Hey, Camp Fans!

Your camp stories were great this year! It was lots of fun to read through them all and now I’m excited to share them with all our readers online! We’re posting each submission right here on the Blog! Since I’ve finished announcing our ten lucky winners who took larger prizes, I’ve moved on to the rest of your submissions. The following post is from Bee B. who wrote in to tell us about her summer days at Camp Mohawk. Here it is:

“I love living in New York City, however, every summer I look forward to going to summer camp! Getting there is always a challenge, but not this year because I got a soft trunk from Everything Summer Camp! It fit everything I needed for two weeks of camp and it even helped me stay organized! The best part about it was how easy it was to travel with! I had to get on and off two trains and get a car service and, this year, it was a breeze! Once I got to camp, I easily unpacked and got ready to enjoy two weeks of the outdoors! After I unpacked, the first thing I had to do was to take the swim test. I was so nervous about not getting blue swimmer, and hopeful I would even maybe get green. I had so many butterflies in my stomach, I lost count. I really wanted to be a blue swimmer so I could be in the same swim class as my best friend. After I tested, they told me that I had gotten blue, I was thrilled! And the next day, I was even able to re-test, and get green, which is the highest level of swimmer! Another great memory I have of my camp, is the first time I learned how to canter, and jump on a horse! The first time I jumped, it was an amazing feeling of pride and accomplishment! Those memories were bold because of the amazing surrounding I have at camp! From best friends to counselors, I am always in an amazing, friendly, and safe environment!”

Sounds like your summer at Camp Mohawk went swimmingly *wink*! It’s great to hear that you had such a productive summer stay this year. Way to go in your swim class, Bee! And thanks for your submission! If anybody else is interested in YMCA Camp Mohawk, you can give it a closer look by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey Camp Fans!

We’ve covered former summer camper Mrs. Maggie Gyllenhaal before here on the Everything Summer Camp Blog. We discussed her camp history with her brother, Jake, at Camp Walt Whitman as well as her path that led her to the big screen. But her previous post only scratched the surface about what makes this chick tick! Let’s learn some more things about Maggie.

We all know her as Maggie. She always knew herself as Maggie. But it took her until the age of 36 before discovering what her actual and full name is: Margalit. She was going about some administrative requirements to legally take her husband’s last name. She was rather shocked when she asked her parents to find her birth certificate and she saw her actual name in print.

So this post on Maggie Gyllenhaal has become one on Margalit Sarsgaard after she married Peter Sarsgaard and they started a family together. She knew Peter through her brother as one of his best friends and the eventually fell in love. Together they have two daughters who are everything to them. There’s Gloria Ray, 7, and Ramona, 13. “Once you're a mom,” Maggie has revealed, “There are secret things you know—like in your pocket, you'll find a bag of Cheerios.”

Maggie has been in more than 30 movies! Her brother’s been in just over 40. It’s a good amount of movies considering classic Hollywood names like Tom Hanks and Matt Damon sit with their filmography count under 90. There are few folks in Hollywood who are able to pull off numbers that exceed 100. Some folks seemingly don’t sleep based on their busy careers such as Samuel L. Jackson who’s been in 126 movies.

Maggie’s been in such films as ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ in which she worked alongside Julia Roberts, ‘Nanny McPhee Returns’ in which she played the role of Mrs. Green, as well as the sequel to the movie ‘Batman Begins’, ‘The Dark Knight’, in which she plays Rachel Dawes. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about this beautiful actress and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We were delighted to see such a great response to our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest here at Everything Summer Camp and now we’re eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $15 gift certificate to our online store!

Today’s post is from Harli R., who made this summer a great installment to her time at Camp Pontiac. Check out her story and see what makes Pontiac a great place! “My camp experience was amazing this summer! It was my 5th year at Camp Pontiac, and this was my favorite summer so far! What makes my camp so special is the camp traditions. They make everyone feel this special feeling. Since we do these traditions every single year everyone gets closer with everyone. Some of these traditions are Hits, Sing, the Camp Pontiac Alma Mater, Color War Sing, and so much more. My favorite tradition is probably the Camp Pontiac Alma Mater, because we have this song forever throughout our lives. It’s also really catchy! Once you keep coming back and coming back these traditions are so meaningful to you. For example—the Alma Mater. It talks about how you want to keep coming back to this special place. The Alma also talks about the friendships that you make, and that you think about this place as your second home. All of these traditions that they have at camp make the summers feel real. If I didn’t have them at my camp the summer wouldn’t be as great as it would be. All of them are way too much meaningful to me for that to happen. They all teach lessons, which I love. At Hits you make up a skit, which uses teamwork. In Sing you talk about friendship. Especially in the Sing Alma Mater. (Not the Camp Pontiac Alma Mater.) In the Camp Pontiac Alma Mater you get special feeling for the camp, and for Color War Sing, there is sadness because everyone is going to leave in 4 days. All of these special traditions do a bunch of things for Camp Pontiac.”

