Hey, Summer Campers!

Did you know that there are millions upon millions upon millions of kids—just like you—who go to summer camp every year? Considering that, it’s really not that surprising to see that so many of our favorite celebrities themselves have attended summer camps when they were your age.

Read up on your favorite celebrities. Maybe they even went to the same summer camp that you’re attending! How cool would it be to know that you’re going to the same camp as Lisa Loeb, or maybe even the great and powerful Oz himself—James Franco.

Well, if any of you are planning on spending your summer at URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, Mississippi, then you’ll be attending the same summer camp as Snow White—or American actress, Ginnifer Goodwin who plays Snow White on TV.

Run by the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Henry S. Jacobs Camp has been giving kids from all around the Deep South a great summer camp experience since 1970. This camp’s goal is to help its campers develop some new skills, realize some things about themselves as well as the community around them. It looks like it did some good for Ms. Goodwin.

Probably known best for her roles in Mona Lisa Smile, and He’s Just Not That into You, Ginnifer currently plays the lead role of Mary Margaret Blanchard (a.k.a. Snow White) in the television series, Once Upon a Time on ABC. She also played Aunt Bea in the great water balloon scene from Ramona and Beezus which is based on the Ramona novels by Beverly Cleary.

Ginnifer didn’t really start her career until after college. She graduated from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts with a Bachelor’s in Acting. Dedication, patience, and a bit of summer camp took Ginnifer a long way. How will your summer camp experience help shape you?

Hey, Summer Campers!

It’s time for another celebrity at summer camp blog post where you learn all about your favorite big names. Today I’m going to tell you about Lisa Loeb, an excellent singer/songwriter and actress who started out as a summer camper just like yourselves!

Lisa attended Camp Champions, a fun-filled boys and girls camp just outside Austin Texas where she remembers quite fondly sitting around a campfire or close to the water and singing fun, camp songs such as “Peanut, Peanut Butter and Jelly”. She had so much fun doing it as a kid that she basically turned it into her career!

By the age of twenty-six, Lisa’s musical career was in full swing after she released the song “Stay (I Missed You)” in 1994. Among her five studio CDs are her major label debut, Tails and the album’s Grammy-nominated follow-up Firecracker—both of which are gold-selling albums.

Aside from her musical career, Lisa has worked in film too, as well as voice-over work, and television, but above all else, she really seems to gravitate toward children’s music! You can see in her concerts that she truly enjoys performing songs that she used to sing her days at summer camp.

About five years ago, she released the awesome Camp Lisa under her own record label, Furious Rose Productions. On this album you’ll find twenty-one songs, both camp classics as well as originals performed by Lisa along with—among other guest performers—funnyman (and banjo master), Steve Martin.

Five years before Camp Lisa she released Catch the Moon with Elizabeth Mitchell. And most recently, she has put out her first joint children’s book and album, Lisa Loeb’s Silly Sing-Along: The Disappointing Pancake and Other Zany Songs in 2011.

It’s pretty easy to see that summer camp meant a lot to Lisa Loeb. What will it mean to you? Thanks for reading, Camp Folks!

Hey, Camp Kids!

You know who used to be a summer camper just like yourselves? Funny man Seth Rogen! This very successful comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, and voice artist got his start performing stand-up comedy at Camp Miriam, a beautiful 20-acre waterfront site in Canada on the Gabriola Island—close to Vancouver.

Passionate about making others laugh, Seth didn’t stop after summer camp. At the young age of 16, he took second place in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest of 1998. “As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted,” Seth has said about himself.  

Also in 1998, he a landed a small role alongside James Franco in the short-lived cult classic Freaks and Geeks. Though Seth still lived with his family in Canada when he got the part, they relocated together to live in Los Angeles. Seth paid the bills for his family after his father lost his job and his mother quit hers. He was already receiving the largest wages in the family.

Though Freaks and Geeks lasted only one season, it gave Seth the opportunity to meet James Franco as well as the writer of the show, Judd Apatow. With some guidance from Judd (who became a very close-knit friend of Seth’s) as well as his own hard work and determination, Seth has ventured into the realm of super stardom thanks to his film career.

