Hey, Camp Lovers!

Everything Summer Camp has excellent duffels from High Sierra Sport Company for you to take along to summer camp. Whether you go with either one of our Pack N’ Go duffel bags, the Water Bottle Sport Duffel, or the Evolution, you’ll be making summer camp much more convenient for yourself.

You can get a 30” Pack N’ Go Duffel or its 24” counterpart. Either way, this duffel is actually two bags in one. Its handle straps convert into backpack straps so you can carry it around or throw it over your shoulders like a backpack. Either way, the Pack N’ Go Duffel is ready to go. Use it as a duffel bag for transporting your belongings to camp and back or use it as a backpack to carry the load hands-free.

Otherwise, you could go with the High Sierra Water Bottle Sport Duffel. There’s no shortage of storage space in this bag! It’s got a zippered wet pocket where you can keep your shoes after they’ve met a puddle or if any other gear should get wet. And it comes with a water bottle so you’re sure to stay hydrated on the go! You’ll be ready for any camp excursions with the High Sierra Water Bottle Sport Duffel.

Last, but not least is the High Sierra Evolution 28-drop-bottom-wheeled-duffel. It’s the easiest way to get your camp gear from Point A to Point B. The High Sierra wheeled duffel, Evolution, looks as nice as it travels and it’s got lots of room. This is one rolling duffel bag made with a high-density foam structure that helps preserve the bag’s shape and keep things lightweight.

Its Drop Bottom compartment is large enough to fit your shoes or boots. Other compartments work great for keeping folded clothes folded. And the zippered divider panel between the upper and lower compartments can roll up to make one, big compartment. Made of nylon and polyester, the Evolution 28” Wheeled Duffel is excellent at making travel easy.

Get to camp hassle-free and in fashion with any one of these fine duffel bags from High Sierra. Until next time, Camp Fans!

Hey, Camp Folks!

Say hello to Nate—our man in charge of all the personalized products we offer at Everything Summer Camp. While we make all of our personalized products right here in our own, local facility, it does not happen at our Main Building. Everything Summer Camp has two facilities which are very close to each other. Just a few blocks away and over the railroad tracks is our second building—the print shop..

Manager of the print shop, Nate has many responsibilities to tend to on a daily basis which includes overseeing production, keeping an eye out for quality control in running production, product development, scheduling, and purchasing. Needless to say, Nate’s a busy man—but always good for a laugh or interesting conversation over lunch.

For the last three years, with a knack and strong passion for product development, Nate has enjoyed his employment with Everything Summer Camp, appreciating the variety that his work creates for him.

There are many processes that he has to know—after all, all our Name Labels, Lid Skinz, and the majority of our camp clothing is printed at the shop. The print shop is 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, and three wide-format printers and a whole lot more.

But Nate knows how worth it all his hard work is, creating quality products that summer campers will cherish for the summer and many years to come. He too spent a summer or two at a Christian Bible Camp where he really sharpened his skills at Ping-Pong as well as Table Shuffleboard.

Nate likes to keep work fun as he enjoys creating his own lyrics for existing songs such as “Hey, Don’t Eat Those Burritos,” (originally “ La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens). And on the days when even song parodies don’t do get him through the day, he at least goes home to his wonderful wife, Katie and his two sons, Alex and Eli.

That’s all for today, everybody. Until next time.

 - John

Hey there, Camp Aficionados!

Today I want to tell you about another great company whose products can be found right here at Everything Summer Camp—it’s High Sierra Sport Company. Read on to discover some rich company history that dates back to the late forties, though the brand High Sierra Sport Company was not incorporated until 1978.

It doesn’t matter what kind of gear you’re getting from High Sierra—whether it’s luggage for summer camp, a convenient duffel for a hiking adventure, or even a backpack for something as simple as school, you can bet that it’s a high quality product you can count on because High Sierra backpacks are built to last.

High Sierra is one of the world’s most trusted brands, being the Official Supplier of bags to the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding, and U.S. Free Skiing. The fact that High Sierra’s bags see so much action just goes to show how resilient the bags are.

It all started in the late forties when a man named Harry Bernbaum bought surplus Army supplies and sold them to wholesalers and retailers. But the company evolved quickly and by 1978 Harry Bernbaum was exporting Levis to Japan in order to raise capital for a new company, H. Bernbaum Import & Export Company which would soon be renamed High Sierra Sport Company to better portray their outdoor product lines.

By the mid-eighties, High Sierra had established themselves as the go-to company for quality backpacks, duffel bags, canvas bags, luggage, outdoor tents, other outdoor gear, jackets, and gear for foul weather. And by the late nineties, the company had introduced new product lines to adventure travelers and winter sports.

Most recently, High Sierra has added the new Tech Series collection along with their Pack N Go duffel bags, new Ski and Snowboard bags as well as Day Packs and the Evolution Duffel Bag. Everything Summer Camp is delighted to work together with a company that’s so vested and successful in their line of work as we are.

Thanks for reading, Camp Fans. Till next time!

John

Water Safety Alert

How a conversation at home could save your child’s life at camp

Drowning is a leading cause of accidental death among young people. So whether your son or daughter is headed to day camp or overnight camp this summer, you’ll want to teach them basic water safety at home, before opening day.

Yes, high-quality camps should train all of their staff in emergency water rescue. They should categorize swimmers and place them in appropriate instructional groups and water depths. They should insist that children swim in buddy pairs…and follow other essential safety practices. They should. But they don’t. Not always. They’re human, so their attention wanes and their judgment falters.

