Summer Camp for Life! A Q & A with Community Favorite Career Camp Directors

So many kids wish summer camp would last all year. For some lucky adults who have dedicated themselves to the camp life, it does!

January 10, 2022

We asked the directors of some of our community’s favorite camps how and why they landed their life-long camp dream careers, and what they think about the way summer camp impacts the lives of growing kids.

We asked: What was the camp experience in your own life that inspired you to make a career out of camp and become a camp director? What does summer camp mean to you? What do you think it means for kids now?

Here’s what the directors and owners of some of our favorite local summer camps had to share.

*Andrew Yankowitz, Owner/Director, Tall Pines Day Camp*. *Photo courtesy of Tall Pines Day Camp*.

“I always attended camp as a child. When I finished 9^th grade I began working in the kitchen at Willow Grove Summer Day Camp. I spent eleven years in the kitchen, working weekends too! Each year I gained more experience, more responsibility and more self-confidence. During college and graduate school, I was working seventy hours a week and loving it! Working at camp wasn’t a job, it was fun. As college graduation drew closer, I was approached by one of the owners of Willow Grove. He told me that they were interested in opening a day camp in South Jersey and wanted me to be involved. They had a 66-acre facility under contract and had even created the logo. I finished graduate school with a Master’s in Administration with a concentration in Urban and Regional Planning. After a four-year career at the Chester County Planning Commission I received word that the final permits for Tall Pines Day Camp were done. A month later I became the full-time Director. I’ve been at Tall Pines for over twenty-five years. Each day I get up and go to camp rather than going to work.

Summer camp has always been a part of my life. It gave me opportunities to do things that I had never done before and feel great about myself. It changed my life and my family’s life too. Now, I can do that for the campers and staff that come to Tall Pines.

Camp is such a powerful, positive force! I wish that more children had the opportunity to attend summer camps. Camps build skills necessary to prepare campers to assume roles as successful adults. It gives them self-confidence and independence, and teaches them how to make new friends. We provide opportunities for growth that can benefit children through adulthood. It is even more important today than it was when I was growing up. Children are more isolated and continue to have fewer social interactions with other people. Camp brings all of us together year after year and we add to the established camp traditions while exploring and learning new activities.”

Andrew Yankowitz, Owner/Director, Tall Pines Day Camp

“I actually never went to summer camp as a child. My mother worked in a school, so she was home with us in the summer. My first job, though, was as a counselor at the JCC Camps at Medford at the age of 15. I spent 5 summers there, and those summers defined so much of who I am today as a person, as a professional, and as a Jew. Camp was the reason I went into Jewish communal service, and when the opportunity came to come home to the JCC Camps at Medford professionally, I knew I had to take the chance. For me, camp is so much more than my career…it is home. I strive for our campers and counselors to feel like camp is home, too.”

Sara Sideman, LSW, Associate Director, JCC Camps at Medford

*Blue Bell Camp owners and directors, Joyce Harris, Katherine Harris, Lisa Harris, Tom Harris, and Katherine’s children Gavin and Hayden. Photo courtesy of Blue Bell Camp.*

“To our family, camp is everything. It has been our family’s passion and purpose for the past 75 years and three generations. We all had the privilege of growing up at camp and becoming the second and third generations to join this remarkable family tradition. Growing up at Blue Bell Camp, in a world centered around children, nature, and the unique culture of camp, our philosophy and our love for helping children became ingrained. We live, eat, and breathe camp, and we prepare for ten months of the year so that each child will have the most rewarding two months of his or her life. Camp becomes their home away from home – their “happy place” – and they truly become part of our family. Camp is where children can learn new skills, develop their characters, and gain confidence in the activities and also in themselves. That experience goes far beyond the summer – it lasts a lifetime.”

Tom, Joyce, Katherine, and Lisa Harris, Directors, Blue Bell Camp

*Andy Pritkin, Owner/Director of Liberty Lake Day Camp, with guitar. Photo courtesy of Liberty Lake Day Camp.*

“Both of my parents grew up in the city, and their fondest childhood memories were from summer camp – out of the city. My dad sent me and my two younger brothers to camp and I went kicking and screaming…and had the best two summers of my childhood. Waterskiing, learning to play tennis, making friends that I still have 35 years later…it was truly a priceless experience that I was lucky to have had.

Summer camp is a time for kids to put aside the stresses of the everyday – like school, responsibilities, technology and, social media – and enjoy life, outdoors in nature, making friends, exploring new activities, and finding your inner voice. Today’s kids, with screens and central air, need camp now more than ever!”

Andy Pritkin, Owner/Director of Liberty Lake Day Camp

Lead photo courtesy of Liberty Lake Day Camp.