Youth Sleep Away Camp in New York

Warmth Tradition and Spirit in New York

Camp Schodack is a wonderful sleep-away camp in the Capital region, providing a warm family environment for boys and girls in a traditional setting without reliance on new media and at an upbeat, fun and kid- oriented tempo! Campers participate in a wide array of sports, swimming, waterskiing dramatic and creative arts: they are exposed to everything and able to focus on those areas they like best – a tremendous combination! The majority of the day is spent with your cabin group allowing for friendships and bonds unmatched anywhere! The family group spends 45 minutes at each activity before moving onto something else. This ensures instruction and skill development while keeping the focus of the now balanced with the excitement of what’s next in perfect balance. Each camper however is able to choose her or his favorite activities and spend a couple of hours a day away from the family group – encouraging a sense of independence – to make sure they are able to develop most in those areas they enjoy and are particularly interested in.

Group friendships – without all the technology

This is not the place to debate the merits of new media as a whole, but Camp Schodack in upstate New York is going to provide surely a welcome break from it! No personal phones or computers here – rather a focus on personal communication, group dynamics, working together as a team, talking out problems with counselors. Camp Schodack values the smile over the smily face; a real thumbs up rather than a caricature on your phone; a high five over whatever equivalent there is for that! Campers develop friendships over the years with girls and boys and this continues right through the Camper, Leadership Trainee and Staff years – so important when you consider how the continuity of the friend group is changed over the years by the changing of schools.

A staff we trust, and moreover a staff we KNOW!

Camp Schodack has the most incredible bunk staff that it is possible to find. Where else can you find a bunk staff – 3 or 4 counselors for your child’s group – that are known to the camp’s leaders for seven or eight years each? That’s right! Amazingly, over 80% of Camp Schodack’s bunk staff – who are with the children all day as they move from activity to activity – grew up right here as campers, then took part in our two- summer Leadership Trainee program and have returned to ‘give back’ as counselors. We are so proud of being able to nurture young women and men who love Camp Schodack and its traditions so much that it becomes a goal to become the heroes to their campers that they remember having from their counselors several years before. This is only achievable by taking great care in the bunks to provide a nurturing, supportive, pressure-free environment to spend their summers. The structure of the day, the focus on friendship groups, of sitting in a ‘open circle’ (always leaving a space so that another person can walk up and join a group) are designed to help campers love being at Camp Schodack to the point of considering it their second home.

What will my child come home with?

Your child will benefit greatly from the atmosphere at Camp Schodack. Girls and boys grow confident as their skills at activities improve and as their personal relationships and friendships grow stronger. Bunk groups and their staff are chosen with great care before camp starts in order to create a family atmosphere where campers are kind to each other and enjoy moving through the daily and special activities that make up the summer. As the years go by campers look forward to working together as Leadership Trainees to invent, create and put on events for the enjoyment of the rest of camp such as The LT Show, The Carnival, Schodack Recycling and The daily newspaper The Schodack Scoop. As younger campers see the future in front of them – with teenagers given extra responsibility as LTs and then the opportunity to become a staff member like the awesome ones I have now – these campers are giddy with excitement that this indeed is their second home, not just for now but the next decade! Traditions run deep at Camp Schodack and the girls and boys here – welcoming, supportive, encouraging-of-each-other – are the ones who make it all work.