Summer Camp Commences at the JCC

This year, the JCC welcomed nearly 900 campers to its day camp program for kids age 2 to 9 and to its Springfield-based travel camp, which is designed for kids age 9 to 14. The camp, like the JCC itself, draws families from many of the surrounding towns of Scotch Plains, including Westfield, Fanwood, Cranford, Berkeley Heights, Clark, Edison and Metuchen.

Camp Yachad, which means “together” in Hebrew, hasn’t been immune to the economic downturn.

“Our enrollment is essentially the same as last year and we’ve seen a few more families only opting for one four-week session instead of sending their children for the whole summer,” said Camp Yachad Co-Director Mike Goldstein. But due to the fluidity of the economy, the JCC is still accepting registration for the second session, which begins on July 27th.

Goldstein says the mission is to help campers make new friends, develop social and physical skills, teach them to swim and to build confidence. While 80 percent of the campers come from Jewish families, the camp is open to children of any faith. Unique to the JCC camp is an exchange program that enables young adults from Israel to spend their summer living with American host families and serving as camp counselors to both the day campers and the travel program.

The counselors all recently finished their mandatory military service and use this opportunity to explore a different country and share Israeli culture with the campers. Evidence of the Israeli counselors’ influence could be seen throughout the building on Monday, as ‘factoids’ about Israel and Hebrew words, along with their English translation, dotted the hallways.  One former guest counselor, Avi Motil, enjoyed his past experience so much that he’s become a full-time unit director with the JCC.

This reporter, who spent his childhood attending the JCC of Greater Monmouth County in Deal Township, dropped off his nearly 3-year-old son Harrison (pictured) at the camp on Monday. While it’s a difficult experience for both parents and campers alike to separate, camp instructors like Mary Stockton help ease the transition. “Miss Mary” as the kids call her, has been a camp counselor for the past four years and a teacher at the JCC pre-school since 1995. She and two assistant counselors supervise, teach and nurture the 15 children that make up her group and all of the other groups within the camp.

While the JCC offers a multitude of offerings throughout the year, the camp is truly “a year-round project,” Goldstein said. He begins planning next year’s camp right after Labor Day. Tasks in the ‘off-season’ include: interviewing, hiring and training some 300 temporary staff; beginning enrollment in December; planning the curriculum; and preparing to accommodate the 45 children with special needs that the JCC welcomes each summer, not to mention the 25 percent of campers who have food allergies. All in all, Camp Yachad, like many other community-based camps in the area, is a production that requires heavy lifting, but provides indelible memories for the kids who attend.