Students head to sleep away camp, their home away from home

Oliver Konopko Staff Writer

“Camp is easily the best seven weeks of the year,” Camp Robinhood camper Cooper Ferdman (10) said. While the idea of spending your summer in a cabin in the middle of Maine, New Hampshire, or upstate New York without your phone for weeks may sound daunting, many students agree with Ferdman that sleep-away camp is their “home away from home” for the summer.

For four to eight-weeks, campers leave their homes and head to sleep-away camp, where they enjoy activities such as water skiing,sailing, arts and crafts, and a wide range of sports, Camp Mataponi camper Sofia Sahai (9) said. However, it is not the activities that keep campers coming back each summer, she said. “I love the place itself, but it’s really the people that make it the best time.”

Ellie Romero (10) first went to Camp Mataponi when she was ten years old and has been going ever since. She initially went to camp because many of her friends did, so she wanted to be with them during would always come home, and I would always be mad because they would spend all of our dinners together like ‘oh my god. Remember that time,’ talking about memories. So I wanted to be a part of the stories and know the people that they were laughing about.”

However, not everyone makes the “right” choice about camp on the first try. Ferdman first went to Camp Greylock, but found that he did not love the camp experience, he said. “I was terribly homesick, didn’t like being there, and I never really found my people.”

Willing to give camp another try, Ferdman attended Robinhood the following summer. Ferdman, like many others, chose his camp because he had family friends who had previously attended, he said. At first, Ferdman had planned to stay for four weeks, but, once at camp, changed his mind and stayed for the full seven weeks. “I decided to turn the car around and call the camp director asking to stay for the full seven weeks,” he said. “He said yes, I ended up staying, and I had a great time.” He’s gone back every summer since.

A major reason people return to camp is to escape from the outside younger, I really liked soccer, basketball, and newcomb, that’s why I went,” he said. “Now, I still play sports, mostly lacrosse, but I mainly like seeing my friends.”

Likewise, Assistant Director of Admissions Emily Cohen ‘13, who attended and worked as a counselor and administrator at Point O’Pines, associates her time as a camper with friendship and being outside during the summer, she said.

As an administrator, Cohen typically worked to resolve conflicts between campers, help campers mature as people, and build a strong camp community, she said.

Community is a big part of why summer camp is so appealing, Cohen said. The experience of living in close proximity to people all day long inevitably leads to conflicts, but camp forces kids to deal with their problems and reach solutions for fellow campers, she said. “The potential head butting in itself provides a lot of opportunity for growth and conflict resolution, and it typically ends in a friendship being stronger, anyways.”

The friendships built at camp are very different from the ones made at school, Shuchman said. Shuchman formed unique relationships camp friends almost every day,” she said. “Talking to them reminds me of summer fun during the school year.”

As students’ commitments increase as they get older, some, such as Smigel, choose to go to camp for a reduced session or none at all. Smigel first started at Camp Cedar

Director

dition velopment, spending the summer away lows students to take a break lar school year in a way that they cannot when at home, Ferdman said. “When I’m at home for the summer it all just feels like one super long weekend, but at camp, everything is always so exciting and unique.”

Camp has taught Ferdman leadership skills, he said. This will be Ferdman’s last summer as a camper, so there will be greater expectations on him and his group to set a strong example for the younger campers when he is a counselor. “I always looked up to the older groups, I knew them all, and they were all super nice,” he said. “Now, my goal is to be just like the people who were nice to me and showed me what camp is about – that is what leading the camp means.”

Crossword by Melissa Migdon

ACROSS

1 Viral internet phenomenon

5 "Finding Nemo" villain

10 Insignificant

14 Goo Goo Dolls hit

15 Soothing succulents

16 Tel ___

17 Neither fem. nor neut.

18 Volcanic output *

20 Intensify

22 Like days of yore

23 ___ doble (Spanish dance)

24 What will make you feel brand new, per Alicia Keys

26 Mountainous region of Germany *

29 Bonnie's partner in crime

30 Grow dim

31 Not just any

34 Boot bottom

35 Kids doctor?

37 Yankee slugger, familiarly

38 Curling surface

39 Tax pros, for short

40 Snoozed

41 No-sweat job, or a punny hint to the starred clues *

44 Inkblot

47 Bric-a-___

48 Pointless

49 Shoebox exhibits

53 "Stranger Things" alternate dimension, with The *

56 "S&M" singer, to fans

57 Target of a joke

58 Tossed meal

59 Autobús alternative

60 1974 C.I.A. spoof

61 Prophetic signs

62 Effortlessness