Hey, Camp Fans!

By now, I hope you’ve heard about our third annual ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest from Everything Summer Camp. That’s right! For a third year now, we’re offering $15 gift certificates for our website—or maybe more—in exchange for your camp stories! We want you talking about all those accomplishments, friends, fears that were overcome, favorite parts at camp.

August is coming to a close, which means your time is up! Get your submissions into us now—there’s only one week left until our cutoff date on August 31!

We’ll be selecting seven randomized winners with our first-place winner receiving a $100 gift card for our website, two winners who will get $50 gift cards, and four winners who receive a $25 gift cards. Everyone else who submits will be getting a $15 gift card just for your participation!

To help you along, I offered some suggestions last month when I first announced this year’s Contest, in case some campers aren’t sure what to write about. I go into more detail in the previous post which you can read by clicking here, but here’s a short list of ideas:

l    •    Tell us about what was the most fun at camp.
l    •    Tell us some things you learned, like athletic, artistic, and thinking skills.
l    •    Tell us about all the great friends you made.
l    •    Tell us how it felt to be away from home and away from your parents.
l    •    Tell us about the inspiring beauty of the nature that surrounded you at camp.

In your submissions, be sure to mention the summer camp you attended and what you loved the most about it. Make sure you include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp. We loved hearing about your summer for the last two years. We can’t wait to receive a fresh new collection of your summer stories from this year! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Summer Campers!

Everything Summer Camp loves everything about summer camp! That’s why we’re good friends with about 270 camps from all across the country! And I’m happy to tell you all about what excellent camps they are. We’re sliding our swinging our spotlight over to New Hampshire for a good look at this great girls camp who’s worked with us for a quite a while now.

YMCA Camp Nellie Huckins Girls Camp has shown girls the time of their lives with enriching and fulfilling activities that guide them onto a path of subtle but effective maturation. Located on the shores of the lovely Lake Ossipee in the town of Freedom, New Hampshire, these beautiful, remote campgrounds has been the home away from home for girls since 1928!

From third grade to first-year high schoolers, Nellie Huckins campers experience either two or four weeks of absolute fun and serious personal growth simply by being away from parents as well as the reputation that we all carry at home.
Huckins currently welcomes 1300 campers each year for awesome opportunities involving sports like Soccer, Volleyball, Tennis, Softball, Archery, Mountain Biking, Dance and Drama, Environmental Education, Hiking, Horseback Riding, Ropes Course, Swimming, Tennis, Waterskiing, Boating, as well as indoor fun like arts and crafts time, but indoor sports too, like basketball and street hockey or even air hockey, foosball, and ping-pong!

Ten campers are accompanied by two counselors in each of over 20 accommodating and comfortable cabins. With an excellent Dining Hall, Craftshop, Health Center, Program Office, Chapel, and more, Huckins is an attractive space to spend a portion of your summer, but even more than that—it’s a place to find yourself as well as some lifelong friends.

Enjoy checking out everything that’s so amazing about Camp Huckins for yourself. You can visit their website right here and get a good look at their map below. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, all you procrastinating Back-to-School Shoppers!

If you’re looking for all the best deals on school supplies and other related accessories that you can send your scholar off into the coming school year, don’t put it off another minute! You’d better act fast to take advantage of all the great Back to School bargains you find right here at Everything Summer Camp—these discounts won’t last very much longer.

Last call to find these deals on pieces your son or daughter might need or desperately desire for the classroom. Check out our awesome selection of school backpacks and daypacks from trusted brand names like JanSport, Columbia, and Under Armour. Eye up our items from Lockers 101: the school locker accessory selection to make your locker look like a million bucks instead of some drab, metal box. Take a look at the Wall Paper Set and the Bling it Up Decorating Set. And don’t forget the Magnetic Three-Pocket Locker Organizer for convenience on your way to class. Get a closer look at these products and click here.

Since it’s so smart to label your school clothes so your child can avoid any confusion in the locker room after gym class as well as coats, boots, and snow pants as well as other warm winter gear. Make sure your child’s school clothes come back home when the school bell rings! Personalize Clothing Name Labels for your school-bound son or daughter by clicking here.

