Happy Fathers’ Day!

Fathers across the world are honored on this day for their dedication, unconditional love, and undying support. We certainly love our fathers here at Everything Summer Camp and are eager for the plans we have prepared. Bound to be a good time, I surveyed the office asking about people’s fun Fathers’ Day plans to share on the Blog. Check out what Peggy, Anita, and Lydia are up to today.

Peggy—Call Center Representative
Peggy is hosting a get-together today, inviting fathers and family over for a backyard barbecue. Celebrating the day with a big family, Peggy’s three daughters will be in attendance to show their appreciation of their father and grandfather. With a dozen family members coming, get-togethers with Peggy’s family sound like a blast!

Anita—Call Center Supervisor
Anita is planning on grilling with her family as well, but it’ll be a little more intimate with a smaller family. Anita’s only brother will be there with his two sons and she was recently reunited with her daughter who’s been away with the Air Force Reserve until Friday night. Racheal wasn’t reunited with her father, John, until just last night when he got back home from a work trip in West Salem. Happy to rendezvous back home for Father’s Day weekend, Anita has been looking forward to this weekend for a while.

Lydia—Graphic Artist
I thought I’d introduce you all to our new Graphic Artist, Lydia. Leaving the homestead entirely, Lydia is spending her weekend with her family in Spooner, Wisconsin where they have been enjoying the laidback environment of their family cabin. The middle child between her older brother and younger sister, Lydia has a blast going kayaking and paddle boarding with her parents and siblings. Who could hope for more on Father’s Day than fun, quality time with your family?!

A Happy Father’s Day to the fathers in Peggy, Anita, and Lydia’s lives and fathers everywhere. Thank you for pouring your love and support into the people you’ve brought to the world! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

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 means 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 mathematics 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 a 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!

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

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 Jacket
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
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

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.

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 skill-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! These 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

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