Hey, Readers!

Today, we observe Veterans Day—a day to show our appreciation of those who served their country in the armed services. We call those people veterans and we, here at Everything Summer Camp, extend our immense gratitude to those who have fought fearlessly for our freedom. Thank you.

In a show of our appreciation—and to help you show YOUR appreciation—I’m continuing a list of great ways you can observe Veterans Day that I posted last year. You can check out the suggestions I gave last year right here, but today’s post is chock full of more ideas on how you can show your veteran appreciation!

Simply Show Up
It’s easy to find a Veterans Day event in your area that you can attend. Parades and services for veterans are being held all over the place today. Cowboy actor Roy Rogers once said, “We can’t all be heroes; someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” Veterans Day gives you the opportunity to wave to and cheer on the heroes in our world. All you have to do is show up!

Fly the Flag
A grand showing of respect, fly your American flag today if you have one. It’s a great way to honor Veterans in your neighborhood and (given the proper equipment), it’s a pretty easy thing to do. Be sure that you’re following the proper rules for display—you can look into proper flag-flying rules right here (https://www.military.com/flag-day/us-flag-code.html).

Spend Quality Time with a Vet
Simply showing an interest in spending some time with a Veteran will certainly mean a lot to any Veteran. Ask them about their service. Volunteer at a local VA Hospital. Or you can just spend some good outdoor time together fishing or doing something they enjoy.

You can do any of these things, the previously mentioned ideas from our post last year, or come up with your own way of honoring our veterans. Happy Veterans Day to everyone whether you’re a hero or an onlooker and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Elated to have received such a great response of about 30 entries for our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest that we held here at Everything Summer Camp, we’re eager to share each entry right here on the Blog now! After seven lucky winners of bigger prizes, all other submissions got a $15 gift certificate to our online store! And today’s post is from Lisa K., who wrote in to tell us about her return to Camp Nokomis—30-some years in the making! Check it out:

“I was a camper and staff at Camp Nokomis on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for 12 years. I left camp after my Freshman year in College to pursue other things. Not a summer went by when I did not think about Camp and how much I wanted to go back. Fast forward almost 30 years and I have a daughter who is in her 6th summer at Nokomis and I was lucky enough to get to go back! I was able to fulfill a life-long dream on being the camp nurse for a session of camp. It was amazing—everything I had hoped it would be. Camp Nokomis is on beautiful Bear Island on Lake Winnipesaukee. It is incredibly beautiful with million dollar views and clear water. I knew how lucky I was to go to bed listening to waves on the shore and to wake up to the bugle blowing reveille. Most importantly the values that Camp Nokomis has always stood for remain in place. It is a place that has taught generations of young women to be kind and strong and have confidence to try new things in a supportive atmosphere. It was such a joy to see these campers having fun and developing skills that they will be able to take with them throughout their lives. I know that I am the person I am today because of camp.”

This is such a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing it with us, Lisa. Camp Nokomis sounds beautiful. I’m so glad that your daughter is getting to experience for the first time what you got to relive this summer! How cool for you! Check out Camp Nokomis to see what Lisa’s talking about and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Packers!

I’m here to break exciting news over the Blog today! It’s our Pinterest Packing List Sweepstakes! Get on board with this fun way to share all the cool stuff you’re going to be taking as well as a chance at winning an awesome gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp!

We’ll be selecting our three, lucky winners by random. The three prizes for this drawing are as follows: a $100 in-store gift card, a $200 in-store gift card, and a $300 in-store gift card. Participate in our Pinterest Packing List Sweepstakes by following the three simple steps below (the fourth one isn’t a real step).

Step 1
Log into your Pinterest account and find Everything Summer Camp to ensure you’re following us. If not, click the ‘follow’ button.

Step 2
Create a board of an ideal summer camp packing list with a minimum of 12 pins, four of which MUST be from the Everything Summer Camp website in order to be eligible for the contest. Then, name the board using your child’s first name only (Please DO NOT use last names) and add ‘Packing List’ to the end (i.e. – Jane’s Packing List).

Step 3
Once completed, click on your board, click on the plus sign, and select Everything Summer Camp to invite us to your board!

Step 4
That’s it, folks. Submit at any time—Everything Summer Camp will accept the boards by the end of the next business day. At that time, you will be automatically entered into our drawing.

