Hey, Camp Fans!

Tuesdays throughout the month of May were made Tips and Advice posts about the Five Goals of Summer Camp. Of course, we only covered the first four in May—Goal #1: Have Fun. The second week talked about Goal #2: Improve athleticism, intellectualism, and artistry. Last week covered Goal #3: which is to Gain Independence. Last week covered Goal #4: Make Friends and Develop Social Skills.

Today, we’re extending this series into June to reveal the fifth goal:

Goal #5: Experience a New, Natural Environment

Summer camping has changed a lot in the last century or so, but one thing that hasn’t changed in all those years, is the focus on the natural environment. It IS, after all, the natural environment that draws such popularity to summer camps.

It’s not out of the ordinary for parents who live in the city to want their children to experience the wholesomeness of life in a rural area. While our society’s advancements in technology certainly benefit our daily lives greatly, it seems to reduce kids’ contact with the natural world. Camp aims to fix that.

Most camps are located on beautiful areas. As noted in Drs. Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski’s ‘The Summer Camp Handbook,’ “At a good overnight camp, your child can gain respect for and curiosity about nature.” With a skilled cabin leader and a natural setting, campers build upon their personal growth in body, mind, and soul.

The great outdoors mean different things to everyone. For instance, some kids might enjoy the waterfront because that’s where they get to go swimming, whereas other kids might like sitting by the water because the sunsets are the prettiest there.

In either case, kids get a lot out of their environmental surroundings. Finding a camp that sits on a beautiful setting is where kids begin to achieve the Five Goals of Summer Camp. As always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Everything Summer Camp Fans!

Here at Everything Summer Camp, we offer a great deal of customizable products. We call them graphics. From our Name Labels to Call Me Cards, Nameplates and LidSkinz, we offer so many personalized products that we have a shop, separate from our main building, entirely dedicated to our graphic production.

Welcome to the print shop.

It’s an impressive place with a carousel for screen printing along with an industrial dryer, two embroidery machines, a Direct to Garment (DTG) printer, two heat presses, three wide-format printers and a whole lot more.

The summer graphics crew begins with design work on the computer to create your personalized order.  Working with programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, products like Nameplates, Stick-On Labels, and Duffel Bag Patches, each order is specifically designed and printed out on sublimation paper.

Sublimation paper is special paper that is used for the process of sublimation. What is sublimation? It’s the transference of ink from one medium to another (like a piece of paper to a nameplate), by means of heating the materials so much and so fast that the ink skips a liquid phase and turns straight to a gas. This causes the print to dye onto the initially blank nameplate so that it now bears YOUR design!

This time of year, we dedicate one of our three wide-format printers entirely to Clothing Name Labels. We get hundreds of these orders every week! It’s so many that it basically becomes one person’s job throughout the camp season!

We also create our own Clothing Stamps by means of light exposure to gel packs. We cover the gel pack with a negative that has everyone’s name printed on it. The exposure unit hardens the gel where the names designate, leaving the rest of the gel unexposed and unhardened. We simply clean off the excess gel and cut out our rubbery stamp names from the gel sheet we made.

Don’t forget about Lid Skinz! These awesome full color vinyl decals are designed completely by YOU and then printed from one of our other wide-format printers. We then send the prints through our laminating machine to apply a protective laminate that provides protection more durable than paint! The Lid Skinz are then applied to the tops of our trunks beneath the hardware. They look really cool!

As if that’s not enough, we also personalize Laundry Bags at the shop with one of our two embroidery machines.  All of our camp clothes are printed here as well by means of sublimation, embroidery, or screen-printing. Needless to say, it’s always a hoppin’ place in the summertime! Give us an order of your own to personalize and, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

I’ve made Tuesdays Tips and Advice Day throughout the month of May, specifically about the Five Goals of Summer Camp. Being the fourth Tuesday, today will disclose and discuss Goal #4 and next week Tuesday, we’ll extend this May series into June to reveal the fifth goal.

In the first week I went into Goal #1—Have Fun. The second week talked about Goal #2, Improve athleticism, intellectualism, and artistry. Last week covered Goal #3 which is to Gain Independence. And today, we’ll discuss Goal #4.

Goal #4: Make Friends and Develop Social SkillsAt a setting like summer camp, this goal is inevitably reached—typically without the awareness of it even happening. For shy kids who maybe don’t have an abundance of friends back home and are afraid that they won’t have an easy time making friends at summer camp—there is no need for concern! Kids make friends with other kids easy as pie at camp. It just HAPPENS!

The experience of a kid’s summer camp stay and being away from home at this setting, is typically superior to any other previous experience in terms of personal growth and development of social skills. Something kids can rarely achieve in other settings, they do in beautiful, rural settings like summer camp.

