Hey Egg Counters!

There’s lots of fun things you can do with colorful, plastic eggs. Fill them with treats, hide them for others to find. Just last week, everyone here at Everything Summer Camp held a rather intense Egg Hunt.

So much fun was had that we just couldn’t stop there so we thought we’d play another game with eggs, but this time we wanted to involve all of you!

And so the Everything Summer Camp ‘Egg Count Contest’ was born. Reminiscent of the ‘Candy Corn Contest’ we held nearly six months ago in which we asked our readers to guess how many pieces of Candy Corn were in our glass jar, this year we want you to guess at how many eggs are filling one of our camp trunks.

The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate for Everything Summer Camp. You definitely want to take your time in answering—give a good, educated guess; but don’t take too long, the contest will close at noon on April 22. The winner of our Egg Count Contest will be announced on the following day. 

As any proud owner of a C&N Footlocker will tell you, there’s a lot that can fit inside one of our camp trunks! I wonder just how many eggs one of our trunks will hold! I can’t wait to find out! Till next time, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Egg Hunters!

Like you, we here at Everything Summer Camp can’t help ourselves this time of year. Whenever springtime rolls around bringing green grass, we always get antsy to go looking for some hidden eggs around the workplace.

We held a pretty intense Hunt here yesterday in anticipation of the coming holiday. With so much action happening all at once, hardly anyone can give me an accurate account of the day’s actual events. Good thing I was there, in the middle of all the action.

Most people put a couple jelly beans or some other fun treats inside the eggs they hide, but yesterday, we were given a little more incentive to find our eggs. We had a good handful of candy prizes, but we also had ticket prizes to movies and other events, certificates for hours of Paid Time Off, and cold, hard cash (ranging from two dollars to 50 bucks)!

If no one found the $50 egg, the prize was to be given to a random winner among all participants.

The eggs were placed in the hallways of the offices, the Call Center, the bathrooms, our large Production Workshop where our footlockers are made, and—of course—the break room. All the eggs were readily available and visually hidden—in other words, you didn’t need to “go through” anything to find an egg.

Also, each participant was limited to finding just two eggs so you really had to choose wisely. In some cases, it might have been smarter to pass on collecting a found egg if it doesn’t look like a really good one.

If I had just one word to describe yesterday’s Egg Hunt, I think my best choice would be ‘melee’! Everyone had been gathered into the break room where the rules and boundaries of the hunt were given. And after that it was simply—“GO!”

With that, the majority of the 20 participants made a mad dash exiting through the front and back doors in desperate search of the “Golden Egg” that held the grand prize of $50. But a few wise ones hung back in the break room. Their strategy was more composed. I was one of them.

I spotted a small purple egg sitting on a purple flyswatter on top of the refrigerator but it didn’t look all that special.

Bill, a seasonal hand in our shipping department, made the comment that probably no one would find the Golden Egg and the prize would end up going to some random winner. This seemed like smart reasoning to me so I took the purple egg and left the break room.

I then walked out into the production area. It was all abuzz of speedily moving, efficiently searching, rampantly rummaging egg hunters. While I was out there I saw Ryan, Manager of our Shipping Department, as he spotted his only find cleverly hidden underneath a spray sink.

The Production area began to clear out when I discovered my second egg—a bigger, more special-looking egg. Could this be the $50 prize? I thought. It was green (which wasn’t a good sign), but I thought I’d better take what I could get. With both my eggs, I thought I’d scope the pandemonium that had moved to the offices. I’d never seen the place look THAT busy before.

Our president, Ed, was quietly tucked away in his office.

“Did you already find both your eggs?” I asked. He had grabbed a small egg on a production palette and another bigger one that he said he found behind our receptionist, Missy’s desk.

“I just want to stay safe in here until it’s over out there,” he said with a smile.

As I continued my way down our office’s corridor, I saw Pam, our seasonal help in the Graphic Arts Department, spot her egg between a storage rack and a wall. That egg awarded her an hour of Paid Time Off!

It was right after that when I heard the announcement from Shirley, our Production Supervisor, that the Golden Egg had been discovered. I rushed passed everyone in the Call Center, back to the break room where Myron, one of our guy’s in Production, sat with the Golden Egg and a big grin.

“Where was it?” I asked him. He said it was placed in between hanging coats on a rack against the wall.

“I never even left the room,” he said.

Well, Myron may have taken home the grand prize, but everyone won SOMETHING and I’m pretty sure fun was had by all. I, for instance, had a great time and took home five dollars as well as a tasty bag of candy that I’m enjoying right now.

Happy Hunting, Everybody!

- John

Hey, Story Lovers!

People have been telling stories ever since we developed sufficient communication skills. Who doesn’t love to hear a well-spun yarn? Just about everybody enjoys hearing a good story which is why there’s a whole day dedicated to the art of oral story telling. April 27 is Tell a Story Day.

So—how come we’re telling you about this twenty-three days in advance? Well, because telling stories around a campfire is such an essential part of summer camp, it only seems natural that we here at Everything Summer Camp create a contest shaped after this national day.

But we don’t want just any kind of story—we want scary summer camp stories—spooky stories that you share while everyone’s sitting around a campfire. The kind that send shivers down spines and put goose bumps on skin. These should be tales that you’ve come up with from your own warped imagination.

After you’ve crafted your story, we want you to make a video recording of yourself telling your chilling tale. Your video may be as simple as holding a flashlight underneath your chin or as grandiose as involving a small cast and props to make your own mini-movie! Then upload your spooky video to YouTube.

Video entries should be no longer than 10 minutes long and, of course, the content of this video should be appropriate for all ages. Make sure to keep your stories clean! If you couldn’t tell it at summer camp, then we don’t want you telling it here.

