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Go Fish!

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Hey, Fishy Folks!

If you love fishing then you’re sure to love today! It’s National Go Fishing Day! Meant to be spent fishing and nothing else, today encourages everybody to pack up your poles and tackle box and spend the day casting your line out into the water. Fishing may reap the reputation of a ‘boring sport’, but when you’re out there all day, some pretty wild things are liable to happen.

Read on to learn some pretty interesting stuff about the world of fishing. Whether you’ve never been fishing before or you’re a seasoned a-FISH-ionado, you’re sure to find these facts on fish rather fantastic.

Tastiest Fish
Our first fun fact comes from delicious fish—people find fish delectable the world over.  Somewhere in our 7000 taste buds, we’ve really developed a taste for fish. But did you know that most fish wear their taste buds all over their bodies? That meansHeeeerreeeee, fishy fishy fishy. they can taste things just by coming into contact with it. I’m pretty happy with the location of my 7000 taste buds being on my tongue, but catfish make me jealous, boasting 27,000 taste buds!

Fastest fish
It was never an easy thing to tell how fast certain fish can swim until some fishermen conjured up a simple method. Here’s how it works: when you get a bite on your line and the fish takes off, measure how much of your line comes off the spool in a certain amount of seconds. Some elementary matThis is one fast fishy!hematics will calculate the speed of the fish. The fastest fish ever in the world is the sailfish which took 300 feet of line within three seconds. It swims at 68 mph. That’s one fast fish!
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Largest Fish
The largest freshwater fish, the Mekong giant catfish, measured in at 646 lbs. and nine feet in length. That’s roughly the size of aThat's one GIGANTIC catfish! fully-grown grizzly bear! That’s a big fish. But that’s nothing when considering the biggest fish ever caught including saltwater—a 3,427 pounder! It was a Great White Shark. The inspiration for Captain Quint from ‘Jaws’, one Captain Frank Mundus is responsible for reeling in the shark—the largest fish to ever be caught by rod and reel!
The Great White Shark of over 3000 pounds, caught in the 80's.
So, you see, fishing may have plenty of downtime, but when the other shoe drops, it can make for a pretty wild time! Get out there and catch the biggest fish you’ve ever caught and, as always, thanks for reading.

 

- John


Rainy Day Lovers

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Hey, Rainy Day Fans!

Get yourself prepared for stormy weather with the help of Everything Summer Camp and our great selection of rain jackets, rain pants, rain suits, and rain boots! We’re always looking to pull the best products for our summer camp shoppers. That’s why we’re proud to announce our new raingear from the best of the best in outdoor performance wear—Columbia.

Girls Explore More Rain JacketGet into the spirit of discovery with the Girls Explore More Rain Jacket from Columbia!
Sealing out the wet world is important when your camper’s out on an explorative expedition. Get her the Girls Explore More Rain Jacket. As cute as it is practical, this breathable Rain Jacket features elastic cuffs and an elastic waist to provide a hugging, snug fit as well as a cozy feel in unfavorable weather. Columbia knows that girls explore more, so get this classic Rain Jacket from the Columbia brand and help your daughter stay dry on the rainy days at camp.

Boys Evapouration Rain Jacket
Stay dry in a downpour with the EvaPOURation Rain Jacket from Columbia!You’re sure to stay dry when it POURS when you’re prepared with this Columbia Rain Jacket. Determined to provide you with the protection you need against unfortunate precipitation, this Jacket is quite lightweight and breathable too. It boasts advanced evaporating and reflective detailing as well. This thing is so lightweight that it’s packable into its own hand pocket. Perfect at camp, check it out right here!

And while these jackets are perfect at camp, they also work great after camp. Keep dry when you need to make your way to school on a rainy morning and all throughout the wet spring season! These are high quality Columbia jackets, so you certainly want more use out of them than the summer camp stay!

These jackets don’t eat up much packing space, yet they provide you with a world of comfort when the weather isn’t so welcoming. When the world turns wet, simply don your raingear! Check it all out for yourself right here and, as always, thanks for reading.

 

- John


These camps are siblings!

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Hey, Camp Fans!

Where are you off to this fast-approaching summer camp season? Maybe you’re attending one of the many camps that has been featured on this Blog. Or maybe—it’d be a stretch, but—maybe you’re planning to attend one of the camps that Everything Summer Camp is spotlighting today: Camp Airy for boys and Camp Louise for girls.Loads of fun await you on the Airy and Louise campgrounds.

The only brother-sister Jewish overnight camps across the nation, Camps Airy and Louise have been giving kids the summers of their lives since it was first established in 1924. Located just a few miles away from each other in the Catoctin Mountains of western Maryland, Airy and Louise both offer a refreshing setting, each of them stretching out about 400 acres of natural beauty along with their prided rustic facilities.

With lots of fun activities and skillAlways wearing a smile at Camp Airy!-building experiences, both the boys camp and the girls camp offer great opportunities like archery, basketball, soccer, tennis, beach volleyball, zip-lining, kayaking, white water rafting, caving, climbing, ropes course, campfire building, overnight camping, as well as a plethora of other activities exclusive to each camp.
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Whether you’re looking for a single week stay or if you’re begging to bring on a seven-week adventure, Camp Airy and Louise offer the camp experience to a variety of ages and interests. But they’re so much more than just a fun time! ThFind out about yourself and your community at Camp Louise!ese brother-sister camps work summer magic to show your campers the full potential of who they are!

