Hey, Camp Fans!

Your camp stories were great this year! It was lots of fun to read through them all and now I’m excited to share them with all our readers online! We’re posting each submission right here on the Blog! Since I’ve finished announcing our ten lucky winners who took larger prizes, I’ve moved on to the rest of your submissions. The following post is from Jez L. who wrote in to tell us about her summer days at Camp Foss. Here it is:

We were almost a week into our one-month stay at camp, for my year as a counselor-in-training. Our group wanted to do a special activity, so we decided we'd wake up bright and early, and go paddleboarding for the sunrise. So, we got out of bed at 4:45 in the morning, while it was just slightly bright out, and the fog was still rising out of the pond. We put on our life jackets and headed out on our paddleboards with a lifeguard, who we managed to convince to wake up with us. We paddled around and watched the sun go up as the sky turned different colors; red, pink, orange, yellow, purple... and eventually, a normal blue sky. It was really nice to be out and about while the rest of camp was still asleep, and everything was so quiet and peaceful. Before this experience, I had never been out on the water so early. I really enjoyed having this unique activity with my 10 best friends in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.

You captured this moment so well, Jez. What a magical morning that must have been! 4:45 is pretty early—nice work rising to this challenge you counselors-in-training set for yourselves. Thanks for sharing this moment of your summer stay at Camp Foss with us! For everyone else, give Camp Foss a closer look. Check it out for yourself by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hellooooooo, Story Lovers!

On this Blog, we like to zero in on some of the record setters and pioneers of sports, crafts, and other summer camp activities. And, in honor of the upcoming holiday of Halloween, I thought we’d set our scopes on the classic horror writer of the 19^th century: Edgar Allan Poe, author of such chilling tales as ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, he was also a poet—perhaps best known for his work, ‘The Raven’.

While people nowadays associate Poe mainly with his tales of terror, he actually wrote a variety of other genres including adventure stories, science fiction, and even comedies! Yet, what he was best known for in his own time were his mystery stories.

Like a true pioneer of the Writing trade, Poe didn’t just write in the genre of mystery—he invented it. He wrote the very first detective fiction in 1841 with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." It was a success and people nicknamed him ‘The Father of the Detective Story’. Poe began to get recognition just a couple years later for his story ‘The Gold Bug’ that focused on secret codes and hunting for treasure.

A true master of short fiction, Poe not only created the mystery story, but designed the perfect storytelling tactics. For example, Poe contributed the element of the sidekick character—the assistant to the detective character. The detective’s sidekick is really helpful in making the detective look good and add amazement at the work and reasoning he displays to crack the case. Arthur Conan Doyle used the same idea for his characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

So gear up for the haunting holiday on the horizon and peruse some Edgar Allan Poe short stories or poetry. The Raven just may be the most haunting piece of literature there is! And thanks for reading this Blog post! Till next time.

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We were delighted to see such a great response to our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest here at Everything Summer Camp and now we’re eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $20 gift certificate to our online store!

Today’s post is from Laine P., who's camp story is just as disgusting as it is hilarious. Check out this brief story from her summer stay at Camp Point Clear.

Ok so, my story is kinda gross so if you don’t like anything gross I wouldn’t recommend sticking around. So one night in the middle of camp they announced at dinner that the night activity was “scavenger hunt” and I like scavenger hunts so I was excited. So we went back to our cabins to get ready then went down to the courtyard. How it worked was the two people in charge of each crew, (there are two crews) yelled things out like- a pair of goggles or the camp banner and you had to go find it. We only had 45 minutes so we had to run. I listened but did not hear anything I could get. Then she called out “Someone go get horses poop!” All I thought was ewww. Then all the sudden the crew leader points at me and some other girl I had never met and says, “you two go get horse poop!” Neither of us move and she said “What are you waiting for?” So we took off running with our headlamps down the trail to see if there was any poop on the trail...