It’s wonderful to hear how much you enjoy your time at Camp Pontiac, Harli! I’m glad you find the camp and their traditions so charming! So wonderful that you have a place like Camp Pontiac that you love to return to year after year! Everyone else can have a great time like Harli at Camp Pontiac—check it out for yourself by clicking here. And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Saint’s Day Celebrators!

This upcoming major holiday, which we call Halloween in our contemporary day, was once known as Samhain (pronounced Sow-ween). A sort of ancient New Years and Harvest celebration, this celebration over time took on a new name and new meaning. Learn more about Halloween than you ever did before on today’s eerily interesting Blog post!

Check out these fun facts about our beliefs behind this celebration:

Everyone knows that black cats bring bad luck…right? Yeah—lots of people think that. Black cats are actually less likely to be adopted because of the superstition surrounding them. But this belief isn’t held worldwide. In fact, in other parts of the world such as the United Kingdom, it is a white cat which is thought to bring misfortune. I have an all-black cat named Aiden Carl who is the sweetest, most handsome cat I’ve ever met and I don’t feel unlucky!

Of course, it’s always good to take precautions with candy (especially overeating it!) But unlike what most people have come to believe about Trick-or-Treat candy, there have never actually been any reports of razor blades in apples or poisoned sugary treats. There have been some strange cases that involved poisoning and Halloween candy, but not to Trick-or-Treaters. That has all been rumor.

Halloween’s predecessor, Samhain, seems to have been an ancient Celtic festival in which they lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. So how did this celebration turn into Halloween? The Christian movement in Ireland (thanks to ol’ St. Patrick) delivered the Samhain celebration to the converted Irish Christians. It was in the 8th century that Pope Gregory III announced November 1st as a day to honor all saints. He called it All Saints Day. Hallow, being another word for holy or saintly is commonly used. So All Hallow’s Eve is also known as All Saint’s Eve which still incorporates some of the traditions of Samhain.

Hope this post has cleared up some misnomers and mysteries you may have had surrounding the Halloween celebration. I hope you’re all getting excited to don your dreadful costumes and enjoy some scares in the coming couple of weeks! Happy Halloween, Everybody! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

If you’re unsure where you want to attend camp in the following season, then today’s Blog post just might introduce you to your summer camp experience for next year! We’re shining our summer camp spotlight over to the eastern coast where we find this Jewish summer camp in Connecticut since the long ago year of 1937, Camp Laurelwood.

Perched upon 140 magnificent acres of magical wooded wilderness, Camp Laurelwood is the summer setting for life-long memories and friendships. It’s a place where kids can develop a better understanding of who they are and how they fit into a community that they’re happy to be a part of!

Summer camp at Laurelwood offers classic camp activities such as Archery, Baseball, Basketball, Boating, Dance, Ga-ga, Fitness, Football, Floor Hockey, High and Low Ropes, Kickball, Lacrosse, Martial Arts (including Krav Maga), Mountain Biking, Ping Pong, Playscape, Soccer, Softball, Speedball, Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Yoga, Zip Lines, and more! Have fun in the water too with Canoeing, Kayaking, Surf-Biking, and everyone’s favorite—Paddleboarding!

You can have fun indoors at Laurelwood too with fun activities like Arts & Crafts where campers can create pottery, ceramics, jewelry, soap, candles, mosaics, and other craft projects. They can learn new songs and dance routines. And their aerobics program combines the music kids love with fitness, exercise and fun.

Sprinkled with adorable cabins to accommodate campers in the girl’s campus as well as the boy’s campus, Camp Laurelwood features the Drazen Dining Hall, Dance Studio, the Nature Hut, the Health Center, and so many more great facilities that are more than complementary to the surrounding wilderness!

If Camp Laurelwood sounds like it might be the place for you check it out further by clicking here for your next summer’s camp experience! As always, Camp Fans, thanks for reading.

- John