Hey, Camp Fans!

People my age remember Kirk Cameron from his long-running role as Mike Seaver on the classic television sitcom, ‘Growing Pains’. And this isn’t the first time I’ve posted about him here on the Blog. In his first post, we explained that though he never attended camp, he obviously knows what a positive influence camp is since he launched his own Camp Firefly!

That last post, however, only got things started with Kirk. Let’s take a second look at the more spiritual side of this TV star.

Now Kirk’s a Believer
Though he wasn’t raised with any specific religion and adamantly denied any existence of God, it all changed when he agreed join a friend at church one day. The service made him ask a lot of hard questions he never thought of before like ‘Who created the world?’ ‘What happens when you die?’ ‘Does anything besides survival of the fittest matter here on Earth?’ Now Kirk’s a believer!

Cameron Christian Ministry
Kirk was 17 by the time he left atheism behind him. His sister, Candace Cameron, however, was around 12 years old when she joined Kirk and accepted God into her life. You may know his little sister from her highly recognizable role as DJ Tanner on ‘Full House’—a character she recently reprised in ‘Fuller House’. She operates her own ministry while Kirk also co-founded an evangelical ministry.

Why Must I Play a Teenager in Love?
On ‘Growing Pains’, Kirk’s character Mike started dating a girl played by Chelsea Noble. In real life, Kirk ended up marrying Chelsea and, together, the two have a family of six kids—four of whom were adopted!

A big salute to Kirk for starting up Camp Firefly and everything else he’s achieved throughout his life. And, to everybody else, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Summer Shoppers!

Memorial Day is nearly here! We’re certainly ramping up to the summer season and excited for the upcoming federal holiday—Memorial Day. This day is a day to remember the soldiers who have fallen while in service to their country, but because of its position on the calendar and the time off from work, many folks think of it as an unofficial first day of summer. With our nation reopening right now, maybe your family can get together for a barbecue or hangout.

You might also think of Memorial Day as a marker to kick your summer camp prep into full gear! Now’s the time to check off the rest of your list so that you don’t find yourself still getting ready the day before camp starts!

As helpful incentive to get your gear now, I’m announcing our Memorial Day Sale in full effect today, going on right now and it runs through next week Tuesday!

Check out the sale:

Trunk Discounts
We’re taking 25% off our Solid Color Camp Trunks in our Happy Camper, Grad, and UnderGrad sizes. As for our awesome Designer Trunks, Create-Your-Own Footlockers, and the Pop-Up Soft Trunks, we’re shaving $20 off. Check out all your options right here!

Along with Accessories
We also have just a few select trunk accessories on sale including the Wheel Away System to bring great convenience to your trunk transportation!

More Department Discounts
Get your camp clothing labeled and stored away for laundry services at camp! You can find our Name Labels for 20% off this week along with Laundry Bags for 15% off!

Cuts on Camp Gear
Get a good deal on camping gear at 10% off on select items like Sleeping Bags, Fans, Flashlights, and Raingear!

Not Done Yet…
The icing on the Memorial Day Sale cake is our Bonus Coupon to give you additional savings! Spend more than $100 on an order and you get $10. Pair up this coupon with one of our trunks and you’re getting a $30 discount on your camp trunk. Pretty good deal, huh?

Take advantage of this week of sales and knock your camp prep out of the park so you can breathe a sigh of relaxation and enjoy some peace before the summer season really kicks off! As always, thanks for reading and Happy Memorial Day!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We’ve changed up our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest, turning it into a monthly deal and we love the stories we got for our first May Contest! All entrants after our two prize winners received S’more Bucks (our campy term for loyalty points) for their participation. At Everything Summer Camp, everyone’s a winner.

The following post is from Melissa M. who wrote in to tell us about her family history at Hayo-Went-Ha summer camp through the generations! Here’s her submission:

“My name is Melissa and my 8-year-old son Dylan is a 4^th generation camper.  Our camp is YMCA Camp Hayo-Went-Ha on Torch Lake in northern Michigan, which was started in 1903. My grandfather was the camp director for many years, and first started working there in the 1960’s. My dad and his siblings spent their summers at camp, joined the staff when they were old enough, and are still involved on the camp board today. My aunt was even the camp nurse in the 90s. My brother, cousins, and I also got to grow up spending summers staying with our grandparents while they ran camp and, eventually, we became campers and counselors. Now I have an amazing son of my own who gets to continue the tradition of ‘growing up camp!’ I feel really lucky to have a shared history with not only my family, but thousands of people from all over the world who love Camp Hayo-Went-Ha as much as I do.

My grandfather wanted all of us to be ‘Keepers of the Flame,’ which means keeping the spirit of camp and the lessons you’ve learned there alive in your heart, even when you’re not at camp. It’s more important than ever to remember those lessons, friends, and connections, because they will last a lifetime. I can’t wait for my son to be a Keeper of the Flame and have his own camp stories and friendships!”