Submit your video and contest entry information on our customer sign up page by April 27 and enter for your chance to be a winner. Two winners will be chosen—each will win a $100 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp.

One winner will be chosen by public votes. How many people can you get to vote for your video? The more people you know, the better your odds are of winning. The other winner will be chosen by us—our esteemed judges within Everything Summer Camp.

Here’s the beginning of a little story I’m working on along with you guys–enjoy!

Fire Pit

Sid was the first kid that Angie met at summer camp. When he first approached her he confessed that he was a rather shy boy. But being on the shy side herself, this sat well with Angie and the two became quick friends. They sat with each other throughout mealtimes and during conversation times with the counselors. On hikes they would walk together. They’d even sit and read together on the ledge of the camp’s fire pit. It seemed they were side-by-side the entire time and before either one of them realized it, their camp stay was coming to a close.

They found themselves eating the last dinner they would have at summer camp this season. Angie couldn’t help but to feel a little sad about the fast-approaching end. She’d had so much fun in the last few weeks! But Sid reminded Angie to cheer up—“We still have a whole night left at camp,” he told her.

The campers of O-Phaz-Ma would end their camp stay with the traditional campfire on the last night. And, of course, Sid and Angie sat next to each other.

Everybody joked around for a while, roasting marshmallows by the roaring fire and enjoying each other’s company one last time for the summer. But it didn’t take long for Craig, the primary counselor to flip on a flashlight and pass it off to Daniel, sitting next to him.

“Let’s get some stories, going, huh?” said Craig.

“Oh, um, okay,” said Daniel, unprepared. He went on with a humorous story about a monster with a hook, not for a hand, but for a foot. It got a lot of laughs, but Craig was unsatisfied.

“C’mon, Danny! SCARE US!” he said.

“Well, if you want a scary story so bad why don’t YOU tell one?” Daniel proposed giving the flashlight back to Craig.

“Oh, I don’t know if you guys could handle a scary story from ME!” Craig warned as he turned off the flashlight. But this was received with a band of sarcastic laughing and much jeering. The kids all continued with their discordant chatter in unison until Craig turned the flashlight back on and held it underneath his chin and everyone grew silent again.

The crisp crackling of the burning logs inside the brick fire pit filled the silence for a moment until Craig broke it saying, “Well, OKAY, then. If you insist…”

***Tune in for the second half of this story on April 27th, National Tell a Story Day.***

Hey, Facebook Fans!

Offering a connection to friends and family that you don’t get to see very often or a fix to your addiction to Farmville, Facebook has become one popular medium. Nowadays, everybody’s a fan of Facebook. And you know what else everybody’s a fan of? Fridays! Put them together and it’s a match made in heaven. That’s why we at Everything Summer Camp have brought back Facebook Fridays!

Facebook Fridays, if you don’t know how it used to go, worked like this: we picked a random winner from the names of people that ‘liked’ us on Facebook. The winner received a $25 Gift Certificate to use at Everything Summer Camp.

If Facebook Fridays were so cool, then why did you stop doing them, you might ask?

Well, it turns out that (without our knowing, of course) Facebook Fridays were illegal within the rules and guidelines of Facebook. But we’ve brought them back now and operate within full compliance of Facebook regulations.

Here’s how they work now: At 1:00 p.m. CST on Fridays we’ll post a link that will allow you to sign up to win a $25 Gift Certificate. Simply give us your name, email address, and Facebook username. You will have until 1:30 p.m. CST to sign up for that week’s drawing. After 1:30 p.m. CST we will no longer accept entry forms.

Next, using randomizer software we’ll pick a new winner at about 1:45 p.m. CST.  The winner will be notified via the email address they provided. At 2:00 p.m. CST, we’ll post that week’s winner on Facebook.

If you get picked as a winner of Facebook Friday, then you can’t win again in 2014. Sorry!  You are, however, still eligible for other sweepstakes and contests here at Everything Summer Camp such as our Camp’s On Us Contest in which we’re giving away $1000 to go toward your summer camp tuition.

But for now, enjoy your Fridays and visit us on Facebook for your chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate for Everything Summer Camp. Thanks for reading, Folks!

- John

Hey, Bakers!

I think the rest of America is with me when I say that this time of year was meant for baking cookies. After all, it’s National Bake Cookies Day! Why not put your baking skills to good use on a day that has been dedicated solely to the baking of cookies? And what better way to warm yourself up from the inside out than enjoying a chewy, gooey cookie that came fresh out the oven?

From Gingerbread men to Peanut Butter Blossoms, Sugar Cookie Cutouts and classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, there’s definitely no shortage of how many different kinds of cookies you can make this time of year. Oatmeal Raisin, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Covered Oreos, the list goes on and on. And each is a classic holiday treat!

I remember so many winters ago when the oven would keep the kitchen nice and toasty with batch after batch of cookie dough balls baking inside. My brothers and sisters would gather around the dining room table, eager for the Gingerbread men to cool. It was always so much fun to decorate these traditional cookies with frosting and Red Hots!

Kids love baking. Unfortunately, they may not always be very clean about it. However, with the proper supervision, baking is one of the best ways to spend a day of winter vacation. And with the approaching holidays, it’s always good to have some treats around the house.

This time of year, everyone here at Everything Summer Camp gets pretty serious about baking cookies just like everyone else. However, after the cookies are done, you want to show them off to people and let them see how good they turned out and how great they taste. Eager to share with one another, everyone brought their cookies in to work. Check out what we made this year and get inspired to do some baking of your own!

 Don't drool on your keyboard and thanks for reading!

- John