Hey, Camp Folks!

A few months back in September, I wrote about a cool activity that’s available at summer camps across the country: Trapshooting. Trap Shooters require focus, patience, and an alert eye in order to be successful shooting a shotgun at a clay targets being launched away from them. Sort of an accidental sport, Trapshooting got its start as a means of practice for bird hunting.

You can check out the Trapshooting Blog post I wrote to learn more about the sport when you click right here. Today’s post, however, is about a legendary Trap Shooter, Captain Bogardus—the wing shot champion of the world.

This sport had been around since the late 1700s—back when real birds were used, but Bogardus took it up in 1868 after the transition to glass balls had been made. Often enough, the glass balls were filled with a colored powder that would really accentuate the visual effect of a direct hit!

Bogardus really made a splash in the Trapshooting world. He went on to win many championships and made a big name for himself as one of the most successful Trap Shooters in the early years of the sport. Enter: Doc Carver. Another Trap Shooter who was already a giant fan of Captain Bogardus by the time he came onto the scene. He had gotten serious about honing his Trapshooting skills around 1875 and made a name for himself just a few years after that.

He reputation rose so steadily that he would soon come to be referred to as "the man who can put a bullet through a silver quarter while the coin is flying through the air."

Carver wanted so badly to compete against his Trap Shoot hero, Captain Bogardus, but he had to wait six years until they would finally be pitted against each other. In the spring of 1883 these two legends came together for a match.

It was a big deal: the two greatest shots going head to head in the worldwide Shooting Championship! They met in Louisville, Kentucky on February 21 of 1883. So much hype and the match was over before you knew it. It was the less-experienced Doc Carver that came out the victor. He won 19 out of 25 matches, claiming the title of Champion Rifle Shot of the World!

Discover your Trapshooting skills and maybe you’ll find that your abilities exceed those who first inspired you! Look into the activities your camp offers or get out to a Trapshooting facility near you and test out your skills to see how much you enjoy it. Have fun out there and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Comic Strip Lovers!

Interest in Comics has held the fascination of children and adults alike throughout the decades. Summer camps know how cool comic strips are so most are sure to offer a comics program. This art form—and, yes, it IS an art form—is a genius combination of the written word and drawing.

The inventor of comic strips seems to have some confusion surrounding it. Many people credit a Swiss schoolmaster Rodolphe Töpffer who lived in the first half of 19^th Century. He published ‘The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck,’ along with others. His work made use of panel frames that are commonplace today but his panels had no space between one another (referred to by cartoonists as ‘the gutter’).

But despite Mr. Rodolphe typically being credited as inventor of the comic strip, it is ‘The Yellow Kid’ which is generally considered to be the first comic strip—first published in the New York World in 1896. ‘The Yellow Kid’ is the work of Richard Fenton Outcault. This strip was a single-panel comic featuring a kid-like cartoon who always wore a yellow garment with words printed on it, giving a short commentary.

‘The Yellow Kid’ gained popularity after the turn of the century along with comic strips altogether. The art medium gradually became more polished with multiple panels and gutters between them. Cartoonists experimented with overlapping panels, word bubbles, and other stylistic choices.

By just 1913, the legendary ‘Krazy Kat’ debuted which would go on to become a great inspiration for modern comic strip artists like Bill Watterson—creator of ‘Calvin and Hobbes’. It was Bill Watterson that I selected to feature last year as an installment to our ‘Pioneers and Record Setters’ Blog post series as he holds many records with his magical strip. Check out that Blog post by clicking here.

Nowadays, comic strips are found in every newspaper and online publication. I wrote the comic strip back in the day for ‘The Mirror’, my college newspaper at Lakeland College. I called it the ‘Chase & Eddie’—two college roommates whose personalities were different sides of myself. Comic strips are a great way to express yourself, even if your drawings are just stick figures! Give it a try for yourself today. As always, thanks for reading! See you in the funny papers.

- John

Hey, Snail Mailers!

Writing letters is really in the spirit of summer camp, but it’s such an appropriate activity for right now in the winter season—a great time to flex your writing muscle and practice this therapeutic and cheerful indoor activity as we venture into the holiday season! Here are some great reasons to sit yourself down today and write a letter or two to some of the people you have in your life.