Learn to love those rainy school days too with our eclectic selection of Rain Gear whether you need to stay dry during wet, rainy waits at the bus stop or outdoor for recess. High-quality rain gear from Columbia and other leading manufacturers such as Frogg Toggs and Red Ledge are sure to keep your kid prepared against precipitation! Our excellent Rain Gear Department is sure to keep you dry at school.

The new school year is almost upon us! Don’t dally a moment longer and get to shopping our site for all the fun and functional gear, supplies, and other accessories you can find here at Everything Summer Camp. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey there, Summer Campers!

We often talk about celebrities who were once summer campers like yourselves here on the Everything Summer Camp Blog. Here's our celebrity for today—I’m talking about Mei Mei herself—Kate Hudson—who attended Four Winds  Westward Ho Boys and Girls Summer Camp when she was younger.

Kate spent her summer days soaking in the sunny fun on Orcas Island in Washington State’s San Juan Islands. The island provides a hundred acres of shady woods, open fields, and gorgeous waterfront—lending the perfect environment for an awesome variety of activities and programs to develop skills and confidence in their campers.

Born to the Academy Award-winning actress Goldie Hawn and comedian/actor/musician Bill Hudson, Kate didn’t grow up with the easiest family life—her parents divorced when she was just one year old. She was raised chiefly by her mother in Los Angeles. In fact, her mother once made a brief appearance while Kate and her brother were attending summer camp. The campers were gathered by the lake for an assembly when a sea plane flew overhead with Goldie leaning out and waving at them!

After completing her elementary and high school education, Kate started at Crossroads, a college preparatory school in Santa Monica. She graduated in 1997 and, though she was accepted into New York University, she opted to follow in her mother’s footsteps and pursue a career in acting instead of trying for her undergraduate degree.

She had already made a television appearance on the show ‘Party of Five’ and thought she had a chance to make it big. By the very next year she appeared in two films and by 2000, she starred as Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s coming-of-age motion picture ‘Almost Famous’.

Much more recently, Kate voiced the character Mei Mei in the 2016 Dreamworks feature Kung Fu Panda 3 as well as television appearances such as ‘Glee’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Despite hardships she faced in her youth, Kate enjoyed her time at summer camp and talks about what a beautiful setting it was. She rose to the heights of success with a great acting career. No matter what hardships you face in your life, you’re sure to have successes as well and some of them could be at summer camp. Be sure to check out Four Winds in Washington if it sounds like the right camp for you and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We’ve got the itch, here at Everything Summer Camp, to spread the word about the awesome camps with whom we’ve formed tight bonds and relationships. It should come as no surprise to our readers of the camp community that we love these camps so much—we work with over 270 of them! And today we’re spotlighting a beautiful Texas camp—Heart O’ the Hills All Girls Camp!Founded in 1953, Heart O’ the Hills sits on the Guadalupe River’s South Fork in Hunt, Texas, at the heart the beautiful Texan Hill Country. Each summer, for well over 50 years, Heart O’ the Hills has shown more than 150 young women the time of their lives.

Girls who find themselves at Heart O’ the Hills are treated to two to four weeks of engaging and exciting activities such as Western Horseback Riding, Red Cross Swimming Instruction, Archery, Riflery, Tennis, Cooking, Fencing, Climbing, Video, Wilderness Survival, as well as a great range of individual and team sports.

Through the power of friendship and teamwork, Kitty Magee—the previous director of the neighboring Camp Mystic—reluctantly took the job as Heart O’ the Hills Camp Director. Despite her experience, Kitty was reluctant because now she had a five-year-old daughter and a family life to maintain. But she couldn’t let her community down and rose to the challenge anyway.

Heart O’ the Hills campers are assigned to cabins or ‘tepees’—as they’re called at the camp. The youngest campers stay in smaller tepees that typically house five campers and a cabin leader while the older campers live in groups of 12 with four cabin leaders as well. Heart O’ the Hills tepees all have a bathroom and a sizable closet. Each tepee is named after a flower or tree that’s a Texas native.

If Heart O’ the Hills sounds like a great camp choice for you, give it a closer look and visit their website sometime. And, as always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John