Happy Fourth of July, Compatriots!

For 240 years, we have been celebrating our freedom from the rule of any other country but ourselves. That’s why we make it a pretty big deal once a year to enjoy our freedom on the Fourth of July. Back in the colonial days, around the 1750’s, our ancestors made settlements in ‘The New World’ in an attempt to flee the unjust government of Great Britain under the rule of King George III.

But still pulling the colonial strings from across the Atlantic Ocean, King George implemented unfair taxes and unfair laws over the colonies. To much dismay of George, the settlers increasingly felt that they were able to be its own government—independent of British rule. They fought back.

Couldn’t we all just get along? Well, ol’ George was turning into quite a villain as he continued to make life pretty unfair for everyone in The New World with his unrelenting taxes and unjust laws. He acted so brashly that modern historians have started posing the question, ‘What was up with King George anyway?’

Known as ‘the mad king’, many agree that George must have been crazy to have driven 13 colonies out of the British Empire. Was he literally crazy? Yes, he was. It turns out that George battled with insanity throughout his life. In fact, his condition reached levels of such severity at one point that he was restrained in a straitjacket. He’s recorded to have had fits of rage, shouting, hallucinations, confusion, and extreme pain.

The cause of his mental state is thought to be connected to a metabolic disorder called porphyria. Porphyria attacks are known to create extreme agitation and confusion. They can cause nausea as well acute pain in the abdomen and make speech difficult for the victim. By the end of his life, the mad king had gone blind, deaf, and absolutely mad.

So, poor George may not have been such a bad guy after all—just absolutely nuts. In any case, he certainly was not fit for kingly duties and we owe our independence to the colonists who recognized the injustice of their situation and aimed to correct it. Happy Independence Day to our fellow Americans and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Sun Soakers!

This Sunday celebrates National Stay Out of the Sun Day—a recognized holiday that reminds us to stay safe when the sun beats down a little too hard. Intended for those torpid summer days that bring about a lethargy that knows no equal, take heed of this day’s advice and keep cool indoors when the high sun becomes a little much to enjoy.

Of course, we offer a giant selection of products like sunscreen, water bottles, and fans to help battle sluggishness and restore some of your energy when the sun tries to zap it all from you! Check out these great recuperative camping gear products that you can use to resist the effects of a summer scorcher!

Sunscreen
If sun exposure is unavoidable for you, be sure to protect yourself against harmful UV sun rays pelting down on your skin in brilliant sun showers! Our Sunscreen selection is full of fun misting sprays, gels, and wipes to encourage young ones to apply and reapply as needed. These are kid-safe and natural formulas from trusted brand names like Aloe Gator, Supergoop!, and Burt’s Bees.

Water Bottles
Be sure to quench your thirst today! Your body NEEDS water in order to maintain good health and it goes through its supply even quicker when the weather is hot, hot, hot! Make sure you replace the water your body uses. We have bottles to keep cold drinks cold for hours and hours in order to make refreshing hydration almost effortless!

Fans
Cool off! Just as crucial to your health as hydrating and wearing sunscreen, staying cool in a refreshing breeze keeps you from overheating. Heat exhaustion can be a consequence of sweltering temperatures, physical activities, or both. Heat exhaustion typically gives you a headache and weak feeling. It tends to make people confused, dizzy, nauseous, and unquenchably thirsty. Keep some fans blowing on you when you’re feeling this way!

Heat exhaustion is no fun, but luckily the cure is pretty simple: relax indoors with fans on you along with lots and lots of water. Keep cool today and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Summertime Shoppers!

Epitomizing the summer season, the Fourth of July is a favorite for lots of folks. Smack dab in the heart of the camp season, this holiday is right around the corner. We can’t help but get excited about summer events here at Everything Summer Camp and we ended up going a little crazy with our discounts. Knockin’ prices down left and right, get a load of our marked down gear. If you’ve somehow been able to keep from purchasing your summer camp gear until now—or if your kid’s already off on their summer camp endeavor but you want to pick up gear for next year—you’re in luck! You can save on select camp gear with the Everything Summer Camp Fourth of July Sale. Check it out!

We’ll start with the big stuff! Our Traditional Steel Camp Trunks are all reduced—we’re taking 5% off of the regular price. No matter where you look you won’t find better trunks than these because when you shop C&N brand, you’re shopping the best trunks in existence.

Moving along, we’re taking 10% off of our Pop Up Soft Trunk—our non-rigid alternative to a steel camp trunk. It’s got a plethora of pockets and a collapsible wire frame so it’s nearly as practical as a hard trunk. Also found on our site for 10% off are mini Mongo Flashlights as well as all of our Toiletry Bags.