Not surprisingly about halfway down the trail there was a big fat poop. The other girl, whose name I later found out was Rosie, gave me the bag the crew leader had given her and told me she was going to barf if she had to pick it up. I was like, “ugh ok?” So I carefully put my hand in the bag and slowly lowered it until it was right over the poop. I picked it up and gave it to Rosie, and she closed it. Well tried to. As we were sprinting back to the table to put the poop on it, Rosie slipped and the bag opened, and all of that poop landed right on my shoe! “Omg I’m sooooo sorry!” Rosie said. I was afraid of what I was going to see when I looked down. I eventually got the courage to look down and ewwww it was not pretty. Poop was smeared all over my ankle and my shoe. Right then after seeing all the commotion a counselor came over and her jaw dropped. She picked me up and brought me to the hose closest to us while I was explaining what happened to her. “That was quite the story” she said! “Ok all done” she said after cleaning me off for what seemed like days. Rosie had already gone to put the poop on the table a long time ago and the scavenger hunt was long over, so I went back to my cabin to tell my cabin mates the story of the “falling horse poop!”

Wow, Laine! If I had to sum up your story with just one word it would be, “Eeeeewwwwwwww!” I can’t believe your cabin leaders had you go collect horse doo. I bet she regretted it when she had to clean your ankle and shoe off. This story had, not just me, but the whole office here at Everything Summer Camp in hysterics! I’m sorry this happened to you, but thanks for the laugh! It’s a good one. For everyone else, check out Camp Point Clear if you don’t mind falling horse poop. Check it out for yourself by clicking here and, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

We were delighted to see such a great response to our ‘Share Your Camp Story’ Contest here at Everything Summer Camp and now we’re eager to publish each one right here on the Blog! After our seven lucky winners, everyone else who submitted received a $20 gift certificate to our online store!

Today’s post is from Maddy K. from over at Beber Camp in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Check out her submission on why Beber is so great!

This was my 2nd summer at Beber Camp! I have a VERY supportive team at camp (since I have an incurable disease that makes every day hard)! I have had the BEST 2 years at Beber Camp. I have made some of the best friends, tried a lot of new things (as an adult)! *I started as a staff member! I got to try water skiing, paintball, and more.

I love celebrating shabbat with all my friends. You will make some of your best friends (in my case from around the world) at camp! I am already counting down the days till next summer. The best times were when staff could do all staff paintball games or go get ice cream (we went to this place where my dad went as a kid), and more.

The highlight of the summer for me was: in between sessions was spending time and bonding with my co-workers (as I’m usually in the office and, not getting a lot of time outside/around others)!! I have made tons of friends from ALL over the world! We have a quote at my camp: “friendships won may never die”! It is true, I still have friends from my first summer! You will make your best friends at camp!

Wonderful, Maddy! Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I’m glad you got to do some really fun activities this summer and spend your days outside the office! How cool that you get to meet so many new people from all over the country and the WORLD! What a great place Beber Camp must be! For everyone else, if Beber Camp sounds like it could be the right place for you, check it out for yourself by clicking here. As always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Camp Fans!

A flat surface is something you should never take for granted! Of course we have desks for a home office and classrooms full of school desks, but where can you turn when you need a hard surface and there are no desks available? This is liable to happen in plenty of settings like a warehouse, sporting events, and—for sure—summer camp.

With the Storage Clipboard from Everything Summer Camp, you can head off to summer camp complete with stationery, pens, and stamps. Writing materials store right inside the clipboard! Its hinged lid opens to reveal the handy storage bin below. Keep your stationery, pens and more organized with this great clipboard that doubles as a makeshift desk.

Yes, our Storage Clipboards are cool, colorful, and convenient, but clipboards weren’t always so. In fact, just 150 years ago, they weren’t around at all. And when the first ones emerged, they weren’t referred to as clipboards; they were called board clips.

It was George Henry Hohnsbeen who patented the very first ‘clipboard’ by name

in 1908. Of course there’s not a whole lot to a clipboard in the first place, but the earliest models were about as basic as they can be—a wooden board with a metal hinged clip.

It didn’t take very long, however, for different materials and variations to be included in the construction. Aside from the original wood, people began making clipboards out of heavy-duty aluminum, PVC, high-impact polystyrene, and more. Storage clipboards were an obvious expansion to add to product to create convenient safe-keeping for documents that belong together.  

Clipboards are perfect for taking along on day trips in the woods where you can sit with Nature and write a letter, or a poem, or draw a picture of your surroundings. The paper on your clipboard offers a whole world of possibilities! See where your artistry and imagination can take you! Thank goodness for clipboards. And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John