Airy as well as Louise are excellent camps where each and every camper is made to feel welcome as part of the camp community and is also given the opportunity to discover some things out about themselves that are only revealed throughout the summer camp experience.

For an excellent summer camp stay for your soon-to-be-camper, check out Camps Airy or Louise for your summer of fun! And, as always, thanks for reading.

 

- John


Write—Don’t Type!

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Hey, Camp Parents!

Last Monday began our four-part series to share tips and advice on correspondence with your camper during their camp stay. To review, I broke down the four different options of communication, the first—and best—of the options being a handwritten letter, followed by email, phone calls, and care packages.

Borrowing great tips from Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski’s ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’, today’s post focuses in on the first option: a handwritten letter.

Keep your letters newsy, upbeat, and encouraging. Try to save mildly bad news until you can talk to your child in person (we’ll cover how to break major bad news to your child in a couple weeks for our post on phone calls). Of course, you can tell your kid that you miss them, but don’t make it sound like life at home is so depressing without them around—that would be mildly bad news.

Bringing up mildly bad news is just introducing things that your kid can’t do anything about. No matter how big or how small, bad news makes campers feel helpless. And helplessness is a road that leads to darker places like homesickness, anxiety, and depression.

Write about positive news from home like the family dog having a fun trip to the dog park or how you’re catching up on your reading. Mention when you’ll write again and include lots of questions to invite a response—though you’re likely not to get one because too much fun is being had.

It’s always nice to include other bits of interest to your kid. I remember my parents sending me the comics page from the newspaper my first time at camp. You could also send photos, drawings, or anything else you can fit in an envelope that your camper will appreciate.

What if your kid DOES write you from camp and the letter is a concentrated mess of homesick words and pleas for you to go get them. Don’t overreact—things are most likely fine and the letter was simply written in a bad mindset. A lot is sure to happen at camp in between the letter being written and you reading it.

The right move is to call the camp and talk to a counselor who can update you on how your kid is doing. Chances are that the homesick feelings are gone.

In very extreme and rare cases, your camper might require more attention, one-on-one supervision, or potentially even an early pick-up. Keep in mind that it almost never gets to that point. Calling the camp is a good move, but you should certainly address your campers homesickness in another letter that you write back. Write back as soon as you can.

Make it from the heart, but, once again, be newsy, upbeat, and encouraging. Convey that you understand how they feel in your letter. Typically, the moment your child knows that you truly understand how upset they are is typically when they start to feel better. You can check out an old Blog post from Chris Thurber himself about writing to your kid during their summer camp stay!

Tune in next Monday to learn about communicating with your camper by email and, as always, thanks for reading.

 

- John


Former Camper; Former Mouse House CEO

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Hey, Summer Campers!

Just as you all will be some day, lots of famous celebrities are former summer campers themselves. From movie stars to pop musicians, athletes and a slew of other folks who achieved fame in a number of different ways, today I’m talking about someone remains behind the scenes, but we all know him for his success as a billionaire in the entertainment industry, Michael Eisner. 

Though he’s now retired from the Mouse House as Disney’s CEO, Michael expanded upon the company’s enormous success for 21 years. But before he ever graced the Disney castle, he went to summer camp! He didn’t just go once or twice either. He went off time and time again. And once he was too old to be a camper, he continued going as a counselor, he loved it so!

He attended Camp Keewaydin in Salisbury, Vermont—a dedicated camp, committed to helping the youth achieve personal growth and independence by placing them in a rustic, natural environment. Michael’s summers at Keewaydin had an obviously great affect on his character as well as success as he attributes his success to his camp days in his biographical novel, ‘camp’.

Concentrated around his own journey  of growing up, Michael shares his stories from Keewaydin as well as stories from his life that wonderfully connect the influence of summer camp and how it touches so much of his life. Learn about how camp helped shape his character and read his indubitable endorsement for the institution of summer camp.

Michael did well in school, attending the Allen-Stevenson grade school in his hometown of Manhattan and then The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He completed his education at Denison University with a Bachelors in English.

After school, Michael got his foot in the door as an assistant at the television network NBC thanks to his father’s close friendship with the network CEO. He worked his way up the ladder at NBC and eventually moved to CBS and after, he was recruited to work at ABC. There, he climbed the ladder fast, ending his time there as the senior Vice President.

The same guy, Barry Diller, who brought Michael to ABC ended up taking him away too as he had left to become the chairman of Paramount Pictures and wanted Michael as president and CEO. When Barry left Paramount, Michael had every right to expect to take over Barry’s position as studio chief. The company passed on him, however, and he went off to look for work somewhere else.

That’s when he started lobbying for the position of The Walt Disney Company’s CEO. With all the experience he had under his belt, Disney was thrilled to bring him onboard. Bringing what they hailed as ‘The Disney Decade’, Michael oversaw such classic films as ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’. Check out his book right here and, as always, thanks for reading!

 

- John