Hey, Summer Campers!

Like so many other Hollywood stars, athletes, musicians, and other artists, guess who else among our Hollywood favorites attended summer camp when he was around your age! One of my personal favorites too—Jake Gyllenhaal! He went to the same summer camp as his equally famous, older sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, at Camp Walt Whitman in New Hampshire.

Camp Walt Whitman met Jake as it did his sister as a warm and inviting summer camp community that strives year after year to give kids a wonderful summer experience, introducing them to close friends and a picture of their own self-worth. This camp was obviously nothing but a positive influence for the Gyllenhaal kids.

Born in New York City, Jake is the son of Stephen Gyllenhaal—a film director—and Naomi Gyllenhaal—a film producer and screenwriter. At an early age his family moved to Los Angeles, California. By age 11, Jake was already making his movie debut in the film ‘City Slickers’ and not too long after that, he played major roles in movies like ‘October Sky’ and the lead, title role in ‘Donnie Darko’ which really solidified the future of his acting career.

Following in his sister’s footsteps, Jake attended Harvard-Westlake prep school and graduated in 1998. He then went to Columbia University while his sister was a senior there—also the school his mother graduated from. He took a couple years there, but eventually decided to concentrate on acting alone. But even with his wild success, he’s shown interest in returning to school to complete his degree.

Since then, Jake has taken on roles that have skyrocketed him to superstardom like ‘Proof’, and thrillers like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘Source Code’. Summer camp clearly did Jake some good as it did for his sister. It was a great influence on him and Maggie, what will it do for you? As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Campers!

How was your summer camp stay? Here, at Everything Summer Camp, we REALLY want to know! Tell us about your accomplishments, friends that you made, any fears that you were able to overcome, or you can tell us your favorite part about your summer camp experience. Submit a written entry that will appear on this Blog and a have a chance to WIN!

You may have had so much fun and done so much at camp that you’re not really sure where to even begin. It’s understandable! There’s certainly a lot going on at camp! If this is the case for you—I’m here to help…You could write about the one thing you did that was the most fun. You could tell about things you learned whether they’re athletic skills, artistic skills, thinking skills, etc. You could share stories about the great people and friends you made at camp. You could describe how it felt to be away from home. You could exercise your creative muscle and talk about the beautiful, natural surroundings you saw at camp.

Or—if none of these things spark the inspiration that you’re looking for—you could write a diary or journal-style submission, chronicling the jam-packed days of your summer camp experience as best as you can remember it.

In your submissions, we encourage you to talk about YOUR camp and why you think it’s the BEST. Please include your first name and your last name’s initial, what camp you visited, and how long you’ve been going to camp.

Whether you write something that’s 100 words or 1000, we’ll certainly accept this submission and use it on the Blog but,if you’re looking for a guideline of how long this should be, we’re looking for something around 200 words.

You have until August 31 to submit your entries.

Everybody who submits gets a $15 gift certificate to Everything Summer Camp!

Seven random winners will be chosen. Our first randomized winner will receive a $100 gift card for our website. We’ll then randomly pick two more winners to receive $50 gift cards to our site. After that, four random winners will get our $25 gift cards. Everyone else who submits will get the $15 gift cards.

We’d LOVE to hear about your time at camp! Click RIGHT HERE to submit and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Parents!

Last Tuesday I gave you some pointers on making sure that you and your kid have a great visit during Visiting Days at summer camp. I focused a lot on you, giving you advice about Visiting Day—when to visit, not planning for it, giving yourself an arrival window, and what to do if you can’t make it.

Today, however, I’d like to focus more so on your kids and how they’ll react to being reunited with you.

