58 62
JULY 21, 2016 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
THIS WEEK, WE’RE TALKING TO…
Avnet Country Day School How are the Five Towns’ youngest residents spending their summer? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be speaking to different day camps to learn how their campers are spending their 12 weeks of summer vacation.
AVNET COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL IS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE LARGEST CAMPS IN THE FIVE TOWNS, BUT A CAMP THAT OPERATES ON TWO MAJOR CAMPUSES. THIS WEEK, WE SPOKE WITH DIRECTORS JEREMY FINE, WHO LEADS THE WOODMERE BRANCH, AND DANIEL STROOCK, WHO HEADS THE LONG BEACH BRANCH.
Thank you both for taking of your time. Camp is rocking, and we know that you’re busy making sure that all your 800 campers are smiling and having a great time. Daniel, you are the director of the Long Beach campus. Can you tell us about your campers? Daniel: We have approximately 650 children on our Long Beach campus this year. Avnet in Long Beach is for boys from ages 3 through entering 3rd grade as well as for girls from age 3 through entering 8th grade. After 8th grade, boys and girls can serve as CIT’s and we are proud to say, that many of our former campers return to work for us. Our camper population is extraordinarily diverse. Of course many HALB kids attend Avnet, but we also draw campers from YCQ, Shulamith, TAG, South Shore, YKLI, HANC, HAFTR and Har Torah that want to join in for the summer fun.
That sounds like a lot of children to supervise. How are the divisions divided? Daniel: We have four divisions. Our preschool, which we call Tipot, is led by Roni Shetrit. We have two divisions for first through third grade; Ma’ayanot Boys led by Moshe Spern and Ma’ayanot Girls led by Yael Greenberger. Our oldest division, which we refer to as Agamim and is led by Ariana Wolfson, experienced remarkable growth this year. While we are proud to have higher enrollment across all divisions, the Agamim in particular has experienced a growth of over 40%! Amongst other things, that increase can be attributed to the incredible Agamim trip schedule. They are scheduled for a trip to Hershey Park this week and they have already gone to see Wicked on Broadway! Our Program Director, Rabbi Nartan Farber, makes sure each group has an amazing activity to go to at any given time. This year we brought
Chani Weisfeld on board to inject even more energy into our Special Events Programming, and so far, with the help of her assistant Jordan Veg, she has done just that. Last week they ran the Avnet Amazing Race after which the parent phone calls and emails poured in with remarks of appreciation and thanks because their children enjoyed it so much! Malkie Behar runs our office all year round and she has a phenomenal ability to know and remember almost every Avnet family and what their particular needs may be. We begin each morning with an upper staff meeting which is an opportunity to discuss how things have been going, chat about improvements we would like to make, and focus on the special events of that day. Jeremy, tell us about the boys having a blast on the Woodmere campus. Jeremy: This year, we have 150 fourth grade through eighth grade