We’ll be messaging the three winners through Pinterest on November 10, so be sure to stay tuned! Enjoy sharing your summer camp packing list and fingers crossed for you to win one of the juicy sweepstake prizes! As always, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Camp Kids!

At Everything Summer Camp, we look far and wide to see what famous folks also turn out to be former summer campers and, so far, we’ve posted about more than 80 people! Shari Lewis was a definite must when we saw she a former camper! Her name may not be immediately recognizable to everyone, but we all know her for her adorable sock puppet character, Lamb Chop!

A professional children’s entertainer all her life—before embarking on her road to fame and fortune, she spent her summer days at Camp Louise of Airy & Louise. Located just a few miles away from each other in the Catoctin Mountains of western Maryland, Airy and Louise, each camp stretches out about 400 acres that display natural beauty along with the camps’ prided rustic facilities.

Shari was encouraged from a very young age to practice in the performing trade. Her father, who practiced as an incredibly successful magician, taught her magic tricks when she was 13. But she didn’t stop there. She also learned a bit in acrobatics, juggling, ice-skating, baton-twirling, and she learned to play piano as well as violin. It was an instructor name John W. Cooper who taught her the art of ventriloquism.

She went on to study piano and violin at New York’s High School of Music and Art and she took dance classes at the American School of Ballet. She also took acting classes with a group called Sanford Meisner in the ‘Neighborhood Playhouse’ association. After she finished high school, she registered for a classes at Barnard College, but she only stayed a year.

Instead of continuing school, she took her chance then and there to pursue a career in show business. When she was 19, she won first prize for a talent show on CBS’ ‘Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts’. This launched her into gigs hosting a handful of children’s television series in New York.

It didn’t take long before Lamb Chop was introduced to the world on an episode of ‘Captain Kangaroo’. With a number of other characters in her stockpile, Shari was ready to debut her very own kids show—‘The Shari Lewis Show’ in 1960. It replaced ‘The Howdy Doody Show’.

She appeared in lots of other shows among the years, but she finally hit it big in the early 90’s with her Emmy-winning show ‘Lamb Chop’s Play Along’ on PBS. She passed away in the summer of 1998. The world misses Shari Lewis and the wonderful talent and hysterical antics she brought to the world of children’s entertainment. You can check out Camp Louise right here. Check out a clip of ‘The Shari Lewis Show’ below and, as always, thanks for reading!

-    John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We were glad to receive such a great response to our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest we put on here at Everything Summer Camp—roughly 30 entries! Of course, we’re eager, now, to share each entry right here on the Blog! After seven lucky winners of the bigger prizes, all other submissions got a $15 gift certificate to our online store! Today’s post is from Jennifer M., who wrote in to tell us about her daughter’s summer stay at Camp Wise. “Overnight camp had been a discussion in our house for years. There was only one camp we were considering and knew that it would be a great choice for our daughter if she went to overnight camp. We are a very close family and wanted to make sure she was ready to be away from home. Then she felt 100% sure she wanted to try it, and the decision was made!
             lEvery day, Camp posted over 100 photos of kids. That was certainly not something my parents got when I went to overnight camp! We knew we were lucky as we saw photos of her every day. Every night after dinner, it was an eagerly anticipated event to check the photos. When we picked her up, we learned the camp photographer lived in her cabin, so the photographer’s familiarity of our daughter must have helped! It was a little odd to see her wearing a pajama top as a shirt in the photos more than once, but hey, as long as she was safe and happy, who cared, and it was a funny story and we teased her about it when she got home.
             lThe second summer our daughter went was much easier on all of us – we all knew what to expect. She knew she was going to return to all the great activities, great friends, great counselors, and a very special time away from home. We saw a lot fewer pictures of her, but we knew she was having a blast. In one photo, when I saw her shirt didn’t quite match her shorts, again, I reasoned, she’s safe and happy, it’s okay. It would have been nice if her letter telling us who was in her cabin and what her activities were arrived more than 15 hours before she got home, when the activities were of course all over, but, she was apparently having too much fun to write it any sooner!”

Camp is fun, but it’s chaos, for sure! Mismatching outfits and pajama tops in the daytime are more or less normal in a place like summer camp—just go with it! Glad she loves her time at camp so much! Be sure that you check out Camp Wise for yourself sometime and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John