You’re in for some curious behavior coming from them! As mentioned by summer camp experts, Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski, in ‘The Summer Camp Handbook,’ your kids’ behavior can be so unpredictable that it helps to think of their different types of reactions in categories. Here are a couple of Chris and Jon’s categories:

The Fountain of Youth
These kids are really into camp! They want to bring you up to speed about everything without taking a breath. You might be scared that your kid likes camp so much that it’s more important to them than seeing you, but these turbo-speed stories should actually be comforting; your kid knows that you’re #1 in their lives. That’s why they want to fill you in on everything immediately! Enjoy the tornado!

The Poker Face
Typically ALL kids enjoy their camp stay, but Poker Face kids are oddly quiet when you see them. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t enjoying their time at camp, it usually means that camp is really special to them and they might be a little bit depressed to see that their stay is already half over. They might not know exactly how to react when they see you. But, don’t worry! You’ll get to hear their stories sooner or later.

You can read about Chris and Jon’s other camper categories and find a plethora of other helpful advice in ‘The Summer Camp Handbook’. Visiting Day can be very emotional for campers and parents alike, so definitely be prepared for it. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey there, all you Nutty Folks!

Depending on your love for pecans—as well as pie—you may already know (with a certain level of zeal) that today is National Pecan Pie Day! In honor of this day, I’ve compiled a list of five interesting facts that you probably didn’t know about pecans or pecan pie.

• Since the pecan tree is native to North America, it should come as no surprise that more than 80% of the world’s annual pecan crop comes from the U.S.

•  BIG fans of pecan pie down south, it should be even LESS surprising that Albany, Georgia is the world’s pecan capitol. Albany alone holds claim to over 600,000 pecan trees! On average, each tree produces 45 pounds of pecans each year. That means Albany produces roughly 27 million pounds of pecans every year! That’s a LOT of pecans!

• An extremely heart-healthy nut, pecans deliver antioxidants, 19 vitamins and minerals, and fat—the good kind. Among other minerals, zinc is found in the pecan which is quite beneficial to the body’s testosterone production in both boys and girls.

• Roughly 78 pecans go into the average pecan pie. There are about 57 pecans in a pound, thus the average pecan pie weighs about 1.37 pounds. What does that mean? It means that, with the amount of pecans grown in Albany, Georgia, they can make roughly 19,708,029 delicious pies every year!

• Though the origin of pecan pie is somewhat hard to trace, many people credit it to the French who were introduced to the pecan by the Native Americans in the late 1800s. However, some have heard tell that pecan pie has been around since the early 1800s and originated in Georgia. There are no documented recipes that date back this far, but…you never know!

Enjoy a pecan pie of your own today and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

If you’re no rookie at summer camp, then you most-likely already know how useful a laundry bag is while you’re there. Whether it’s a week-long adventure or nearly an entire month, you definitely want a quality bag to hold all your camp clothes after you wear them.

You’ll surely appreciate having a designated place to go with the clothes you’ve worn and played around in throughout those long, fun-filled, and jam-packed camp days. Without a laundry bag, you’re pretty much forced to stuff your dirty clothes in your camp trunk or duffel bag or whatever else you may have that you’re trying to live out of.

This technique of “putting away” dirty clothes probably means putting them in the same vicinity as your clean clothes and will only serve to smell up your camp trunk or what have you. Don’t go this route.

Our Nylon Laundry Bags offer ample room! Lightweight and durable, these bags are sure to hold your clothes for weeks! And what better way to personalize your camp bag than to have it embroidered with your own name and a cool, campy icon next to it? Our Personalized Laundry Bags look awesome!

Totally personalized to you, there’ll be no mistaking your Laundry Bag for one that’s actually your friend’s! It’s a foolproof way to make sure that the bag you take home is the same one you brought to camp.

Having a laundry bag makes things so much simpler for a camp that offers a laundry service. Having a laundry bag with your name stitched right on there will make things even easier on the camp AND your camper.

We embroider your Laundry Bags right here in our own facility and offer two-day output, so you can rest assured that you’ll receive your Laundry Bag with your embroidered name and icon just the way you want it in time for summer camp! Have fun and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John