Seth always thought he’d be more successful as a screenwriter than a Hollywood actor, but the actor most-likely underestimated his own charisma. In any case, he seems to have found his niche in writing, directing, producing, and acting in his own movies.

Aside from his live-action comedies, he has done voice work for a number of cartoon films such as Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul.

Despite his success, Seth is one actor who stays humble and remembers his beginnings. “Obviously, I can’t stress how important Judd’s been to my career,” he’s said about his friend. Seth may have started out on a small scale telling jokes at summer camp, but look at where it took him!

Where will summer camp take you? Till next time, Camp Folks! And thanks for reading.

Hey, Campers!

Ready to hear about another rockin’ celebrity who started out going to summer camp (just like you) before they became a famous star? Today, singer/songwriter Adam Levine, joins Anne Hathaway, Zooey Deschanel, and James Franco on Everything Summer Camp’s blog posts of celebrities in summer camp.   

Along with Ms. Deschanel, Adam too attended Camp French Woods Festival of Performing Arts in his childhood. Located on a private lake called Sand Pond in the western area of the Catskill Mountains, just outside Hancock, New York, French Woods is a performing arts summer camp. Founded in 1970 (nine years before Adam was born), it is now owned by Mr. Ron Schaefer.

If you have interest in the performing arts, French Woods is a camp for you to check out. They offer programs in dance, magic, visual arts, skateboarding, sport and horseback riding, and—two of Adam’s favorites—theatre and music!

Sometime after camp in his later teens, Adam, with a friend of his started up an indie pop band together. They called it Kara’s Flowers. Adam featured as the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist. The band only put out a single album that flopped. Consequently, they split up.

But time heals all and the members of the band ended up getting the group back together along with an additional fifth member. They named themselves Maroon 5.

With great success in the United States, Adam, with the band at his side, has been awarded three Grammies, two Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards, one at the MTV Video Music Awards, and one at the World Music Awards.

In his early thirties, Adam started working as one of the four coaches on the hit television series, The Voice on NBC. Today, he continues to do the things he loves.

Where will summer camp take you? And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John

Hey, Blog Readers!

Just like all of you, everyone here at Everything Summer Camp has their own favorites of musicians, movie stars, and other celebrities among the many in the modern day biz. And just like all of you, all of the celebrities we feature on our Summer Camp Celebrity blog posts at some point went to summer camp.

Today’s post will be the third summer camp celebrity blog post we’ve published. The last summer camp celebrity that we talked about was the spritely actress/musician Zooey Deschanel; and before her post, we talked about the delightful Anne Hathaway.

Today we’re talking about the one, the only, the magnificent, James Franco who attended a four-week summer program for gifted high-schoolers at Innerspark: California State Summer School for the Arts. This summer program studies the art of Theater, along with Animation, Dance, Film, Music, Visual Arts, and—my own, personal favorite—Creative Writing.

James continued to pursue his passion after his summer camp experience and spent 15 months training to be an actor. He then plugged away in Los Angeles, auditioning for parts and yielding minimal results for two years before landing work on the cult classic television series Freaks and Geek in 1999. 

Two years after Freaks and Geeks which only lasted one season, James was cast to play James Dean in a biographical, made-for-TV movie. For this part, Franco really studied James Dean. He took the role so seriously the he learned to ride a motorcycle, and learned to play the guitar as well as the bongos just to better understand his character. It’s no surprise he won a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal.

With many other films along the way, James landed himself the part of Harry Osborn, the child of the evil Green Goblin in the superhero movie, Spider-Man. He then continued the role in the following, extremely (and increasingly) successful sequels in 2004 and again in 2007.

Mr. Franco continues to remain busy with his work as he is currently starring as the wizard in the Disney prequel, Oz: The Great and Powerful.

A good start in summer camp, patience, and determination is all it took for James Franco. What will it take for you? And, as always, thanks for reading.