Hey, Camp Fans!

This year’s summer camp season is still fresh in our minds, but for serious Camp Fans we think about camp all year long. If you’re unsure where you’ll be attending camp in the following season, then today’s Blog post just might introduce you to your summer camp experience next year! We’re shining our summer camp spotlight over to the eastern coast where we find Camp Jewell YMCA in the Berkshires of northwest Connecticut.

A regular fun factory, Camp Jewell has been around since 1901 and providing kids with 540 beautiful acres along the banks of New Hampshire’s Lake Swanzey. Once an all-boys camp, Camp Jewell moved to a co-ed program in 1970 and has since shown boys and girls summer fun like they’ve never experienced before. With their beginning more than a hundred years ago with well under a hundred kids, they now welcome 1500 campers each summer!

Join the exciting summer happenings going on at Camp Jewell where campers get the chance to splash it up with activities like Swimming, Canoeing and Kayaking, Fishing, Paddleboarding, and more. For land activities, they have Archery, Basketball, Carpetball, Climbing Towers, 4-Square, Frisbee, Hiking, Outdoor Cooking, Ropes Course, Soccer, Volleyball, Wiffleball, Zip Line, and lots, LOTS more!

And for indoor fun, Camp Jewell gives campers the opportunity to sharpen their skills in other activities such as Arts & Crafts, Dance, Drama, Guitar, Ukulele, Pottery, and other cool activities you can try your hand at!

One last note about Camp Jewell, their facilities and cabins for camper quarters are accommodating and complementary to the natural surroundings. The Main Camp Facility fills up at 400 people and they offer 13 fully winterized cabins that can each sleep up to 26 people! Every cabin features bathrooms, showers, and a central common area with a fireplace. And the Senior Lodge sleeps up to 68 people!

Check out more about Camp Jewell by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans.

- John

What’s up, Camp Fans?!

We received some quality camp stories for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest at Everything summer Camp. You knocked it out of the park this year, campers; these stories are fantastic! I’m eager to share them with our online community and post each submission right here on the Blog!

Now that I’ve finished announcing our ten lucky winners who took larger prizes, I’m sharing the rest of your submissions. All entrants win a $15 gift certificate to our online store simply for participating. The following post is from Raag M. who wrote in to tell us about his camp stay at Camp Mowglis. Here’s his submission:

“It was a perfectly bright afternoon; the sun was warm on my back and a cool breeze was blowing. I was at Camp Mowglis, in Hebron, New Hampshire for the summer of 2019. I was walking down to the rifle range, which is the circled area.

I was walking down there for the first time, feeling a tinge nervous, but mostly excited.
 
When I stepped inside the rifle range after a short walk I had to choose a rifle to shoot with. I went with B2. It was the German Anschutz model. I then set up a target to shoot at and sat down on the bench. Then after getting our ammunition blocks, we lay down to shoot. 
 
And then the moment came. When the Riflery instructor told us to shoot I loaded, looked through the sights, and shot. I did this repeatedly until I was on my last and 5th shot. I then looked through the sights and I took deep breaths. When I shot, my eyes were closed. I felt like it had been a good shot.
 
When we went outside to retrieve our targets I was bursting with excitement! I wanted to know what score my target was. It was a 24/50. I felt like jumping for joy, I was so ecstatic. When I shot again, however, my shots were not that good. They were a 19 and a 16. I still went to the next activity happily because I had had a great time in Riflery!”

Nice shooting, Raag! I love those moments when time seemingly freezes with some deep breathing and laser focus. It’s great to hear that Riflery was such a cool experience for you! Keep in practice if it’s something that you really like! I bet with some more focus and deep breathing you could shoot 24/50’s on the regular. Camp Mowglis sounds awesome! If anyone else would like to check it out closer, you can do so by clicking right here. As always, thanks for reading!

Hey, Basketball Lovers!

One name that will never fade from the NBA’s memory is the legendary Michael Jordan. An all-star player who ceaselessly amazed fans and colleagues, Michael Jordan goes down in history as one of the best athletes to play the game. Not a camper himself, but the owner of his own basketball camp, the Michael Jordan Flight School—the leading youth basketball camp in the world—I’ve covered Michael previously on the Blog.

But there’s much more to learn about this magical basketball player. Here’s a little bit more about him.

It Tongues in the Family
Notorious for sticking his tongue out, when it came to focus on the court, Michael’s father is where he got it from. His dad would have his tongue hanging out as he fix-it projects around the house. Turns out that Michael’s father got it from HIS father. He recalls Michael’s grandfather who would have his tongue out as he worked on automobiles. It’s since been coined as ‘Concentration Tongue’.

