Hey, Campers!

A couple weeks ago in March, I talked about things you can do to handle a bully if one is targeting you. But even so, sometimes the victims of a bully can use a helping hand. Today I have some helpful ideas of what you can do if you see someone who’s being bullied.

If you see someone being bullied, put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn’t you want someone else to come along and put an end to it? It may seem like a difficult position to be in (and it certainly does take courage), but stopping a bully can be as simple as putting your arm around the victim and walking away with him or her; there’s no need to get physically forceful with the bully.

Standing up for a bully’s victim can sometimes be enough in itself to get a bully to back off. Seeing that their target has friends that care about him or her can be an embarrassing moment for a bully and may prevent them from causing another occurrence.

If the bullying does, however, continue you can help your new friend by brainstorming possible solutions for the problem. If the two of you can think of nothing, go to an adult. Some kids may not want to tell an adult because they don’t want to tattle. It’s helpful to support your friend in letting an adult know about the issue.

If you can’t get your friend to go along with it, you can always go to an adult yourself and explain the issue. They’ll know what to do.

You should let your friend know that they can always count on you for help should they meet any other problems with a bully. But move on after that. If the bullying is over, there’s no need to talk about it anymore. Be sure to let them come to you if they need your help again.

It may not be the easiest path, but it definitely feels good to help a fellow camper in need, as everyone should have the opportunity to have a GREAT summer! Till next time, Campers.

Here is a video that we loved and thought you would too.

Hey, Hard Workers!

Today is Don’t Go To Work Unless It’s Fun Day. The point of this day isn’t so much to get employees to play hooky from their jobs but more so to remind bosses that a fun atmosphere in the workplace is beneficial not just to employees but to their work performance and thus the company as well.

As any computer software company will reveal, a loose, fun work environment produces happy employees yielding better results in efficient and creative work. Unlike a computer software company—our jobs may not provide a loose enough setting for, say, a foosball table in the break room. But despite that, any job can offer its employees a fun environment.

Maybe not everybody’s workplace can be fun, but everybody is here at Everything Summer Camp today because our company is a fun place to work.

Everything Summer Camp offers a good assortment of jobs: we have our production department where our camp trunks are manufactured, our graphics production, our screen printing shop for camp clothing, our call center, the offices, and the shipping department. The people in each department are typically in a good mood.

It’s never unlikely to find a harmless prank in action around the office or to see a group taking a quick break with some Mad Libs. Having characters around the office and people who are happy to be there is great for morale and good day of solid work!

We may play hard but we work hard as well. And playing hard actually helps us to work hard! It’s not just us at Everything Summer Camp either. It’s people in general. A happy brain makes for a hard worker. It’s as simple as that. So make sure that your employees are enjoying their jobs—especially today (or else they may not show up)!

Thanks for reading, Camp Folks! Till next time.

- John

*NOTE* Everything Summer Camp does not actually recommend that anyone skip work today in order to celebrate the “holiday”. Just try to make work fun for yourself if it isn’t already.

Hey, Friends!

Do you have any idea how important you are?—each and every one of you. How can you say that through a Blog post? you might ask. We’ve never even met! But I assure you, if you are reading this Blog, then, whether we’ve met before or not, you are certainly a friend of mine. And friends are incredibly important!

Friends are a lot of things. Sometimes they’re plentiful, sometimes they’re hard to come by. Sometimes they’re the best and sometimes they’re not. But most of all, your friends are the people who accept you for who you are and enjoy your company.

Today is Make a Friend Day (though, in my opinion, it should just be called Friendship Day). Make a Friend Day is all about appreciating the people you consider to be your friends. Whether it’s your best friend since the first grade or somebody friendly that you met today, friends are important to have in your life.

All too often we’re stuck living the busy side of life that demands that we work, work, work!!! But when you finally get a break, you’re definitely going to want to bend somebody’s ear. And not just somebody, but somebody who’ll listen and care about what you have to say. Somebody you can call a friend.

When you are blessed with the gift of friends, you don’t need anything else because your friends are there to help you out.

It’s just as that good-hearted angel, Clarence Odbody from It’s a Wonderful Life says, “Every time a bell ri—” wait a minute! …That’s not the right quote. *AHEM* “No man is a failure who has friends.”

So, with those very true words, go celebrate your friends today and let them know what they mean to you! Thanks for reading, Camp Folks.

Hey, all of you shining Blog Readers!

What’s the best way to spread your natural sunshine? By telling everybody else how much they shine! And, while any day is good for giving out unexpected compliments, today is an especially great day for sharing pleasant remarks with one another because it’s National Compliment Day.

National Compliment Day was founded by Kathy Chamberlin as well as Debby Hoffman in 1998. Their reasoning behind Compliment Day was to give people a reminder that compliments are an easy, pleasant, and positive way to make a quick connection with somebody else. After all, who doesn’t love receiving compliments?

We may not all be as practiced at giving people compliments as we could be. It’s not something that people always remember to do for each other. That’s why we have a holiday to remind ourselves to do it. But fear not! I’m here to give you some tips on complimenting.

First of all, you have to mean what you’re saying. So, as to keep from cheapening the holiday, you don’t want come off as being insincere. How do you come off being sincere? BE SINCERE! Don’t just run around telling everyone how much you like their shirt or shoes or hair. It doesn’t matter how many people you compliment if none of them actually meant anything to you.

If you really are thinking about how great someone’s shirt is, then by all means, compliment that person on the shirt—because you mean it. The point is that you want to say something that’s going to make somebody smile. If you can’t think of something, don’t worry about it. No compliment is better than a cheap, forced one.

It’s also good to keep in mind today (and any day) that you may be complimented. Some people are even less practiced at receiving compliments than they are at giving them. You certainly don’t want to disagree with a compliment and make the other person feel bad about having said something nice! Accept compliments graciously with a simple, “thank you.”

You should also avoid volleying a compliment right back as it depreciates the original remark.

So go put some smiles on some faces and give people the gift of positivity! It’s sure to make their day as well as yours. Till next time, Readers!

- John

Hey, Dreamers!

Everyone has a dream that they’d like to pursue in life. Some people want to be firefighters, some want to be policemen. Other people want to be musicians or actors. Today is a day to recognize that dream and take steps towards realizing it. Today is National Make Your Dream Come True Day.

Anyone who’s already done it will tell you—following your dreams takes hard work, determination, patience, and more hard work. But that’s why our dreams are so important. Our dreams are never easy to fulfill as nothing important is. Take National Make Your Dream Come True Day as a gentle reminder and a golden opportunity to make some forward progress in realizing your dream.

Dreams will never come true unless you take the proper steps to turn them into a reality! Now that doesn’t mean you should be discouraged if your dreams have not yet come true—not in the least. It should give you the satisfaction of knowing that someday you will achieve your dreams.

Take myself for example. I knew when I was little that I wanted to be a writer. I wrote every day. I wrote every night. I went to school for writing both in high school and college, absorbing as much information as possible to be the best writer I could be. Now I get to talk to all you Everything Summer Camp Blog readers in the form of my written word!

When you take steps in the right direction, you’re bound to get where you’d like to be…eventually. Yes, following our dreams is no easy task. But no matter how difficult it is or how far away your dream seems from becoming a reality—stick with it! It’ll be worth it in the end because doing what makes you happy is ALWAYS going to make you happy!

Dream big and dream on, Dreamers! Thanks for reading.