At camp, kids learn to get along with one another; camp gives them a boost in confidence of their putting themselves out there in response to their personality and, so doing, helps them to make friends with ease. These sort of skills are essential to successfulness in life throughout adolescence and adulthood. You can’t accomplish much without getting along with others.

Rest assured, your summer camp stay is sure to bring lots of friends and a strong feeling of community. Many camps provide the proper environment that brings these skills out in all their campers. 

You can learn more information about the Goals of Summer Camp and MUCH more in Chris Thurber and Jon Malinowski’s helpful guidebook, ‘The Summer Camp Handbook.’

Tune in to the last post in this series next week to read about the last Goal of Summer Camp, Experience a New Natural Environment. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Camp Enthusiasts!

Not that we don’t like talking about ourselves here at Everything Summer Camp—our products, our customer service, or our awesome team—but today I’d like to shine the spotlight on a wonderful, all girls camp, Chippewa Ranch Camp. Check out all the fun activities and excellent facilities they have waiting for you this summer!

Surrounded by pines in the northern region of Wisconsin, Chippewa Ranch Camp sits on the border of Eagle River, just 40 minutes away from Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Chippewa grounds are filled with exciting activities and an abundance of character!

If you like water sports, Chippewa provides areas for swimming, sailing, kayaking, skiing, windsurfing, stand-up-paddle boarding and fishing. Fun land activities include the ropes course, the climbing wall, archery, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a scenic jogging trail. If you like horses too, you’ll definitely have to check out the stables and go for a ride or two.

Chippewa also offers a variety of art activities such as pottery, cooking, arts and crafts, theater, and dance. Campers at Chippewa sign up for activities every two weeks. There are five activity periods each day that are revisited every other day.

This way, campers have the same schedule Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then a different schedule on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays. And Sunday is reserved for Cabin Day which focuses on being part of the community and togetherness of the Chippewa family.

At night, campers retire to the cozy cabins that overlook the lake. Most cabins offer bunk beds and every girl is provided with her own shelving unit. Whether you’re in Lakeview, C-C, Horseshoe, or Bowed Legs, you’ll stay cool in the summer heat with nice, commercial fans that do the job right. As Chippewa puts it, their campers are “roughin’ it…comfortably.”

Be sure to stop by the “Mother Tree”— estimated to be 233 years old, she’s the biggest and oldest tree on the Chippewa grounds! And you’re sure to play a few rounds of trampball—an exclusive marriage of volleyball and four-square with added bounciness!

Girls from all across the country and all across the world learn new skills, build friendships, and realize a clearer vision of the self through community living. Join this close-knit community of Chippewa sisters and check out Chippewa Ranch Camp for yourself! As always, thanks for reading.

- John

- John

P.S. Their map is AWESOME!!! Click it to check it out

Hey, Smart Camp Shoppers!

As summer is always considered to be bookended by Memorial Day and Labor Day, the unofficial announcement of the summer season—Memorial Day—is right around the corner. Memorial Day has always been a big day for us at Everything Summer Camp, so this year we wanted to make sure we started things off right. That’s why we’re having our Memorial Day Weekend Sale.
We’re going all out for this sale hitting all our major categories of camping gear and other popular camping supplies like Camp Trunks, Duffel Bags, Name Labels, Trunk Accessories, and so much more. Check it all out:

Get $15 off of our Camp Trunks. The best container to use for summer camp is typically going to be a sturdy camp trunk. Pick up your camp trunk this weekend for a nicely discounted price.

Similarly, you can find specific Duffel Bags for $10 off! A popular alternative to Camp Trunks or, depending on the size of your Duffel and how big your load is, a great addition to storage.

We went crazy with items marked 10% off. Get a great deal on Name Labels for your camp clothing and other camp gear. That goes for our Iron-Clothing Name Labels, Stick-On Name Labels, Artline Clothing Markers, and Clothing Stamps—everything here.

Products in ten other major categories are being slashed by 10%: Laundry Bags, Sleeping Bags, Fans, Insect Repellent, Water Bottles, Rain Gear, Toiletry Bags, Stationery, Travel Accessories, and Color War Apparel!

We’re not done just yet! We also offer 5% off of all Trunk Accessories—practical and cool products like Nameplates and Glide & Go Trays. You can also find 5% off of our extremely popular Columbia Sportswear.

But that’s STILL not all because ‘The More You Spend, The More You Save’ We’re bringing this returning deal back for this weekend’s sale.  Here’s how it works: purchase over $100, you’ll receive a $10 Gift Certificate, shipped along with your order. If you purchase over $200, you’ll get a Gift Certificate for $20. $300 will get you $30, $400 will get you $40, and so on.

As usual, we ship $99+ orders for free. Have fun getting your discounted camp gear this weekend and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John