Local Mom Creates Cure for Homesick Campers

Moms all over the North Shore are packing duffel bags and getting their kids ready for overnight camp. Bug spray, sunscreen, band-aids, and toothpaste are a few necessities. But there’s one item some are adding to the list this year: Happy Camper Spray, a grape jelly scented pillow spray aimed to help homesick kids.

Debbie Glickman, founder of Fairy Tale Wishes, the company that makes Happy Camper Spray and other products for childhood fears said her business stemmed from her own experiences.

“My son was really scared of the dark when he was little and I used to spray his pillow with lavender pillow spray to calm him down," the Highland Park mother of two said. "I’d tell him ‘I found this magic spray’ and I thought to myself ‘What a great idea.'"

The idea quickly caught on. Dana Cohn is the Associate Director of Lake of the Woods and Greenwoods Camps in Decatur, Michigan. She said she learned about Happy Camper Spray last year when some of the campers showed up with it.

“For kids going away (some for the first time) for a month, it’s hard for some of them,” said Cohn. “It’s a great thing to say to campers ‘Why don’t we use our magic spray today and see if it helps us get through the day?’”

Glickman tested four different scents (chocolate chip, vanilla, chocolate and grape jelly) on dozens of kids, asking them which scent reminded them most of being at home. Participants unanimously picked grape jelly.

Deerfield mom Dhana Cohen sent the spray with her ten-year-old son Spencer to overnight camp in Wisconsin last year.

“My mom gave it to me just in case I needed it,” said Spencer, who admitted he used it not because he was homesick, but because he liked the smell.

Glickman said last summer, she even got an order for a case of Happy Camper Spray from the director of her daughter’s camp, after her daughter gave the spray to a fellow camper who was having a difficult time away from home.

“Gracie walked over to the cabin and the boy was crying," Glickman remembered of her daughter's experience.

"She showed it to him and sprayed it on his pillow and he came out beaming with a smile, saying ‘This stuff is the greatest!’”