Hey Camp Fans!

We’re all fans of Jon Favreau whether we know it or not. He’s the director of such classic films as ‘Elf’, the ‘Iron Man’ trilogy, and ‘Zathura’. We already published a Blog post about him a few years back where we discussed his camp history at French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, located on a private lake in the western area of the Catskill Mountains, just outside Hancock, New York.

But that last post only scratched the surface about this guy. Let’s learn more about Mr. Favreau.

Unhappy with a bunch of dead-end jobs, Jon one day quit his day job and hit the road for Chicago to pursue his new dream of becoming an improvisational comedy star. In a short time, he got a job at the well-respected comedy club the Second City (which has been mentioned in other celebrities’ posts). He wasn’t employed as a performer, however, but as a dishwasher. It was a START!

Once he got his foot in the acting door and had one or two movies under his belt, Jon thought he’d be better off in the acting business if he lost some weight. He put himself on a strict diet that resulted in losing 80 pounds! Unfortunately, casting folks wanted the bigger guy they’d seen in previous movies, not this suddenly trim, sporty actor. It cost him a number of jobs.

In his previous post, I explained that Jon got his first taste of fame and recognition for the short role he played on the hit sitcom, ‘Friends’. He played a millionaire boyfriend to Courteney Cox’s character for a number of episodes. Ironically, he had a chance to play another romantic interest to Courteney’s character and one of the six main friends—Chandler Bing. The part was originally offered to Jon, actually, but he turned it down which was probably for the best. After all, who can imagine anyone as Chandler beside Matthew Perry? 

With an impressive resume, it’s about to get even more impressive since Jon’s been hired as showrunner for a new, live-action Star Wars show coming out for Disney’s streaming service called ‘The Mandalorian’. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about this star director and his acting career that blossomed into so much more. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Gardeners!

This age-old skill of bringing order to Nature is one which has been passed down from generation to generation as an essential means of domestic living! Understanding how to work alongside Nature to reap the nourishment of the Earth is an incredibly rewarding experience that teaches us patience, diligence, and responsibility!

With the centralization of food from industrial farming and mass transportation, gardening is no longer considered such an essential part of living but more of a hobby. But with the bombardment of genetically modified food, the interest in personal produce farming is increasing in the modern day.

One name you can attach to this rise in gardening is Michael Pollan, a food-focused journalist who’s published a series of books about where our food comes from such as ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’, ‘In Defense of Food’, and a number of others. He also wrote a letter to the previous president Barack Obama which was titled ‘Farmer-in-Chief’, pushing heavily for the decentralization of food, advocating more support in local farming and backyard gardening.

Through his journalistic approach toward the food we eat, Michael Pollan has been able to educate his readers in his fight for common sense that Nature’s provisions are what’s healthiest and that we ought to resist the corporate takeover of farming with genetically modified seeds.

A lot of work goes into a garden. You have to turn the soil, plant your seeds, consistently water the plants and pull out the weeds, harvest what you grow, and maybe more if you had to create your garden plot or other variables. But the satisfaction of enjoying the fruits of your own labor is insurmountable by any gourmet meal served to you at a fancy restaurant.

Check out some of Michael Pollan’s work if you’re passionate about food and you’re up to the reading challenge! Enjoy working in the peacefulness of your garden and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

Here on the Everything Summer Camp Blog, I like to give the awesome summer camps that we work with a little time for each one to shine in the summer camp spotlight that we’re shining! Today, get a glimpse of a great Massachusetts camp featured right here, right now! Today, we’re shining our summer camp spotlight over to the east coast where we find Camp Half Moon.

Since 1922, Camp Half Moon has come to be known as ‘The Best Little Camp in the Berkshires’. Located in a beautiful wooded area on the shores of Lake Buel in Monterey, Massachusetts, Half Moon campers find themselves among the tall pines in the mountainous western region of the state.

While at Camp Half Moon, kids have fun in the water with activities like Recreational Swim, Sailing, Kayak and  Canoeing, Water Trampoline, Snorkeling, Waterskiing, and more! And on land, they’re busy building their skills in Archery, Batting Cages, Badminton, Basketball, Biking, Camping & Survival, Golf, Horseback Riding, LaCrosse, Nature Education, Ropes Course, Soccer, Skateboarding, Street Hockey, Tennis, Volleyball, and more.

