Director Jud's Blog

This Jud Millar coming to you “live” from Day 2 at the American Camping Association (ACA) Keystone Conference.  This year the conference is once again being held at beautiful Bear Mountain Ski Resort and Conference center in Macungie, PA near Allentown, PA.  I attended this conference 2 years ago and had a fabulous experience and was looking forward to this year’s event with much anticipation.  So far I have not been disappointed, rather I’ve been impressed and motivated! 

Former Stone Mountain Adventures camp counselor Brenton Mitchell was recently featured in a regional periodical called The State College Magazine. The piece follows Brenton's life journey while highlighting career working as the senior program manager for World in Conversation, an organization that grew out of Penn State’s sociology department. 

Next week SMA Teen Camp Director Jud Millar is attending the American Camp Association Keystone Conference at Bear Creek Mountain Resort & Conference Center.  Attending ACA Conference is an incredible professional development opportunity.  It's a fantastic chance to learn from summer camp industry professionals, network with our camp directors and attend informative workshops.  The Keystone Retreat offers three content tracks running concurrently: PROGRAMMING, LEADERSHIP, and MAINTENANCE as well as many others - Core Competencies included - vital to a successful camp operation.

The summer of 2016 is now over and now a memory, the summer of 2017 is a mystery, the here-and-now is a gift, that's why it's called the "present".  As we work to live in the present we recently received a very touching letter from one of our Third Year Camper's Parent.

Local resident Helena Kotala has been nominated as Adventurer of the Year in Blue Ridge Outdoors (BRO) Magazine due to her several interests and accomplishments in outdoor activities.

Mountain biking enthusiasts and members of various organizations instrumental in the construction of Raystown Skills Park cut the ribbon to officially open the park Wednesday morning at the Raystown Visitors Center at Seven Points.

Jacinda Alexander has created a "Must See" video that captures the essence of SMA!

Jacinda was a first year camp counselor at SMA this summer and brought a ton of experience and energy to our summer camp for teenagers.  "JC" traveled a hopping 8600 miles from her family home on the outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand to join our staff team.  Similar to other international staff she arrived weary and tired but excited about her new upcoming adventure.  During the two and a half months that JC was at Stone Mountain Adventures she took her GoPro with on many activities and often had it around camp

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Stone Mountain Adventures is a Co-Ed Overnight Summer Camp in central PA.  We are excited to present our 4th Session, 2016 Slideshow!

Each session at SMA Co-Ed Overnight Summer Camp we take pictures of campers and staff on activities (rock climbing, wakeboarding, art studio, etc.), doing community service, participating in evening activities (Jud Games, yea!) and hanging around camp with friends. We gather the best of these photos, add a summer soundtrack, and put together a slideshow that really captures the crazy, silly, amazing, magical moments of each session.

 Stone Mountain Adventures is a 4 Week Summer Camp in central PA.  We are excited to present our 3rd Session, 2016 Slideshow!

Each session at SMA Teen Camp we take pictures of campers and staff on activities (rock climbing, wakeboarding, art studio, etc.), doing community service, participating in evening activities (Jud Games, yea!) and hanging around camp with friends. We gather the best of these photos, add a summer soundtrack, and put together a slideshow that really captures the crazy, silly, amazing, magical moments of each session.

A few weeks ago posted our 2016 SMA 2 Week Summer Camp Second Session Slideshow using www.flickr.com here on the Director Jud's Blog.  Since then we have received feedback that some campers were unable to view the slideshow.  We have reformatted our slideshow and uploaded it to YouTube.  

A few weeks ago posted our 2016 SMA Summer Camp for Teenagers 1st Session Slideshow using www.flickr.com here on the Director Jud's Blog.  Since then we have received feedback that some campers were unable to view the slideshow.  We have reformatted our slideshow and uploaded it to YouTube.  

In the days leading up to SMA Teen Summer Camp  Summer2016 life was busy.  Staff Training was starting in jsut a few days there was lots to do around camp.  One major part of the preparations included "Summerizing" the Rhino Dining Room and Kitchen for use by our incredible kitchen staff, our counselors and ultimately our campers.  Somewhere in that flurry of sweeping and wiping and scrubbing Rory Bannon came to me and said "Jud, the faucet in the kitchen won't turn off".

Have you ever heard of “The Great Smoothie Challenge”?  This was a term that I had never heard of before my son Wyatt (10) asked me “Dad, can we do the Smoothie Challenge someday”.  He explained the basic rules and I responded “Sure, sure – we’ll do that someday…”  That was my way of putting him off and hoping that he would forget about it and move on to some other crazy idea.  Not likely if you have ever met Wyatt Millar.

The SMA Second Session Slideshow is Finally Here!

Second Session 2016 was an awesome adventure for all involved this summer!  During Second Session, 2016 at SMA Rock Climbing Summer Camp we took pictures of campers and staff on activities, doing community service, participating in evening activities (Jud Games, yea!) and hanging around camp with friends. We gather the best of these photos, add a summer soundtrack, and put together a slideshow that really captures the crazy, silly, amazing, magical moments of each session. 

INTRODUCTION:

During First Session, 2016 at SMA Horseback Riding Summer Camp we took pictures of campers and staff on activities, doing community service, participating in evening activities (Jud Games, yea!) and hanging around camp with friends. We gather the best of these photos, add a summer soundtrack, and put together a slideshow that really captures the crazy, silly, amazing, magical moments of each session. Activity photos include: 

• Rock Climbing
• Horseback Riding
• Wakeboarding 
• And a lot more!

On Wednesday, August 17th we all piled into our vans and began the long drive to Ohiopyle, PA for an amazing trip down the Lower Yough River. For our staf and a few campers this was the 4th trip down the mighty Yough River of the summer!  

Saving the best for last – SMA Session 4, 2016 

Saving the best for last session 4 2016 at Stone Mountain Adventures has kicked off with an explosion of wackiness, adventure and fun. Already a week deep this is our smallest group of the Summer facilitating an awesomely close net bunch of campers and friendships being formed.  All those left over from the previous session made a great effort in welcoming the new campers, chatting to families and giving our new campers tours of the camp!

We had a fantastic day White Water Rafting during 3rd Session!

On Tuesday, August 2nd we all piled into our vans and began the long drive to Ohiopyle, PA for an amazing trip down the Lower Yough River. Since the very first day of the session, campers and counselors were waiting for this day. The weather was perfect, our guiders were prepared and we were all So Excited! We spent about 4 hours on the water, going down rapids, eating a yummy lunch prepared by our guides and trying to pull each other out of the rafts when the "pool was open" in the the slow sections of the river.

We are having SO MUCH FUN in third session of 2016 at Stone Mountain Adventures!

So far this session we have been hiking to Hunters Rock, we have completed the 1000 step hike, played soccer, volleyball, touch rugby, tennis, softball, ultimate Frisbee and Frisbee Golf both at the SMA course and at the Juniata College course. The beautiful weather this summer has meant that all water activities have been very popular with the campers. SUP (Stand up Paddle boarding) and Sail at Raystown Lake is a favorite on a hot day. We have been mountain biking on the Allegrippis Trails and along an old rail road. Canoeing down the little Juniata is always fun. Lots of campers have been working on their collage, and pointillism skills in Art Studio.