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SPECIAL SECTION 2022
Summer Camp: The Hot Ticket for 2022! Too much screen time over the past decade and its residual effects on young people have been exacerbated by the pandemic response of “educating by isolating.” Relegated to their bedrooms, basements, kitchens, and college dorms, most socially distanced students were FORCED to stare at their screens from March 2020 until May/June 2021. This extended time of keeping students from physically interacting with peers and teachers has resulted in a mental health crisis we will be feeling for a very long time. After 15 months of semi-seclusion, missed social opportunities, and frayed friendships, young people were acting out: antisocial behaviors, fights, emotional breakdowns, defiance, anxiety, and depression. Summer camps, however, offered an oasis of sorts- a reset, an antidote, a social-emotional vaccine. Campers, staff, and even school teachers had a magical and energizing experience being outside, socializing, playing, and interacting again! The past two summers affirmed unequivocally that there’s no better place for children and young adults to learn and regain their social and emotional equilibrium than at Summer Camp. Here’s what we observed: 1. Kids bounce back. Kids are resilient. They roll with the punches, learn from their mistakes, and when the bar is set high, with
the right encouragement- they rise to the occasion! 2. Kids naturally make friends. Thousands of new campers arrived at camps the past two summers, and it was amazing to see how they were drawn towards one another; quickly building friendships, with their saved up love and empathy. 3. Kids love being outdoors. Always have. But after being forced indoors for so long, kids cared less about the bugs, the dirt and mud, the liquid sunshine, and even the heat! At Liberty Lake, we embrace the opportunity to jump into a lake, just like kids have done for thousands of years! 4. Kids don’t need screens to enjoy themselves. Liberty Lake has been a screenfree haven since day one in 2002, from dropoff to pick-up. You’d think that after so much screen time, that kids would be jonesing for their phones/tablets/TVs… Nope. Playing outside with their friends is WAY more engaging. Older campers and staff actually THANK US for providing an electronic-free, stressfree utopia! And there’s more good news. Thousands of parents who never went to camp, and never sent their children to camp before, have reassessed the summer camp cost/benefit analysis and are flooding American Camp Association accredited camps with registrations like never before. The pandemic has suddenly made
Summer Camp as important as it should be. So if you’re interested in Camp for your kids this summer, don’t delay- because many of the best camps out there have already started waiting lists! Andy Pritikn is the Owner/Director of Lib-
erty Lake Day Camp in Mansfield Township, NJ, and partner of Everwood Day Camp in Sharon, MA, and Camp Southwoods in Paradox, NY. He’s the past president of the American Camp Association, NY/NJ, and host of the Day Camp Podcast.
Waldorf School’s Summer Camp is back with new and exciting sessions The Waldorf School of Princeton Summer Camp is back with new and exciting sessions! Our summer camp experience will provide children ages 4-12 with the sense of community and connectedness that they long for, in a safe, outdoor setting. Children will spend their days taking in all that our 20-acre campus has to offer, as well as benefiting from instruction by expert teaching artists who share their specialized skills. This year join us for one or both of our three-week sessions: Festival! June 27 to July 15 (no camp July 4) and Feast!, July 18 to August 5. Festival! feeds children’s need to imagine, tell stories, connect with peers and create together. Led by teaching artist Jenny Sargent, campers will spend a part of every day planning for and building elements of a community celebration, including spectacle, music, and performance. There will be a strong emphasis on collaborative process-
es, and the rich learning that comes about through working together. Activities on offer include story creation and myth telling, giant puppet building and operation,circus arts and physical theater,musical instrument creation, singing and dance, and structure building. Feast!, directed by WSP Gardening teacher Valerie Leone, highlights the joy of growing and preparing food in community from earth to table. Campers will spend a part of every day learning about different culinary traditions, cooking techniques, gathering, farming, gardening and harvesting. Offerings include woodland cooking, clay oven baking, decorative arts for the table, dishes from around the world, vegetable growing, foraging and using herbs, outdoor building projects and land stewardship. Visit www.princetonwaldorf.org to learn more and register.