Hey there, Girl Scouts!

You know what makes Scouts so much fun? Your Girl Scout Leaders! Ever committed to leading by example, Girl Scout leaders work wonders in youth development by teaching young girls the qualities of honesty, fairness, courage, strength, resourcefulness, respecting each other, and making the world a better place. It only makes sense to have a day dedicated to our Girl Scout Leaders. Today is Girl Scout Leader Day.

This organization that started with just 18 Scouts and Juliette Gordon Low (or ‘Daisy’ as all the Scouts called her) took off just three years after the their original outing in 1912. Once an official organization, girls all over the nation started attending Scouts.

Nowadays, the Girl Scouts Organization spans 100 local councils across the country, headed by the Chief Executive Officer, the National Board of Directors, Headquarters Staff, Professional Staffers, and Volunteers. Thanks to these women involved in the world of Scouts, young girls get the chance to learn valuable lessons and healthy lifestyles.

Providing girls with an experience that gets them out of their routine, domestic lifestyle is what Girl Scouts are all about.  Knowing how restorative and refreshing the great outdoors are for the mind, body, and soul, Daisy had no idea that her intuitive desires would blossom into a nationwide movement. Her dream has stayed alive for all these years.

Daisy got these girls to embrace their community by giving back to it. They went hiking and camping. They played basketball, learned to tell time by looking at the sky, and studied first aid. Girl Scout Leaders are still showing young Scouts these useful skills.

Since today is Girl Scout Leader Day, celebrate by writing to your old leaders that made a difference in your life and let them know what a great job they did and where you are now! As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

At Everything Summer Camp, we don’t like to toot our own horn. Despite that, we do it all the time on this Blog. Before we get too big-headed, we figured we better talk up somebody else for a change—like summer camps, for example. Shining our spotlight all across the country, our Camp Spotlight posts praise specific summer camps that do excellent jobs at giving their campers a great summer experience.

Located in Lakewood, Pennsylvania, Camp Zeke provides a beautiful setting among 560 acres of woods and the foothills of the Pocono Mountains. Campers experience a fun-filled camp stay, celebrated with healthy eating, active days, all the traditional camp activities, and much more.

Ring in the new! 2015 marks Camp Zeke’s exciting, second summer session. Zeke may be new, but its staff certainly isn’t! They’ve been at the summer camp game for a very long time; in fact, Isaac Mamaysky, Camp Zeke’s Director, worked at one of the oldest Jewish camps in the country for years!

At Camp Zeke, you can enjoy walking the many, many miles of woodsy trail and the scenic grounds including their own, private, spring-fed lake, Lake Hickory. Camp Zeke is equipped with clean and comfortable facilities and fantastic features to offer loads of summer fun! There’s something for everybody at Camp Zeke.

They’ve got a heated, outdoor swimming pool, a dance and yoga studio, several art studios, a volleyball court, basketball court, tennis courts, jogging track, a brand new work-out gym, bunk lounge rooms, a full stage and theater, outdoor pavilion, as well as a professional kitchen utilized for teaching.

You’ll start and end your days in a beautiful, air-conditioned cabin with a lake-view lounge where you can socialize with friends, join in fun group activities, or wind down after a long, jam-packed day at camp.

There’s so much to Camp Zeke but it isn’t all encompassed in the fun features and cool facilities that they have there. No, it’s a Jewish community where kids can gather to make memories, form friendships, and take healthy risks that build their strength and confidence. Look into Camp Zeke for yourself!

- John 

Hello again, Camp Preppers!

Continuing our Tips and Advice posts on Mondays throughout April, today I’m offering more words concerning the involvement of your soon-to-be-camper in the planning stages of summer camp. A few weeks ago, I introduced the topic, explaining the importance in planning WITH your kid. Last week I discussed ways to solidify the length of a camp stay in your camper’s mind.

Instead of offering tips of what to do, today I’m going to give advice on a couple of things NOT to do.

As noted in their preparatory guidebook, ‘The Summer Camp Handbook,’ Doctors Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski acknowledge that life outside of summer camp carries on without skipping a beat. Sometimes horrible, traumatic things occur whether we want them to or not. Other things may occur that aren’t horrible or traumatic but result in giant changes nonetheless.

