Director Jud's Blog

Today we join the 7000 overnight summer camps and 5000 day camps in celebrating National Camp Day 2019!!

The sport of rock climbing is essentially the process of safely scaling an outdoor rock face or an indoor climbing wall from top to bottom. In this blog post we will explore 5 essential benefits you will gain from rock  climbing.

The following blog post was written by Beth Lewis:

I attended SMA for 3 summers (2014-2016) and they are still some of the best ones I’ve had. The fact that my parents let me fly from London to Pennsylvania for 3 consecutive summers so that I could spend it with my best friends is testament to that. I rocked up on the first day, was bombarded by people, and was pretty overwhelmed. It wasn’t like anything I had experienced before - these strangers were friendly. From that point I had nothing but fun and KNEW I’d go back as a councillor.

On Saturday, 9/7/19 the Access Fund hosted and Adopt a Crag event at Donation Rocks.  Local Author and Climbing Enthusiast Ken Hull was instrumental in the organization of this event.  He wrote the following “Thank You Letter” to everyone who was involved in making this incredible event happen.  Here is the letter:

“I want to take this opportunity to THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for your time and hard work to improve access and trails within the Donation Rocks property!!! Not only was I thrilled with how hard you all worked, but quite honestly, I was blown away by the quality of the work and what an absolutely 100% difference it made in all four of the work areas!!! 

A few weeks ago a middle school group from NCCL returned a to Stone Mountain Adventures Teen Summer Camp.  This was their 8th year coming to Stone Mountain Adventures and by all accounts it was one of the best experiences ever!

Founded in 1971, NCCL is a small private school located in Delaware serving students in grades K to 8.  The tag line for NCCL is Small Classes, Big Ideas. 

Pam and Biff Houldin were recently featured in an article written by Kylie Hawn in the Mature Living section of the Huntingdon Daily News.  The piece focuses on what each of them do to give back to the community.  

A majority of individuals nowadays are happy when their sumptuous pool parties at a private island or fulfill their deepest desires of exotic cuisine or shopping endeavors when they are planning a vacation. However, there are a few daredevils amongst us who try to engage in exciting sports activities or discover the natural wonders of the world. They just roll up their yoga mats and practice their circular breathing techniques to climb a mountain or cycling in the exotic forests to get a glimpse of all the adventures of life during their summer vacations.

Furing the 8th and final week of Stone Mountain Adventures Summer 2019 we once again hosted the Dream Day Camp for 8-11 year olds. The Dream Day Camp is designed to prepare younger campers for the overnight camp at SMA for kids aged 12-16. This was the third year we offered the SMA Dream Day Camp!

Here are the dates for SMA Summer 2020:

Here is the awesome SMA3 Slideshow... what a summer!

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures (SMA) are so excited to share the Second Session Video Slideshow.  Why you ask? Because we L O V E camp and we L O V E Second Session Campers!!

Here is the SMA 2nd Session Video Slideshow:

The Stone Mountain Adventures Summer of 2019 was an incredible experience for all involved.  We had 4 terrific 2 week sessions with many campers staying for multiple sessions.  During each session our staff took photos of campers on activities, campers hanging around camp and group photos.  We have gathered the best of those photos and created a video slideshow.  We are working on SMA Sessions 2, 3 and 4 and hope to have those published in the days and weeks to come.

It;s hard to believe that it's already Fourth Session here at Stone Mountain Adventures!

Crew Number One lead by Antonio and Luke

Today our courageous group of campers and staff that make up Stone Mountain Adventures Session 3 went white water rafting on the mighty Youghiogheny River!  It was a great day on the river:

• The weather was perfect with blue skies 
• Our guides with Wilderness Voyagers were fantastic
• The SMA campers and staff of 3rd Session were brave and enthusiastic

Check out this video slideshow!

After a fantastic First Session all of us at Stone Mountain Adventures were thrilled to welcome our Second Session Campers on Sunday, July 7^th.   We had about 15 “hold over” campers from First Session who stayed on to join us for second Session.  Opening day was full of greeting new families, unpacking leaning names and generally getting settled at camp.  We started off the week with the first of many ‘Nuke ‘Em’ games, followed by a dip at Greenwood Lake (otherwise known as Freezewood!). After a delicious meal, some camp games & a wonderful evening meeting, we were off to the cabins to get a good night’s sleep ahead of a big first full day of camp!

Traditional Overnight Summer Camp has it's benefits.  But for some families, a Non-Traditional Overnight Summer Camp is just the right fit!  I challenge you to Declare Your Independence Traditional Overnight Camp and see if a Non-Traditional Overnight Camp Experience is the right one for your child!

What are the differences between Traditional and Non-Traditional Overnight Camps?

This is a great question and good place to start.  In this blog post I will explore the major differences between "Traditional Overnight Camp" and "Non-Traditional Overnight Camp".

On Sunday we were excited to welcome our much anticipated first session of campers back to camp after an incredible ten days of staff training! We started off the week with the first of many ‘Nuke ‘Em’ games, followed by a dip at Greenwood Lake (otherwise known as Freezewood!). After a delicious meal, some camp games & a wonderful evening meeting, we were off to the cabins to get a good night’s sleep ahead of a big first full day of camp!

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures are excited to introduce our 2019 All Star Staff Team: