Director Jud's Blog

How Extreme Sports Can Help in Youth Development

Extreme sports are not only for thrill-seekers, they may even have benefits for the countless youths who are attracted to these activities. While it is true that many parents have become fixated on the safety of children and teens enjoying these sports, there might be a side to it that they have not looked at. It’s not only the perceived harm that can occur to extreme sports participants, it is also the skills and mindset they acquire while doing them.

Defining Extreme Sports

Adventure or extreme sports are broadly defined as ‘individualistic sports containing structural components of real or perceived danger’ (Heggie and Caine, 2012). In the last decade, there has been an explosion of extreme sports participation among both youths and adults. These adventure sports include water rafting, sailing, SUPing, canoeing, mountain, biking, rock climbing, hiking and horseback riding, among others.

Stone Mountain Adventures will attend will attend the Teen Summer Expo hosted by The Shipley School .

What: Teen Summer Expo hosted by The Shipley School 

When: Monday, February 13, 2017 from 5.30 to 8pm

Where: The Shipley School - Commons, 825 Montgomery Ave, Bryn Mawr, PA

Stone Mountain Adventures will be attending the Arlington Camp Fair tomorrow evening!

What: Arlington Public Schools Summer Activities Fair

When: Fri, Feb. 10, 2017 from 6-8 p.m.

Where: Jefferson Community Center, 3501 2nd St. S., Arlington, VA

Jud Millar will be traveling to meet with perspective families at the Tower Hill Camp Fair.

When:: Thursday, February 2nd, 2017

Where:Tower Hill School Field House: 2813 W. 17th Street, Wilmington, DE 19806.

What: THe Tower Hill Camp Fair.

Recent Stone Mountain Adventures Summer Camps for Teens campers to attend camp from Delaware include: 

Jack McDermott, Wilmington, DE                           

Jordan Hill, Hockessin, DE                                              

Sam Wien, Wilmington, DE      

How to Choose Horseback Riding Summer Camps  

If you have a child who loves to ride horses then having them attend a summer camp can be a
great to spend part of their summer. Whether your child is a beginner or an experienced rider there is a horseback riding summer camp out there for them. For kids who are inexperienced but excited to learn, attending a horseback riding camp is a fantastic way for them to:

• Hang out with kids who love horses
• Learn horse-care and barn safety in a controlled environment
• Gain horseback riding skills and experiences
• Discover whether riding horses is something they want to do more of when they return home

For experienced riders who already take lessons at home and may even lease or own a horse, attending an equestrian summer camp gives them the opportunity to:

• Be where they want to be - in the barn around horses everyday
• Spend time with other campers who are passionate about riding horses
• Take small group or individual riding lessons everyday
• Be mentored by knowledgeable horseback riding instructors who are great role models

Why you should be using DYE LED Lighting Everywhere

Getting out and about during the summer months is an exciting and fun activity. However, it’s important to make sure that children are safe, especially when cycling late in the evening. LED lights are easy to install anywhere, even on bicycles. Lights on bikes are the best way to make sure that children riding bicycles can be seen by other road users.

Only One Hundred and Fifty Days Until the Grand Opening of Stone Mountain Adventures Teen Summer Camp Two Thousand and Seventeen.

Stone Mountain Adventures is a co-ed overnight summer camp for teenagers located in central Pennsylvania.  We serve young teens ages 12 to 16 and were founded in 1983 by Pam and Biff Houldin.  We offer fantastic summer camp activities including:

• Community Service Projects 

• Outdoor Adventure Activities

• Creative Arts

• Traditional Sports

• Water Sports

Stone Mountain Adventures director Jud Millarwill be attending the Greenwhich High School Summerfare, in Greenwhich, CT next week.  SMA will be one of many summer camps for teenagers that will be represented at the camp fair.  Other types of programs that will be attending include day camps, wilderness trips and international programs with a focus on language immersion, community service and/or cultural exchange.

What: Greenwhich High School Summerfare Camp Fair

When: Wednesday, January 25th 2017

Where: Greenwhich High School, 10 Hillside Rd, Greenwich, CT 06830

Camp Director Jud Millar will attend the Chester County Summer Adventures Camp and Activity Fair

The Summer Adventures Camp and Activities Fair is organized and sponsored by the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) and will be held at the Technical College High School, Brandywine Campus.  This is a great opportunity to meet perspective camp families and have quality "face to face" interactions.

When:      

• January 24, 2017  
  
• 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
  

Where:    

• Chester County Intermediate Unit
• Technical College High School, Brandywine Campus 
•  455 Boot Road  Downingtown, PA 19335   Directions

Dirt Rag Announces the Dates for this years edition of Dirt Fest

Dirt Fest is a mountain biking festival that takes place in Central Pennsylvania every spring.  The purpose of Dirt Fest is to "Celebrate Mountain Bike Culture", and to ride a lot of bikes.  Riders at Dirfest will get to experience the thrill of the Allegrippis Trail System.  According to the Dirt Fest website the Allegrippis Trail System is "Bike-optimized, so expect routes that contour, and roll with bermed turns and lots of flow."  The best part about the Allegrippis Trail System is that riders of all skill levels and experiences level can ride them with success and have fun!

What:  Dirt Rag's Dirt Fest

Where: The Allegrippis Trails at Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania

When: May 18 - 21, 2017

Why: Because Everyone Loves to Ride Bikes!

From everyone at Stone Mountain Adventures

Teen Summer Camp we wish you

12 Months happiness, 52 weeks fun,
365 Days laughter, 8760 hrs good luck,
525600 Minutes joy, 31536000 seconds success,
and a very 
Happy New Year

The Raystown Branch of the Juniata River is one of the most popular rivers in central Pennsylvania for paddlers and floaters.  This picturesque river is located below the Raystown Lake Dam in Huntingdon County.  Because of the outflow of water from the Raystown Lake Dam the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River holds water all summer when other rivers in the area are too low to navigate safely.  These factors combine to make this stretch of river from Corbin's Island to "The Point" once of the most popular rivers for canoers, kayakers and inner tubers.  

There are activities at SMA Teen Camp to "Go Fast":

SMA is an "Adventure Camp", thus the name Stone Mountain Adventures.  There are times when the thrill seekers at SMA Teen Summer Camp thrive on the adrenaline rush of our adventure activities including:

• Mountain biking
  
• Rock Climbing
• Canoeing
• Wakeboarding and Water Skiing
• Horseback Riding
• White Water Rafting

If you were to ask any one of my friends back home what my favorite thing in the world was, they would, without hesitation, say SMA Summer Camp for Teenagers. And I am sure if you asked them to give any fact about me it would surely revolve around me and my camp experience. I can for sure say that I mention camp on a daily basis. I pride myself in making one connection or retelling, probably for the fifth time, one silly story every day. Most of the stories I tell my friends ends in them giving me a weird look or making a face that screams they do not believe me.

Hi, my name is Mirena Medina. I have been going Stone Mountain Adventures for four years and I am ecstatic to be spending my fifth and last summer at such a wonderful place. I can say with 100% conviction that Stone Mountain Adventures Teen Summer Camp is my favorite place on Earth. And when my camper experience was coming to an end and I found out there was an opportunity for me to return, there was no way I was not going to jump at that opportunity.

Stone Mountain Adventures (SMA) is a summer camp for teens ages 12 to 16 located in Central Pennsylvania.  Our summer is currently featured a a resource web site called TeenLife.  TeenLife.com is the the leading online platform for finding academic and experiential learning opportunities that prepare teens for success in college and life beyond school.

It's hard to believe that it's already December and the holiday season is right around the corner.  According to my calculations the beginning of Stone Mountain Adventures 2017 is 200 Days Away!

Time is a funny thing as it seems to speed up or slow down depending on what is happening in your life.  For example, the memories of SMA Summer Camp 2016 are still fresh in my mind and when I look at photos from the summer it feels like it just happened.  However it has been 108 days since Stone Mountain Adventures 4th Session, 2016 ended.  That's:

• • 9,331,200 seconds
  • 155,520 minutes
  • 2592 hours
  • 108 days
  • 15 weeks and 3 days

It has almost 2 full weeks since I attended the Keystone American Camping Association Conference at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA near Allentown, PA.  I always feel like time helps to give me perspective on things and I'm able to understand my experiences better.  This is certainly the case with the ACA Keystone Conference for sure.

"Never write about a place until you're away from it, because that gives you perspective" - Ernest Hemingway

Last week Stone Mountain Adventures participated in Summer Camp T-shirt day.  It was so awesome to see so many SMA Teen Summer Camp Staff, Campers and Alumni find thier favorite camp t-shirst, take a photos and share them on social media.  I think all who participated really felt the SMA spirit!

We were so inspired by this event that we collected most of the photos that were submitted and created a video slideshow!

We live on a giant ball of water, dirt and rock called The Earth that orbits our star called The Sun.  As we orbit The Sun, we the inhabitants of Earth are traveling through space about 1000 miles per hour.  The Earth is tilted on it's axis at an angle of 23.5 degrees relative to it's orbital plane around the sun, this time of year those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, specifically at 40.5762 degrees north of the equator we start to trend further from the sun.  During the summer month we trend closer to the sun and all of us at Stone Mountain Adventures enjoy warm temperatures and are able to swim in Raystown Lake, go white water rafting, wear flip flops and chacos all summer and live in shorts and t-shirts.  As we trend further from the sun the temperatures begin to drop and the leaves change color from deep green to bright oranges and red and then to brown and eventually fall to the ground to be turned into much and then to dirt.  As we trend still further from the sun temperatures continue to drop hovering around and below the freezing mark and the moisture in the air freezes and falls first as now flurries and then as snow storms.  This change from 85 degrees + in July and August to 15 to 35 degrees in the late fall and winter months is dramatic.  We earthlings call this the changing of the seasons.  

I am thankful for the changing of the seasons and recognize the changes in my behavior and emotional state as a result.  I have so much more to be thankful for...