I’ve been a camp waterfront director for nearly 25 years, so I’ve seen or made just about every aquatic mistake well-trained lifeguards make. And that experience has taught me the importance of redundancy. Safety systems need back-up safety systems. And that’s where you, as a parent, come in.

When moms and dads participate in basic water safety preparation at home, campers behave more safely at camp. At a minimum, these are the steps you should take prior to opening day:

• Teach your child that playing in the water is fun, but should never be enjoyed alone. There must always be a properly-trained adult lifeguard present.

• Teach your child to enjoy the water in buddy pairs, never as singletons. This might be a parent-child buddy pair at the beach, under the watchful eye of a trained lifeguard. Or, it might be a pool party in the backyard, where every young guest has a swimming buddy.

• Teach your child to swim. Even the youngest day campers can learn to swim. Before the camp season starts, bring your child to some lessons at the local municipal pool, YMCA or club. Sure, children will become better swimmers at camp, but learning the basics prior to camp is a plus.

• Teach your child to swim only during daylight hours. Accidents are more likely when campers cannot judge depth, direction or bottom conditions in the darkness.

• Teach your child to tread water and perform the survival float, as well as to respond to a distressed swimmer with a reaching assist or a throwing assist. Even a kindergartener can save a life with a working knowledge of basic rescue techniques.

• Reinforce your expectation that your son or daughter will follow all of the camp’s aquatic rules, such as: No Diving in Shallow Water, No Running on the Dock or Deck, Always Wear a Life Jacket in Boats, etc.

Like wearing a seatbelt in the car or donning a helmet when riding a bicycle, following waterfront safety rules makes an exciting—but potentially dangerous—activity safer. What you start in your own bathtub, backyard pool or nearby shore can then be reinforced by your child’s counselor or cabin leader. Or, if a distracted staff member fails to remind your child to don a life preserver before he or she launches out in a canoe, it won’t matter. A properly-sized preserver will already be buckled on, thanks to you.

Enjoy the summer!

Dr. Christopher Thurber

Bullying has received a lot of recent press, especially as more and more schools adopt anti-bullying programs in their curriculum. Witnessing school shootings that were, in part, retaliation for relentless bullying may have increased our empathy toward both bullies and their targets, as well as our motivation to change. But tragic events, additions to curricula and press coverage have all made it seem as if bullying is new. It might surprise you to learn that camping professionals have been taking a systematic, proactive role in preventing bullying since 1929. That year marked the publication of Camping and Character: A Camp Experiment in Character Education.

In Camping and Character, authors Hedley Dimock and Charles Hendry reported on the results of a multi-year study conducted at Camp Ahmek in Ontario. The study sought to uncover the changes evidenced in campers’ behavior during six weeks at camp and to understand the mechanisms behind those changes. Among the more than 50 behaviors the authors tracked was bullying. Dimock and Hendry recognized that even small increases in bullying behavior needed to be addressed by the camp leadership. They were also encouraged by huge increases in many prosocial behaviors, such as “Making a friendly approach to [an] unlikable boy.”

Nearly 80 years later, what are the most important things we’ve learned about bullying? The answer has three parts. First, bullying itself is only half the picture. For every bully, there is at least one target. Second, bullying is cyclic. A recent study by the Center for Disease Control confirmed that about three quarters of bullies are also targets and about three quarters of targets turn around to bully another child. Third, bullying is social. Antisocial, to be sure, but it represents a dynamic, complex, interaction whose origins lie in unhealthy relationships. Therefore, the solutions lie not in simple punishment, but in the formation of healthy relationships.

Summer camps are uniquely suited to deal with bullying because they are such healthy social environments. At camp, leaders supervise children and have opportunities to educate bullies and targets. Leaders can teach the kinds of prosocial behaviors Dimock, Hendry and their pioneering predecessors saw so often at camps. This is easier to do than most people think, partly because bullying is so often a misguided attempt to make a social connection. If you can teach a bully how to make a social connection without using coercion, threats or violence, you have actually met that child’s needs instead of simply punishing his or her misbehavior.

Specifically, camps help children in the following ways:

• By having the camp staff set a sterling interpersonal example for all children to follow.

• By seeing beyond the bully alone and including his or her target in an intervention.

• By strengthening bullies’ fragile sense of themselves by providing opportunities for authentic achievement and human connection in various athletic or artistic domains.

• By teaching bullies to make social connections through healthy interaction.

• By teaching targets to stand up to bullies in ways that makes bullying unrewarding.

• By setting, early and often in the camp session, strict guidelines for kindness and generosity…and then heaping on the praise when staff witness prosocial behaviors.

• By providing the kind of close supervision that allows both bullies and targets to replay unacceptable or unassertive interactions under the guidance of experienced adult staff.

• By deliberately creating a culture of caring that is perhaps different from school or the neighborhood at home…and then immersing children in that culture.

• By allowing positive peer pressure to exert itself such that children feel appreciated and rewarded for gentleness, honesty, kindness and unselfishness.

Camps are not a bullying panacea. Outside of camp, there are powerful forces, such as violent media, that infuse children with the notion that violent, even lethal solutions to vexing social problems are both effective and glorious. Nevertheless, camp is a powerful, positive force for change. Educating bullies and their targets is just one of the many ways camp enriches lives and changes the world.

So next time you’re talking with your child’s camp director, don’t ask whether they have a bullying prevention program. If all your camp is doing is trying to prevent bullying, that’s not enough. Instead, ask, “When instances of bullying occur, what are the ways your camp’s leaders teach bullies and their targets alternative, prosocial behaviors?” and “How does your camp create a culture that exerts positive peer pressure?”

Enjoy the summer!

Dr. Christopher Thurber