year, see what good things you can reflect on that came from the last 364 days. You may be surprised at all that you come up with! Goodbye, 2020. It’s been one crazy ride. And a happy New Year, Everybody. We’ll see you all in 2021!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

When those of us who work here at Everything Summer Camp head out on some adventurous excursion, we love to feature the story on our Blog. It was only last month that our Call Center Supervisor Diane took a week off to travel nearly 2000 miles away to one of the Caribbean islands of Honduras called Roatán.

Roatán provides a great location of the coral reef which attracts all sorts of different submarine life, so this island is known for its excellent snorkeling and SCUBA diving opportunities. They even have two summer camps for anybody who’s interested in checking them out! They have the Vista Verde Summer Camp as well as the Dolphin Scuba Summer Camp.

Diane journeyed to Roatán on missionary work to build a new house for a family of 11 in one of the poverty-stricken villages of the island. With a crew of roughly 20 people, they built a new house in four days! And with just one day left for fun, Diane hit the water for her snorkeling adventure!

She went with a group, but she and a friend of hers got separated. They were trying to catch up with the group, but an islander popped up out of nowhere with an orange flotation device and offered to show them around wherever they wanted to go. “Grab on,” he said. He pulled them wherever they wanted to go and dove down and resurface with different treasures from below like a giant conch (a seashell with the sea creature still inside). And, though she didn’t get to see it, Diane said he brought a starfish up for some other folks! Recalling the whole experience, she said, “That was so awesome!”

After a couple hours of snorkeling, her group caught a water taxi over to the beach where they were met with the horses they’d be riding! It had been at least 25 years since Diane had been on a horse and it was her dream to ride a horse way out in the ocean. She wanted to gallop one too. Wouldn’t fate have it that Diane got to ride Bird, the most stubborn horse in Roatán. He wouldn’t go into the ocean, when directed to. The tour guide knew the horse could, but Bird had to be led out into the ocean. After the walk back to dry land, Diane was excited to gallop, but Bird wasn’t. Once again, the guide said he knew the horse could, but was apparently just not in the galloping mood. Though Bird turned out to be a wet blanket of a horse, Diane still loved her experience with him!

After horseriding, Diane and her group headed over to a Sloth and Monkey Farm where you can just hold an adorable sloth or monkey as you please. Can you imagine walking around the homestead where all these gentle, cuddly creatures live? And after their visit to the Sloth and Monkey Farm, they visited another farm full of nothing but iguanas. An entire farm of iguanas, just hanging out around your feet! Watch your step!

This was all in one day! It was an incredible thrill for Diane—she deserves it! But even so, when I asked what her favorite part of the trip was, she referred back to the people whose villages she visited and told me, “I think my favorite part was seeing how happy people can be with nothing.” You can learn much more about her work with the missionaries, the people of Roatán, and donations to the cause made from Everything Summer Camp on our Facebook post when you click here. And, as always, thanks for reading, Folks!

- John

Hey, Fellow Adventurers!

Here at Everything Summer Camp, we embrace the rugged reality of the wilderness and finding our place within it. So we’re excited to take you on a trip today with Reannon, a three-year veteran on our customer service team and a bonafide explorer as she recounts her trip to the Blackhills in South Dakota’s Custer State Park. A four-day trip with her good friend, Jake, made for a challenging and literally breathtaking adventure that she won’t be forgetting soon!

She set out with her Backpack from The North Face. “I’ve had it for five years and it has been to more states then a backpack should,” she said with a laugh. She brought along a 30° Kelty Sleeping Bag that she used to curl up in inside an ENO DoubleNest Hammock. With a cooking pan, some food, and a solid pair of waterproof hiking boots, Rae and Jake made their way to South Dakota.

Arriving in the second week of August last summer, Rae and Jake made their way up Black Elk Peak on a day no cooler than 90°! However, as they made their way to the top, the temps began to drop by the tens. One hour in and it was already down to 83°—a welcome change about three miles into the journey up the peak, 7,244 ft. up in total.

Rae reported that her ears had popped at about 2500ft.—only a third of the way up. And as the temperature dropped the wind grew. She described the majesty of the swaying pines and the difficulty she had catching a satisfactory breath. “The whole time it was kind of hard to breathe,” she told me.

In just two and half hours more, Rae and Jake had accomplished their nine-mile journey to the unbelievable outlook on the top of Black Elk Peak. The pictures are great, but they can’t come close to seeing it for yourself.

The next day they took things a bit easier, but they still put 3,000 ft. of the woodsy Lover’s Leap trail beneath them. There weren’t many people out there with them, but they saw some wildlife including two mountain goats and a “ridiculous amount of deer.”

“The sleeping bag worked perfectly,” Rae mentioned. “It was thin enough but kept me warm when it was super cold at night. My hammock was hands down the best birthday gift I ever got! I use it almost every single day and it’s the most durable hammock ever—so easy to get in and out of and it keeps the bugs away too.”

Rae had been getting into the outdoorsy life for the previous three years, but hiking Black Elk Peak and Lover’s Leap was her first big adventure. And she’s not stopping anytime soon. She sees Banff, a Canadian resort town that contains Mt. Rundle and Mt. Cascade (part of the Rocky Mountains).  She also would love to visit Boulder, Colorado someday. “I just need to see it and do it myself,” she says. Enjoy seeing the great outdoors for yourself and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp People!

Employees around the office here at Everything Summer Camp had set goals for themselves going into 2019 when the year was new and I’d been keeping tabs on everybody. Some of us had lost sight of our resolutions and threw in the towel—myself being in that group as I’d disappointed myself with my stunted growth in being less judgmental toward others.

With a few others stepping down along the way, we still had four folks in the running nearly halfway into the year when I last checked in with everyone. However, along with summer weather and our hectic busy season here at work, folks have started slipping out of control.

In fact, our Resolution Check-ups are concluded after today’s post as we only have one person left in the running!

Congratulations, Diane!

Diane is still going strong with her resolution to do random acts of kindness for random people to do her part in making the world a better place! She’s done some pretty incredible things for folks and doesn’t skimp with her generosity; as she puts it, “It doesn’t count unless it hurts a little.”

To try and reciprocate her generosity, Diane came into work this week to the surprise of flowers sitting on her desk as a prize for her unending kindness!

As for Morgan, she is now a college-graduate who came out in the end with all A’s and one B. Just shy of her goal, but at this point, who cares?! She’s done with college! Congratulations, Morgan!

Summer seems to have brought irresistible temptations to for Amy with too many ice cream treats around and neighborhood barbecues.

The approaching summer season means things get super busy here at Everything Summer Camp which means Anita isn’t really thinking about her healthy habits right now as she is just focused on making things happen at work. We certainly appreciate that and are sure all of you do too!

A really good effort from everyone, I’m very proud of all of us for our attempts in bettering ourselves and the world around us! As always, thanks for reading!

- John