Michael Jordan wore the number 23 for his whole career…except for one day when somebody stole his jersey from the locker room about an hour before gametime. The thief was never found and, forced to go with what they had around, Michael wore a nameless jersey with the number 12 printed on it.

His own childhood hero, Michael loved watching Magic Johnson when he was growing up. His friends started calling him Magic Jordan and the license plate of the first car he ever got even read ‘MGCJRDN’. Magic and Michael eventually became very good friends.

Have fun with your friends on the hoop and court you have available to you and look into visiting a basketball camp for your next summer stay! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Aficionados!

Your camp stories for this year’s annual ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest at Everything summer Camp were fantastic! I’m eager to share them with our online community and post each submission right here on the Blog!

Last week concluded the announcements of our ten lucky winners who took larger prizes. And now today, I’ll begin sharing the rest of our submissions. All other entrants receive a $15 gift certificate to our online store simply for participating, making everyone a winner.

The following post is from Katie P. who wrote in to tell us about her time away at Camp Merrie Woode this summer. Here’s her submission:

“One night me and my friend got up around 4:27 am to the sounds of rustling I quickly shined the light out of the window and she saw a bear, the bear’s name is Margaruite, I rushed over to see if she was telling the truth and she was. A quick reminder to help you with this story is that me and my friend go by dumb and dumber because we are both over-the-top stupid. I got out of bed rushed to the bathroom and came back to put the trunk in front of the door we didn’t want to wake anybody up and we also didn’t want to be killed for the rest of the night. As we were walking back to our beds my friend tripped on a suitcase and then to my foot making her break her nose and it started gushing blood. We tried to clean it up the best we could but obviously we are dumb and dumber so we didn’t know much on how to fix it. By the way none of the rest of the cabin was awake. We shoved a tampon up her nose and called it a day. We got back into one bed together instead of getting into each of our own beds by ourself. We thought this would be the safest way to sleep. For the rest of the night we were scared so much we couldn’t stop shivering. This was one of the funniest and most terrifying moments of my life!”

You and your friend had quite a frantic night at camp! I’m glad that nobody got hurt too bad and nobody got eaten by a bear either! Thanks for your story, Katie! You had a number of us laughing pretty hard here around the office! How very resourceful of you two to use this hygienic bathroom product on (or should I say ‘in’) your friend’s nose.  Also, Margaruite is a wonderful bear name!

If you’re interested in checking out Camp Merrie Woode, give them a closer look sometime. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

When you get a scrape or a cut or a bump that breaks skin—whatever unfortunate accidents befall you—we’ve become accustomed to making a trip to the medicine cabinet or wherever your family keeps the Band-Aids for a quick, convenient fix. But how did people bandage themselves in the days before the Band-Aid? Let’s take a look at the history of bandages.

What did people do for their cuts and scrapes before the Band-Aid? Ancient cultures like the Egyptians used sugar and honey to seal up their wounds. It wasn’t necessarily the most efficient or easy means to stop bleeding, but it did produce the result they needed.

Eventually people transitioned over to using linens and clean cotton that they rolled around the wound. By the time of the Civil War, doctors created a sticky mixture of resin, olive oil, lard, and lead monoxide that they would spread on these linen fabrics. Once the mixture dried on the fabric, it could be rolled up to be transported or stored for future use! You could cut a strip for whatever size you needed and then heat it up to activate the adhesion in the dried sticky mix.

It was 1888, more than two decades after the Civil War, the company Johnson & Johnson introduced the first commercial first-aid kit that was small enough for folks of the general public to pack along on travels. They were packed with sterile gauze, bandages, and dressings. The initial design was meant for injured railroad workers. Injuries were common for those folks and they typically worked lengthy distances away from proper medical treatment.  

Finally, it was 1920 by the time our story gets to a newlywed couple. The wife, Josephine was a wonderful woman but had a problem with kitchen-related accidents. Much like my mother, Josephine could barely hold a knife without somehow slicing herself. Her husband Earle came up with his own adhesive bandage with a simple piece of tape and a thin gauze pad. This way his wife could dress her own cuts easily. This was the invention of the BAND-AID® Brand.

First-Aid Kits are an essential item to bring along for your trips out into the wilderness. We’re sure to have them available on our summer camp shop. Check out our First-Aid Kit by clicking right here and keep yourself protected! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

- John