Hey, Camp Fans!

Learning to be True to Your Heart is a great lesson that kids pick up at The Gift of summer camp. Is it any surprise that kids love going to camp ever since the mid-1800s—and Still?! Many adults nowadays are former summer campers themselves and a bunch of them have gone on to become famous icons. It’s my pleasure today to tell you about Mr. Drew Lachey of the hit group 98 Degrees.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Drew attended the Clovernook Elementary School in North College Hill—a suburb of Cincinnati. He moved on to the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) in the Cincinnati, Ohio Public School District.

While he didn’t attend summer camp in his childhood, he worked at one as a cabin leader at the age of 16. He spent two fun-filled weeks on the shore of Lake Fairlee, looking after the summer campers of Camp Billings and building an appreciation for the beauty surrounding him in the green hills of Vermont.

After his time working as a cabin leader at Camp Billings, Drew got involved in several interesting career paths before finding himself in a musical group. He found work behind the counter of a delicatessen. He trained to be an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and served as one in New York City. And he went on after that to be a combat medic in the U.S. Army.

Along with his older brother, Nick, and their friends Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons, the four of them formed the pop group 98 Degrees and achieved nationwide success.

No stranger to television appearances, Drew showed up on one of the ‘Hollywood Squares’ in 2001 and has had a handful of guest appearances on Nick’s MTV show ‘Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica’. He was also the winner of the second season of ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

If you’re interested in Camp Billings for yourself, you can check out their website right here. Even working at summer camp is a positive experience! Maybe you’d make a great cabin leader for some local camp. As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

You know what’s always a treat for us is when we get to talk up the excellent summer camps with whom we’ve developed solid relationships. We work with more than 250, so we post about them fairly frequently. We call them our Summer Camp Spotlight Blog posts and today, we’re fixing our spotlight on Camp Lake Hubert for girls—sister camp to Camp Lincoln in the Lake Edward Township of Minnesota.Located on beautiful land occupying the south side of Lake Hubert, these campgrounds boast a clear, spring-fed lake with a soft, sandy bottom and gradual slope. Providing more than 120 acres and a second small lake on its south border (Bass Lake), the setting at Lake Hubert for girls sets the perfect tone for a wonderful summer camp experience.

Your camper is sure to be engrossed in a number of all the available activities from options like Archery, Baseball/Softball, Crafts, Dance, Drama, Golf, Guitar, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, Martial Arts, Biking, Horse Riding, Radio, Riflery, Soccer, Tennis, Rock Climbing, High and Low Ropes Course, Day and Overnight Trips, Fishing, Kayaking, Sailing, along with a whole lot more!

Give your daughter the gift of summer camp—the gift that keeps in giving as it instills confidence in its campers and teaches them how they fit as an individual into a healthy community of camp-minded folks as well as how they fit into the natural world.

You and your daughter can choose from a two, three, four, or eight-week camp stay. All summer sessions at Camp Lake Hubert are designed to introduce your daughter to a subtle maturation, but they encourage kids to opt for the longest session-length they feel they can handle as the benefits and overall impact multiply exponentially the longer you stay.

If Lake Hubert seems like a good place for your daughter, be sure to check out their website for yourself and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Merry Christmas to One and All!

The Christmas holiday has been celebrated for a long time and it’s come to mean a lot of things to the people who love this day of the year. Nobody’s working today at Everything Summer Camp! We’re all spending the holiday with our families, enjoying all the traditional gift-exchanging, feasting, and all-around merrymaking. I know that’s what I do every year!

Each season provides us with its own specific atmosphere and this particular season was made to be spent in the warm company of those who are dear to us. Despite the fact that it contains the coldest, darkest day of the year, we brighten the season up with our cheerfulness, our good will, and the company of our loved ones.

As did many of you, I’m sure, I traveled this year to be with my family. We always tend to really immerse ourselves in the holiday spirit, so there’s lots of smiles, laughs, and merriment here in my mom’s house. This will be the last Christmas for my mother and my siblings to gather in the home where we all grew up to celebrate our family Christmas so it means a lot to us all.

Many of our Christmas traditions like gift-giving, feasting, and bringing trees into our homes have been adopted from a varied past, originating from Pagan celebrations and re-popularized by none other than Charles Dickens with his still-famous Christmastime masterpiece, ‘A Christmas Carol’.

These traditions have been carried out for many, many a year and, as for me and my family, we’re all more-than-happy to carry on the age-old traditions and keep Christmas a warm day that unites us and brings us all joy. I wish togetherness, joy, and merriment to all of our summer camp families out there and, as always, Merry Christmas!

- John

Hey, Holidayers!

Sunset tonight begins the long-celebrated Jewish tradition of Hanukkah! Eight days and nights will follow in observance of this traditional Hebrew holiday which will take us right up to nightfall on New Year’s Day. Like any other holiday, Hanukkah is typically celebrated with a great assortment of festive foods, singing, playing games, and ritualistic traditions—like the lighting of the Hanukkiah (the traditional candleholder that is often confused for a menorah).

The eight days of Hanukkah don’t land consistently on the calendar the way Christmas does so steadily on December 25 every year. Instead, it jumps around seemingly with no rhyme or reason. But there is actually a method to the apparent madness. See, Hanukkah does abide by a consistent date on the calendar year after year—it’s just not the same calendar that we commonly use.

The Hebrews used a lunisolar calendar which is based on the sun and the moon whereas the traditional Gregorian calendar that we all know so well today only considers the sun and the time it takes the earth to move around it. While the date may jump around from year to year on the Gregorian calendar, Hanukkah consistently begins on the 25 of Kislev, a month of the Hebrew calendar.

When you and your family gather for your festivities this year and you enjoy your time together with song, games, and delicious Mandelbrot, we here at Everything Summer Camp wish you peace and warmth as you light your Hanukkiah in remembrance of the seven-day miracle that kept the Maccabees menorah burning for eight days, though they only had a day’s worth of oil.

Happy Hanukkah to all of our Jewish summer camp families. Keep warm in this wintry season with the love of your family and your faith and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Everything Summer Camp Fans!

We’ve got big things happening over here in Boyd, Wisconsin—the small town where Everything Summer Camp is based. When we first got our start nearly 30 years ago, things were pretty different. We didn’t even go by Everything Summer Camp. We were C&N Footlockers, named after the owners, Craig and Nancy who started this company right out of their home-garage.

With unmatched construction and excellent customer service, C&N built itself for certain success from the start. Naturally, when business increased, we also increased the colors and sizes of our camp trunks. We also ended up relocating for an increase in manufacturing and storage space.

It was around this time that we changed our name. And when business kept increasing, we relocated yet again to an even bigger building—the same building that we’re still in today! The initial 12,000 square feet building is now undergoing its second expansion to bring it to 31,000     square feet.

The biggest change that our expansion has made possible is bringing our whole team together under one roof. Our printshop is the home of our Graphics Department where we make all of our personalized products like Nameplates, Name Labels, Lid Skinz, Pillowcases, along with all of our camp clothing.

With our Graphics Department moving to our main building as well as doubling in size, packaging orders and getting them out the door will be able to happen even faster. You can expect this change to bring about more fun, new, and personalized products in 2017!

While this expansion will make so much possible, the expansion itself would not have been possible without all of you. You have truly fueled this awesome change for us! Thank you to all our summer camp families for helping us to grow! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John