Director Jud's Blog

As the owner and director of an overnight teen summer camp, one of the most frequent post-camp parent comments I receive is "My kid is so much more responsible! He wakes up on his own and wants to do basic tasks around the house that I've been begging him to do for years!" Parents are incredulous. "What did you do to my kid? She's suddenly more responsible." Freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand at an overnight summer camp. Teens often emerge from time away from home feeling confident and as if they have ownership over their choices and endeavors. 

As a summer camp director here at Stone Mountain Adventures I talk with a lot of parents and teenagers about the activities we do at camp.  One of the most exciting and popular activities at our overnight teen camp is rock climbing.   A questions that I am often asked by perspective families is: What is the difference between Outdoor and Indoor Rock Climbing?  In the post I will contrast and compare the similarities and differences.

Body Position on a mountain bike makes a big difference with the speed you carry through corners and on decent and if you go airborne. The fundamentals of body position is moving your body weight around on the bike at the appropriate time based the terrain on the trail.

Seated Position – More efficient but will have to get out of the saddle to increase power. But this is mountain biking and seated more efficient power is not always going to work. As trails and terrain gets more technical you will need to adopt more of an attach position.

After a safe, successful and COVID-19 free summer in 2020 we are all looking forward to the Stone Mountain Adventures (SMA) Summer of 2021.  Safely running an overnight summer camp in the middle of a pandemic was an incredible achievement and we did so by our vigilance, our devotion to our COVID-19 Protocols and our attention to detail. We required all campers and staff to be tested pre-camp thus creating our COVID-19 Free SMA Bubble.

We partnered with the CDC, the Pennsylvania Health Department, the American Camping Association, local healthcare professionals and an Epidemiologist from Penn State University to create a comprehensive 32 page SMA COVID-19 Protocol Document.  These protocols provided a roadmap for how to navigate the complicated nuances of safely running an overnight camp during a pandemic.  COVID-19 will likely be with us in some form this summer and we will be ready.  The success we achieved last summer has prepared us to provide another healthy summer at SMA in Central PA. Here is an overview of our COVID-19 Protocol from 2020.

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures are excited that our 2 week teen summer camp is being featured on the Regpack blog?

Last week Stone Mountain Adventures Camp Director and Owner Jud Millar was interviewed by Samantha Veneri and Asaf Darah.  Regpack is an online registration management platform designed to simplify and accelerate the registration process.   Asaf Darah is the founder and CEO of Regpack and specializes in product development for the web, team building and bringing a company from concept to reality. 

Does your teenager love to mountain bike? Does your teen want to ride mountain bikes everyday and gain skill while having fun? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you should consider a summer camp that has a focus on mountain biking. Attending a mountain biking summer camp has the potential to be a very positive experience for teenagers. It provides the perfect opportunity for them to learn mountain bike specific skills that will take their riding to the next level. There are mountain biking camps are in different parts of the country. Some things to consider when choosing a mountain bike summer camp for your child include:

• The location of the camp
• The type and quality of the mountain biking trails
• The experience level of staff
• The safety record of the program
• Whether the camp provides mountain bikes or campers need to bring their own bike

Parents can compare the several camps available then choose the best that can work for their kids. Kids who get the opportunity to interact in the camps have the best opportunity to develop life skills. Here are some of the reasons why parents should choose mountain biking teen camp:

Time to Reflect…

• Cara Exten, our camp epidemiologist who assisted us in creating our COVID19 Protocol Document which gave us a roadmap for how to navigate this summer. 
• My fellow camp director colleagues who helped keep our vision for the summer strong during our endless zoom meetings.
• Dr Allison Buza-Holmes (our camp Doctor) and the other health care professionals as well as the super stars at the CSI COVID Testing Facility
• To you, our SMA Families that stuck with us and had faith that we could and would keep your child safe this summer.
• To our campers who accepted the COVID changes of this past summer and fully embraced the active outdoor SMA lifestyle and helped to make the SMA Summer of 2020 one of the record books 
• And finally to the Incredible All Star SMA Staff Team of 2020 (camp counsels and support staff included): it was because of your work ethic and dedication to our campers that we were able to run camp this summer. Through all the late nights and early mornings and camp activities and the crazy of camp your commitment to our mission and your enthusiasm camp all things camp remained steadfast and we all owe you a debt of gratitude.

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures are thrilled to be about to share our SMA Session 4 Slideshow with you:

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures Summer Camp for Teens are thrilled to share the Session 3, 2020 Slideshow... enjoy!

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures are SO EXCITED to share the Session 2, 2020 Slideshow:

Session 4 Blog Post

            Session 2 ended on a very high energy and enthusiastic note and all of us here at camp could not wait for session 3 to begin! Intersession was a good time to rest and recharge before beginning another phenomenal 2 weeks here at Stone Mountain. Right now, we are at the halfway point and we have had tons of fun and great laughs with many more to come. This session is full of more than 60 lively and charismatic campers who are always challenging themselves with new activities and forming new bonds.

SMA 2020 is off to an amazing start! The first week has been the perfect escape from the new and stressful world around us. At camp, instead of watching funny shows on Netflix campers are making their own skits that make us laugh even more, instead of at home workout videos we’re sprinting to capture the flag, and instead of listening to the news we’re listening to funny stories of the day while we all sit together at evening meeting. Never before have we all needed the joy and adventure of SMA quite this much!

All of us at Stone Mountain Adventures are thrilled to introduce the SMA Staff Team of Summer 2020!

This is Camp Director and Owner Jud Millar: Our initial goal was to determine if it was safe and responsible to hold summer camp in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic assuming we are allowed to open by local government. After working through the nuances of camp with Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, Cara Exten, and utilizing guidance published by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, CDC, WHO, and the American Camp Association (all resources listed on page 18), we have determined that it is possible to run a safe and responsible summer program with some changes to our programming and the addition of certain safety protocols. Bear in mind, if we are not permitted by law to open, we will not legally be able to hold our summer program.