Hey, Truth-Tellers!

National Honesty Day is tomorrow and that’s the truth. It’s a day in which everybody is expected to be truthful in everything they say and do. Everyone is expected to answer any question that they are asked with complete honesty. It’s one day out of the year when everyone is supposed to make honesty their highest policy.

This day hasn’t been around for a very long time (relatively speaking). It’s been around for a little over twenty years. It was a day invented by a man known as M. Hirsh Goldberg. His purpose behind the day was to give a little more balance to the month of April.

Since the first of the month, April Fools, encourages pranking and falsehoods, he thought maybe the last day of the month can be about honesty—something a little less immoral.

Telling the truth is important (especially on National Honesty Day, but really just all the time). The things you say and do reflect who you are as a person and how everybody else sees you. That’s why honesty means so much to people. When you tell the truth, you reflect the things that have actually happened and people see that in you.

Remaining an honest person feels good too because there isn’t any added weight of something else constantly on your mind—the fact that you need to keep up with what you have people believing happened even though it didn’t happen. Lying just crowds and clouds your life up. Lying is WORK!

Spread the word about National Honesty Day to all your friends and family so they all know to celebrate the truth along with you tomorrow. While I certainly enjoy the antics of April Fool’s Day, I also like the idea of bookmarking the month with the flip-side.

That’s all for today, Folks. Till next time.

Hey, Scary Story Lovers!

You probably recall near the beginning of the month when I told you about how today is Tell a Story Day. Telling stories has been a treasured pastime ever since we developed the sufficient communication skills to perform such a feat. Just about everybody enjoys hearing a good story which is why there’s a whole day dedicated to the art of oral story telling.

Tell a Story Day is typically celebrated by libraries and grade schools. Every culture has their own traditions of oral storytelling for educational purposes as well as entertainment, cultural preservation, and for teaching morals.

And since telling stories around a campfire is such an essential part of summer camp, it seemed like it was only right that we here at Everything Summer Camp create a contest shaped after this national day.

Requesting not just any kind of story, but for spooky summer camp stories that you’d likely share with everyone around a campfire. We asked for the kind that send shivers down spines and put goose bumps on skin. We asked that they were invented inside our contestants’ own warped imaginations, video recorded, and then uploaded to YouTube.

Today was the final day for submissions. Entries needed to be submitted and videos uploaded by 1:00p.m. CST. Unfortunately we not have much interest in this contest.  Maybe we were just asking for a little too much work in order to participate.  We only received two entries for the contest.  Since we planned to award two winners there really is no need to go through the process of voting.  Both of our contestants have been awarded with One-Hundred Dollar Gift Certificates for Everything Summer Camp.  You can check out their videos below:

The above video was submitted by Hayden W.

Now for the conclusion of the scary story that started tell you back on April 4th. To read the beginning of the story visit the old blog post here.  To finish the story read on:

The crisp crackling of the burning logs inside the brick fire pit filled the silence for a moment until Craig broke it saying, “Well, OKAY, then. If you insist…” He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He closed his eyes, slowly opened them back up, and then he began.

“Did you guys know that Camp O-Phaz-Ma is one of the earliest summer camps to ever be founded? Its history dates back all the way to 1887.  You probably didn’t know that this camp’s first year of operation kicked things off with a pretty dark start.

Unfortunately, there was an accident that happened here that year. One of the campers shot an arrow from her bow without intending to let it go. The arrow went flying and hit another camper who was sitting on this very ledge of this very fire pit. He was sitting here, reading when the arrow got him directly in his heart and killed him instantaneously.”

“That’s where we read,” Angie said quietly to Sid, but mostly to herself.

“Apparently the blow of the arrow sent the boy’s body falling back into the fire pit where his blood stained the floor inside there,” Craig said pointing into the pit. “The boy’s blood permanently stained the floor of the pit.

Some say that on the nights that this pit gets used, the soul of that boy rises from the fire and walks the earth again in search of the girl that shot the arrow. They say he wants to forgive her. They call him Sid.”

“Hey,” Angie laughed. “Like you,” she said, craning her head to look at her friend Sid, but he was no longer there. He didn’t show up for the rest of the night either. In fact, she never saw Sid again.

THE END

- John

Hey, Everything Summer Camp Fans!

Last year I introduced you, our fellow Blog readers, to Missy, our Receptionist at Everything Summer Camp. I told you about how she’s the first face you’ll see when you walk into our Main Building and how she’s a very warm and friendly presence in our office. Missy is always there to help.

But today, we’ll delve a little deeper to get a picture of what Missy’s life is like outside of work. We won’t have to look too far outside of work, however, since Missy lives just past Boyd, the home of Everything Summer Camp.

She’s quite familiar with the town as it’s the place where she was born and raised. “Yep, I grew up in the bar down the road and I married my high school sweetheart,” says Missy. They spent some time living around the state in Rice Lake as well as Wausau. It wasn’t until the two got married that they moved back to Boyd and into the family farm where Mike grew up.

They have three children—Chelsea, who is now attending UW Oshkosh; Morgan, a junior in high school; and Luke who’s in the eighth grade. Between Morgan, who plays basketball and softball and Luke, who’s interested in football, baseball, basketball, and trying out for track this year, they spend a lot of time at sporting events.

Altogether, they have 78 pets: that’s two dogs, six cats, and 70 cows. Fortunately for the family it’s only the dogs, Zoe (a black lab) and Braun (a Great Pyrenees, named after the Brewer) that are ever inside.

While they don’t travel very often, they usually find some time at least once out of the year to go find a hotel somewhere and just get away for a weekend or so. Her kids are big fans of waterparks. “I just think that any time you can get out of winter in Wisconsin and see some sun, it’s a good time.”

That’s all for today, Folks! Hope you enjoyed getting to know Missy a little better.

Hey, Camp Fans!

Today I have another Throwback Thursday for you in which we link back to an old Blog post that we think is SO helpful we want to put it in front of you again. ‘Throwback’ to March 20 of last year to review great tips from Dr. Thurber about attending summer camp along with a friend. What may sound like an incredibly helpful idea may not be as wise as it seems.

Look back with us today to glean great points about why summer camping with a friend may not be the best approach.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

Today I have another Throwback Thursday for you in which we link back to an old Blog post that we think is SO helpful we want to put it in front of you again. ‘Throwback’ to March 20 of last year to review great tips from Dr. Thurber about attending summer camp along with a friend. What may sound like an incredibly helpful idea may not be as wise as it seems.

Look back with us today to glean great points about why summer camping with a friend may not be the best approach.

- John