We keep taking more off, going to 15% off when we visited our footwear. All Smartwool Socks and all Chaco Footwear is discounted. And we also paid a visit to our Laundry Bags Department and hit everything with our 15% off wand there as well.

Once we picked up all that momentum, we thought—why stop there?! So we graduated to 20% off, hitting every single swim suit and all of our swimming trunks from Speedo with the discount. We then moved to the Name Labels Department and made everything there 20% off too!We want you to stay warm on chilly summer nights and we didn’t know how to stop ourselves anymore…SO, we took 25% off of the regular price on Wenzel’s Moose Sleeping Bag. Then we gave ourselves to the Dark Side and took 25% off our Star Wars Blanket which is softer than fresh fallen snow on Hoth and warmer than twin suns on Tatooine.

I didn’t get around to mentioning EVERYthing that’s on sale because just about everything on our site is discounted. This site-wide sale starts tomorrow and runs until Wed, July 6 at 11pm CST. Have fun browsing our marked down selection and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We absolutely love tooting our own horn here at Everything Summer Camp—and we have a lot to toot about—but there’s a lot to toot about when it comes to other organizations as well, be they brand names whose products we offer or fun-factory summer camps themselves. Today it’s a summer camp—Camp Marimeta to be specific—whose praises we are singing.

Settled comfortably in the beautiful Northwoods of Wisconsin alongside Lake Meta, Camp Marimeta invites girls from age eight to age 16 to discover the opportunity that gives them the experience of a lifetime! Founded in 1946, Marimeta has been presenting young girls with a kind of education that they can’t attain through school for 70 years—and far more valuable than school education as well.

This camp shows young girls the time of their lives with a plethora of awesome activities that may reveal some surprising insight into their character and personality. Swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, ropes course, archery, climbing wall, riding, drama, photography, dance, arts and crafts, cooking, volleyball, basketball, flag football, soccer, softball, tennis, golf, running, yoga, and so much more are all available at this impressive camp!Achieving more than just a good time, these activities along with the direction of camp staff and the support of all the other campers show young girls a better understanding and a clearer picture of who they are. It’s a transformative experience that takes a young child and sets them on a subtle road to maturity and self-actualization.

An excellent all girls summer camp for your daughter to attend, check out Camp Marimeta further and make your upcoming summer really count. As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Parents!

Last week I posted about sending emails to your camper—when it’s appropriate and how to write a good one to your camper. Today’s post, the final installment in our camp correspondence series, concentrates on the two least-used forms of communication during your kid’s summer camp stay: phone calls and care packages. Let’s talk about the telephone first.

Phone Calls
As discussed in last week’s post on email, the same is true for phone calls; all camps are different with differing views on allowing their campers to talk to their parents over the phone.

Some camps allow phone calls once a week, believing talks with parents to be helpful and supportive. But most camps discourage contact by phone and ask that calls are saved for rare emergencies. The popular philosophy is that the sound of a parents’ voice can stir a deep longing for home which is often detrimental to the chief goal of camp—independence!

Neither philosophy is wrong, but talking on the phone—an immediate means of communication—hinders independence while other means of communication (i.e. letter-writing) take whole days to be sent back and forth and, thus, foster independence—and support too! If your child’s camp does allow phone calls, try to keep it to a minimum so your camper gets the most out camp.

CampMinder.com or Bunk1.com are great online services that help parents schedule time to talk with their campers by way of phone. You can learn more about these services in our post from last week.

Care Packages
Campers have been known to get boxes of goodies like fun toys, cool clothes, favorite magazines, and other gifts from their parents. Care packages certainly make a kid feel great, but no parent should ever feel obligated to send one to their camper. As camp experts Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski say in ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’, “Camp is a huge gift in itself.”

Should you decide, however, to send a care package to your camper, it’s important to follow the camp’s policy on what items campers can have. Keep in mind that your camper is part of a group. Here are some things to think about when you send a care package.

SIZE
Don’t send anything too big. A ridiculously big care package may be funny to other campers and embarrassing to yours. Remember, the point is not to spoil your child, it’s simply to put a smile on their face and remind them that you’re thinking of them.

FOOD/PERISHABLES
Send only what the camp allows. Some camps allow campers to receive food, candy, and gum. Others do not. Food can be problematic as it attracts animals and bugs. Without proper storage, food rots and becomes a health hazard. Don’t put your kid in an awkward situation.

GAMES/TOYS/BOOKS
These are great care package items—especially things that your child can share with his fellow campers like board games, Frisbees, playing cards, and fun reading material like MadLibs, Choose Your Own Adventure books, and comics. Other good items that your camper won’t have to share are a shirt, family photo, a novel, or a small stuffed animal.

So that’s all for our June series on camp correspondence. I hope these posts have been helpful for your camper’s upcoming summer camp experience. As always, thanks for reading.

- John