Process Events
Writing things down is an extremely useful means of people cementing events as they come to pass during the course of our lives. All of the people you meet, skills you learn, and things you do—it’s great to review all of those new experiences you’ve had to help yourself process and reflect on what you learned. Writing about your personal perspective can allow you to explore what you’re feeling.

Say What You Mean
Writing letters gives you an opportunity to write down your thoughts and express your feelings. We tend to feel more comfortable saying things to someone by means of written word that might go unsaid in other forms of communication such as talking face-to-face or texting.

Preserve Memories
Don’t leave your memories behind! Put them down on paper. Write about your school, home life, memories of summer camp, etc. Sharing fun memories is a great way to cherish a friendship or family relationship you have with the recipient of your letter! It’s always good to revisit a cool moment or an inside joke we may have shared with someone close in our life!

These are just a few of the many benefits there are to writing letters to people. Make the connection and spread some cheer as we venture into the holiday season! Put your pen to some paper and see what comes out! Happy Letter Writing Day and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Happy Hanukkah!

This evening will mark the last night of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights—a widely celebrated Jewish holiday commemorating the defeat of the Seleucid Greek rulers of the land of Israel in the second century B.C.E by Hebrew soldiers, the Maccabees.

The eight days of Hanukkah are about a seven-day miracle in which the Maccabees only had enough oil to light their temple’s eternal flame for a single day, yet the lamp kept on burning for eight!

Let’s take a deeper look into some things you may not have known about this Hebrew holiday.

Biblical Hanukkah
The Tanach is pretty much the equivalent to the Christian Bible when it comes to the Jewish faith. But did you know that unlike any other Jewish holiday, the Tanach makes no mention of Hanukkah. No one knows why. Strangely enough, the Hanukkah story can be found in the Christian Bible but not the Jewish one.

Oil Have Something to Eat
As mentioned earlier, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle the Maccabees witnessed of the oil that burned for eight days. The importance of oil is honored throughout traditional Hanukkah recipes—all of which are fried in oil: Donuts, Latkes, Fried Fish, Fried Sweet Cake, Deep-Fried Pancakes packed with cheese.

Calendar like Clockwork
Hanukkah consistently falls on the same date every year: the 25^th of Kislev (a month of the Hebrew calendar). The Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar are very different, however, which is why Hanukkah comes at different dates between November and December. The Hebrew calendar is a lunisolar calendar, based on the sun and the moon while the our Gregorian calendar only considers the sun.

I hope you’ve all had a great Hanukkah celebration these last seven nights! Make tonight something special. Happy Hanukkah one last time and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Folks!

Winter months are a great time to break out the markers and add life to coloring books or art projects.

As summer approaches you can put markers to good use for your summer camp preparation! After all, a clothing marker is the simplest and sometimes most reliable method of labeling your clothing and other items on your packing list.

A blast of bold color, markers are just plain fun. And they’ve been around for well over a hundred years! Check out this colorful look at the history of markers.

The First Markers of Their Time

Marking Pen

Fountain Paintbrush

About 15 years later, Benjamin Paskach patented his ‘Fountain Paintbrush’. He gave it a sponge for the tip which was more fun to use and he used different paint colors—the biggest selling point of the sponge-tipped marker. Despite the improvements it made, Paskach’s Fountain Paintbrush never became doable for a wide market and, thus, never actually took off.

Magic Marker

It was nearly another 30 years before the first modern marker was created. In 1953, Sidney Rosenthal accidentally invented what he dubbed the Magic Marker when he placed a felt tip on the end of a small bottle of permanent ink to appease his curiosity and it took off big!

Permanent Marker

In 1964, the Sanford Manufacturing Company introduced the Sharpie—the world’s most popular permanent marker brand.

Washable Marker

About fifteen years after that in 1978, Crayola was founded and went on to become the world’s most popular washable marker brand. 

Markers continue to be incredibly fun and practical utensils that we can use artistically or for more practical applications such as labeling clothing and other summer camp gear. Visit all of our labeling options when you click right here and make sure that they arrive within plenty of time for your trip by checking our Shipping Policy.

Tired of coloring with markers? Try out our compact and fully loaded watercolor kit for a new creative medium.

As always, thanks for reading!