And, offering a plethora of indoor activities too, campers have the opportunity to spend some time doing Arts & Crafts, Baking/Cooking,  Cake Decorating, Digital Photography,  Drawing/Painting, Drum Lessons, Electric Keyboard, Fashion, Guitar Lessons, Improv, Jewelry, Martial Arts, Newspaper, Pottery, Singing/Songwriting, Theater, Videography, and Yoga.

The camp’s small size and five-to-one camper-to-counselor ratio, helps to achieve this status. More individual attention geared toward each camper gets everyone feeling more comfortable and part of a tight-knit community in a very short span of time.

Camp Half Moon may very well be a great summer camp experience for you. Look into it for your next summer camp stay by checking out their website and, as always, thanks for reading, Summer Campers!

Greetings, Greeting Card Lovers!

Who doesn’t love receiving a Greeting Card in the mail—especially one with an enclosed, heartwarming note written on a spectacularly printed piece of stationery?! And the special effort for correspondence of this caliber makes folks feel special themselves when it reaches them. It’s a treasured Christmastime tradition that people look forward to in that season, but it’s nice to surprise people with a nice note any time of the year when you have something special to say.

But how long have people been sending greeting cards and decorative paper to one another? It can’t be that old of a tradition, right?

Well…it’s only ancient. Despite being about 2000 years prior to the any kind of post office, exchanging greeting cards goes all the way back to a New Year custom in ancient China in which they sent messages of good will to one another. Around the same time, we see the early Egyptians creating elaborate designs on papyrus scrolls—producing the first stationery. Only the pharaohs and royal families were able to afford this decorated paper.

Through the Dark Ages, things remained essentially the same when it came to stationery. Greeting pretty much disappeared until the early 1400s. By that time, the Greeting Card custom had revived in Europe where they started making handmade greeting cards from paper to send Valentine’s messages.

But even then, Greeting Cards as we know them didn’t pick up beyond local exchanges for another 300 to 400 years when the U.S. Post Office became an official agency of the federal government.

Christmas cards became a big-time tradition markedly in 1843 as it was not only the same year that Charles Dickens published his timeless work ‘A Christmas Carol’ which solidified many Christmastime traditions, but it was also the year that one Sir Henry Cole from London hired John Horsley, a visual artist, to design holiday cards intended to send out to friends. And the tradition of the Christmas Card was birthed!

At Everything Summer Camp, we know what a big deal correspondence is to people especially when they’re away for their summer camp stay. That’s why we’re sure to have a great selection of Greeting Cards and Stationery as well as Postcards and even postage stamps for all your mailing fun! As always, thanks for reading, folks!

- John

Bzzzzz Bzz—zzzz—Bzz!

That’s Honeybee for “Happy Honeybee Awareness Day!” Today we celebrate honeybees for all they do and the delicious honey they provide! started by beekeepers, Honeybee Awareness Day was started to develop awareness of the community about the facts and the benefits of honey. I covered it all pretty well last year. You can check out more details about the day itself by clicking here.

For this year, I thought we could discover some interesting facts about honeybees themselves. Let’s learn about these lovely insects!

Most creatures on the Earth have symmetrical faces with two ears, two nostrils, and two eyes. But bugs are very different creatures. Bees in particular don’t just have two eyes—not just three eyes and not just four eyes—but they have FIVE eyes!!! Interestingly, they’re able to see many shades of colors beyond our perception further down the spectrum than blue and indigo. They’re ability to pick up on shades of red, however, fails them.

Not quite the fastest flighted insect out there—that title belongs to dragonflies who can go zooming by at a whopping 35 miles per hour—bees can do a stunning 20 miles per hour! That’s nothing to sneeze at when considering that your body can’t transport itself much faster than five miles per hour without tuckering out before long.

If you think the city is overcrowded, then it’s a good thing you don’t live in a beehive! These structured nests made of secreted and chewed up beeswax house around 50,000 bees, on average. That’s a lot of bees. And the inside is filled with honeycomb cells which are used to store honey, pollen, and...BEE EGGS to hatch MORE BEES! When a hive is growing too big to support the colony’s numbers, a sizable chunk of the bees will literally break away in a swarm and travel elsewhere to start a new colony.

Bees are absolutely fascinating creatures. Their means of defense is a death sentence as they don’t live long after losing their stingers. And their pollinating routine is responsible for an entire third of the produce we enjoy in our grocery stores. To bees everywhere, we salute you. And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans! Buzz on!

- John