Often times, these sort of things don’t really happen within our control. But, if you CAN avoid moving in the weeks prior to camp—or especially DURING—this is definitely the better choice. Making new friends at camp and getting used to new surroundings can be stressful, but camp relieves these concerns as kids quickly see how easy it is to make friends and have fun there.

However, with the stress of having to make new friends and get used to new surroundings all over again, this compound stress is likely to cloud a child’s ability to relax and enjoy themselves at camp. If moving CANNOT be avoided, make sure to introduce your kid to as much of the new place as possible. Show pictures, take visits, talk, talk, talk!

It’s important to keep your child apprised of other traumatic things as well such as leaves for military service, marital separation, or a serious illness or even death of a close friend or family member. Homesickness is liable to result from such challenging disruptions, however, a straightforward and honest approach about such topics will help reduce their feelings of worry and uncertainty.

Keep in mind for these unavoidable situations, the fewer worries kids have to deal with at camp—the better time they’re going to have at camp. Tune in next week to learn about the proper attitude to have concerning summer camp. As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Campers!

Did you know that more than 11 million people go to summer camp every year? That’s A LOT of folks! And since everybody and their mothers went to summer camp at some point, it’s not surprising to discover the loads upon loads of famous folks who were once summer campers just like you.

It’s also not surprising to learn how many summer campers from back in the day have gone on to do fun, exciting work as successful, famous stars! There are some stars who achieve superstardom like Julia Roberts or Drew Brees and there are other famous people who are stars within their own field. Any sports fan, 25 or older, knows the name Peter Gammons.

Earning major awards in his field, Peter made a name for himself through his expert writing in baseball coverage. But before he became a big name sports writer, he attended summer camp at Camp Timanous in Maine.

An all-boys, overnight camp located 25 miles west of Portland on the shores of Panther Pond, Camp Timanous offers kids a fun summer stay at their magical New England setting where kids achieve a path toward self-confidence and self-reliance.

It certainly did Peter some good as he went on to attend an elite prep school and then to University of North Carolina. There he worked for the student newspaper as well as the student radio station. He began his career in journalism directly after his graduation in 1969 with The Boston Globe! And that was just the beginning!

As main journalist, covering the Boston Red Sox, Peter quickly took his claim to fame working alongside other legendary sports writers at The Boston Globe. He soon surpassed their fame, however, as he soon got work as a national baseball columnist as well. Stepping into the role of lead columnist for Sport Illustrated, he covered baseball, hockey, and college basketball.

By 1988, Peter joined the ranks of ESPN as a behind-the-scenes analyst, but come baseball season, he would appear on ‘Baseball Tonight’ and would frequently speak on ESPN radio. Voted the National Sportswriter of the Year in ’89, ’90, and ’93,

Get the most out of your summer camp stays and find out just how much good summer camp can do for you! As always, thanks for reading.

- John

A Difficult Reminder:

Unlike most of the special days and other material covered on this Blog, today’s post is of the utmost grave and solemn topics as today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Stretching from the evening of April 15 to the evening of April 16, the victims of the Holocaust as well as the brave acts of resistance and heroism that were made 80 years ago are commemorated.
Today, we remember the unimaginable number of lives that were taken in the name of prejudice and senseless hatred. For over a decade the mad, German tyrant, Adolf Hitler, led Nazi Germany to methodically persecute and murder a disturbing number of Jews (and others who were seen as inferior races and creeds).

Thought to be a superior race, Aryan people, with their blond hair and blue eyes were honored by Nazi Germany and considered to be the desirable genetic makeup to be spared from this mass extermination called The Holocaust which claimed the lives of an estimated six million Jews.

This number is so immense that its reality is, understandably, a bit lost on us. How big is six million? It’s unfathomable! But I’ll try to give you SOME idea just how big of a number six million is:

1.) Here’s a striking visual. This is a photograph snapped from NASA’s Juno Spacecraft. It shows what planet Earth and our accompanying moon look like from six million miles away.

2.) If every single person in Wisconsin (that’s nearly 2 percent of the U.S. population) were to suddenly vanish, it would still be about 350,000 short of the total Holocaust victims.

3.) If you took a minute to speak the name for each Holocaust victim, it would take you over 11 YEARS to finish the list.

Please, join the rest of the world and take today to remember the unfortunate souls who were killed in this horrible event from our history…