I love your connection to Hayo-Went-Ha along with the rest of your family, Melissa! What a good stretch of history your family has there! It must be so cool now that Dylan is carrying that torch! I’m sure, like you, he’ll make a great Keeper of the Flame! Thanks for your submission, Melissa! To everyone else, you can check out Camp Hayo-Went-Ha on their website and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We love the stories we got this last month for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest—Spring edition here at Everything summer Camp! I’m eager to share what we got with our online community and post each one right here on the Blog! I’ve already announced our two prize winners, Healy W. and Donna J. on yesterday and the day before. Now we’ll keep going for the weekend with this post and one tomorrow.

All entrants after our winners received S’more Bucks (our campy term for loyalty points) just for their submissions. At Everything Summer Camp, everyone’s a winner. The following post is from Henley S. who wrote in to tell us about her summers at Keystone Camp for the last six years! Here’s her submission:

“Hi, I am Henley S. Hopefully, the 2020 three-week session will be my seventh summer attending Keystone Camp in Brevard, North Carolina as a camper. Keystone Camp is a place where girls can show who they really are and not have to worry about being bullied about their inner selves. I love this camp because our motto is “Other Girl First.” To me, this motto means that if I see another girl getting pushed out of the way, I have to bring her with me and make sure the negative situation stops immediately. This motto also means that when someone is having a bad day I reach out to comfort her, instead of making fun of her because she is crying on her bunk. In my cabin during the 2019 three-week session was a new girl. Her name was MC. MC had come from the two-week session, so it was our first meeting. We brought her into our family because we knew she didn’t have any friends yet. In my third year at camp, I met my best friends who have been with me since we first started camp. Their names are India, Maddie, Kensley, and Abby. Two girls joined us in 2018, Taci and Lauren, and we all make sure to keep in touch over social media and text messages throughout the time we are away from Keystone. We named our group chat from 2019 FourWind Farts. I have absolutely no clue how we came up with this name during the three weeks that we were together, but it just worked. Away from Keystone, we love having group FaceTime calls and texting. We have all figured out when the best time to call or text because we live all over the United States: India and Maddie live in Los Angeles, Lauren and Taci live in Miami, Kensley, Abby, and I live in three different parts of Georgia, and MC lives in Cincinnati. See? All over the United States. My favorite parts of camp are the dances held with Camp Carolina and HighRocks, cabin campouts, and our cabin fun night on the last night of camp. I can’t forget about New Years’ and Camp Prom. One of my best camp experiences was the 2017 Camp Prom. My whole cabin went in our bathrobes and bathing suits; we were promised to go to the swim lake after. This was the best night ever. We swam in the lake for what seemed like hours and then stayed up very late, laughing on each other’s bunks. This was a night to remember. My 2019 cabin fun night was also a special night. It was raining cats and dogs and we all thought that our counselors were mad at us and that they were going to make us go to bed super-early. But Jada, our counselor, made us all put on our bathing suits and our bathrobes. We had no clue what was going on. Little did we know that Leah, our other counselor, went to the store and bought us candy and face masks. Later that night, we went to the freezer behind the dining hall. We peeked inside and stole the Oreos. After our cookie robbery, we went to the Pavilion so that nobody would see us eating them. While we were eating them, we sang our favorite songs and just talked to each other. Jada brought up the fact that the next day was Closing Day for the three-week session. We all started crying, but we got one of our last group 'aggressive hugs' from Jada. We laughed and had so much fun. When we finished eating our Oreos, we took off our bathrobes and danced in the rain. It was so much fun, and I will never forget that night. This is why I love Keystone Camp. It will be very sad to hear that it is canceled because of this pandemic.”

Isn’t it awesome all the wonderful pieces of our lives that summer camp brings us? I’m glad that Keystone has been such a keystone in your life! You and the FourWind Farts sound like a fantastic group. I have high hopes that you’ll all be able to get together again this summer, Henley. Keep your head up about the future—who knows what will happen, right?! To everyone else interested in checking out Keystone Camp, give them a closer look right here. And, as always, thanks for reading!


- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Everyone is looking forward to the summertime! Camp isn’t here just yet, but our excitement certainly is! Yesterday we shared our first place prize winner for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest at Everything Summer Camp.   

Today we have the last of our $25 winners. And that winner is….

Donna J.! Congratulations, Donna! You’re our $25 prize winner! Looking through the generations, check out why this summer is a big deal to Donna’s granddaughter in this Grandmother’s camp story submission:

“My story may be a little different coming from a Grandmother and I am one of the camp nurses! My daughter (now 40 years old) began camping when she was 8 years old. She returned each summer through her college years. Of course, beginning as a camper through senior counselor and head of Riflery Camping gave her confidence as she has experienced life through college and being a mom. And yes, all the fun and exciting new experiences! This summer I will again return to camp but this year my granddaughter will go with me for her first summer at camp. She is so excited and so is her mother! Knowing all of the fun she will have and lifelong friends she will make. She has already gone to Mother-Daughter weekend and a Loved it. ❤ Camping at Riverview!!!”

What an awesome submission, Donna! How cool for your granddaughter to get to camp with Grandma! Haha! Sounds like you’ll be a great presence at camp for her first summer stay! Camp Riverview must be a magical place. Thanks for the caring service you contribute for Riverview campers! To everyone else, be sure to check out Camp Riverview for your own future camp stay and maybe you’ll get to meet Donna! As always, thanks for reading!

 - John