Director Jud's Blog

Stone Mountain Adventures announces plans to launch a Camp Radio Station this summer!

Can you believe that it is already time for this session to go white water raftering? Tomorrow SMA hits the class III rapids of the Youghiogheny River for a seven mile white water rollercoaster ride! If Hershey Park wasn’t enough excitement, this trip has the campers psyched for an entire day adventure that they will never forget. Teamwork, determination, and positive attitudes make nicely for a successful fun rafting team. SMA is early to rise tomorrow to hit the road early for our big adventure.

We survived the summer!

As sad as myself and all the staff was to see the second session campers go, the arrival of our third session kids turned our frowns upside down.  After a much needed two day intersession, our worn out staff fully rejuvenated and welcomed the new arrivals in true SMA style. It’s the best feeling when the last van arrives and all the campers are finally all together…53 of them this session! I knew fun was in store to round out our summer of 2010!

This first week of activities had it all! Rock climbers were kissing carabineers, wakemasters were clearing the wake, horsemasters and bikers were out on the trail, and everyone was going swimming in the lake.  In the evening everyone got a taste of crazy “Jud games” and they were a big hit! Besides Jud games, the kids  have had a campfire and invention convention for their evening activities. The campfire was one of my favorite evenings of course due to the kid’s eagerness to dress in bunk junk and perform skits. Two overnights went out this past week: waterskiing and canoeing. Both were huge successes and the campers came back pretty exhausted but very happy for their experience.  Stone Mountain also went disco rollerskating in State College last night! Nothing beats dancing while skating to good tunes in good company. Everyone was very exhausted after last night and got to sleep in today before bunk clean out!

Week two of second session has gone by in a flash. So much has occurred this past week that it’s sometimes hard to remember all of the great memories. Sunday was the SMA Dance, and that was a great time. Everyone dressed the theme: Black and White and the decorations were top notch. All of the kids showed off their best moves and sang along to some good tunes to end the evening. Monday morning was a long day for everyone here at camp. We hit the road around 8am to head off for our white water rafting extravaganza. Each raft successfully completed the 7 miles stretch of white water and got to cool off in the river. It was a grand time! Three overnights took place this past week: mountain biking, waterskiing, and canoeing. All the campers beat the heat and spent most of their day on the water or hydrating on their bike trial. A few spills here and there but all the campers made it safely back to tell the tale.  True champions these campers are!

Last night was the SMA Carnival with live music from our SMA Band. The band played quite a selection of music and caught everyone’s attention with their enthusiasm and passionate singing. Kids enjoyed winning prizes and playing the carnival games. The ring toss, blackjack and the soccer kick were quite popular. We finished the evening off last night with the SMA Dating game. It’s always nice sending happy campers off to bed after having a good laugh! 

At 7:30 this morning, campers and staff were hugging, loading trunks and sleeping bags into vans, and preparing to head back to the “real world.”  The Northeast Van is already on its way up the coast, and the DC Van just left for our nation’s capital.  Folks flying from Harrisburg are putting together their stuff, and slowly but surely the cars of families are trickling in.  The atmosphere this morning is calm and a little sleepy (that’s what happens when you stay up all night watching movies in the barn), and a little sad that we won’t all be back together for another 11 months.  But we have our memories of laughter, silliness, songs, frisbee games, friendship bracelets, and so much more to keep us going until we’re back again.

A huge shout-out of thanks to our SMA3 parents, who were attentive, caring, and supportive.  We hope you enjoy hearing all of the adventures your camper had this summer!

So much has happened in such a short amount of time!

This will be our 27th summer of camp and we have decided it is “Time for Change” here at SMA.  This summer that change will come in the form of renaming our camper cabins.  For all you SMA teen camp  alum I know this may come as a shock as it will be hard to image “Upper Boys” being named anything else.  However, we are committed to this change and we welcome your ideas for each cabin.  The best way to share your ideas is to comment on this post .

Greetings salutations and Happy Thanksgiving from every one at Stone Mountain Adventures! It’s hard for us to believe that it’s already late November and camp has been over for about four months. The good news is that the start of First Session 2009 is only 213 days away (crazy)!

September 18th, 2008

September 12th, 2008

August 30th, 2008

7/1/2008

6/30/2008

Hello and thanks for checking out my blog.  My name is Jud Millar and I am the director of Stone Mountain Adventures, a co-ed overnight summer camp for kids ages 12-16. We are looking forward to another fantastic summer!