Summer campers at the Y of Union County volunteer at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.
March 13, 2008
Financial aid for children attending local Jewish summer camps might be scaled back unless the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey finds alternative funding or individual donors come forward, federation officials said.
A 10 percent across-the-board cut in the grants the federation provides its constituent agencies means a cut in “camperships,” the officials said.
That means fewer tuition subsidies for those attending day camps at the YM-YWHA of Union County and the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey and the overnight camps serviced by the Jewish Family Service of Central NJ.
“For couples where both parents are working, summer camp isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity,” said Jessica Mehlman, the federation’s assistant director of financial resource development. “And with people losing jobs or having a harder time covering their costs, there are more people — not fewer — needing help covering the cost of summer camp.”
The federation’s annual fund-raising campaign took in $5.3 million in 2006-07, $200,000 less than its projected total, necessitating the 10 percent cut in grants to constituent agencies.
The annual campaign totals have been lower for the past two years. Last year, the shortfall in money for camp scholarships was made up from the federation’s reserve fund, bringing it up to $37,500, with JFS receiving $17,500 and the JCC and the Y receiving $10,000 each.
This year the camp scholarship total was $25,000 with — as yet — no other source of more funding.
For JFS, which arranges camping stays for children with difficult home or personal situations, the impact could be particularly acute. Already facing record requests from families for food aid, agency officials worry that stretched finances could lead to even more stress in troubled homes.
Y program director Jani Jonas said that about half her agency’s 500 campers receive financial help, either in the form of government grants or camp scholarships. This year, the number of requests for help has soared, even as funding has been reduced.
Kids and counselors cool off at the Y summer camp.
“We have a number of parents who are in the building trade or who work on commission, and it’s particularly bad for them,” she said. Rather than turn anyone away, she said, the Y is trying to spread the available money further, possibly by giving more children a shorter span of camp time.
One of the Y’s campers is a boy from the local area whose parents both work, but at low-income jobs. They pay what they can for their son to attend the Y teen travel camp, which they say he loves, but without the reduced price made available to them, there is no way they can send him.
The boy’s parents said he attends a regular public school, and they’ve been particularly glad that he has this chance to make more Jewish friends during the summer. “Without the Y, I don’t know what else we could do,” his mother told NJJN. “He would be sitting at home, playing video games all summer.”
Debbie Rosenwein, the federation’s director of planning and allocations, said that the financial prospects for 2008-09 are no brighter. Already, the annual campaign is around $200,000 behind its goal.
The fate of the camperships depends on what planners consider their priorities, she said.
“Certainly camp scholarships are an important need in our community,” Rosenwein said. “Through our strategic planning efforts we are striving to develop a dynamic model for identifying communal priorities. If camp scholarships should be deemed a priority by the communal planning committee, it’s possible that more money will be allocated for this purpose in future.”
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