by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

May 28, 2009

Cheaper camps are in, late payment penalties are out, and scholarship requests are up. It’s summertime, and the living is not as easy as it once was for area summer camps.

“Are we being impacted by the economy? Absolutely,” said Leonard Robinson, director of New Jersey Y Camps. He’s lost a few families this year, and stories abound of cases where both parents are out of work.

“We have people who have paid in full every summer and can’t come back this year. I’ve offered one family eight weeks for $100 a week, but they don’t know if they can even do that. They’re already five months behind on their mortgage,” he said. The fee for a typical eight-week stay is $6,960.

Rabbi Mendel Solomon, who runs Camp Gan Israel, a day camp in Morristown affiliated with the Rabbinical College of America, recently received an e-mail from parents who have been paying in full to send their children to “Camp Izzy,” as it is sometimes called, for 11 years. This year they’ll find it necessary to break the tradition.

“As much as it breaks my heart,” the e-mail read, “because my children have enjoyed your camp for so many years, and we feel a strong connection to you and your camp, we will not be sending any of our children to camp this summer, as unfortunately we cannot afford it. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to send our children to Gan Izzy again. Have a wonderful summer and we know that our children will miss you!!”

Gan Israel typically costs $1,925 for eight weeks.

Scholarship requests at most camps are up. At Camp Moshava, a popular Modern Orthodox camp in Honesdale, Pa., for example, such requests have increased by 50 percent, and not just in terms of inquiries, but also in terms of the amounts requested, said camp director Alan Silverman. And for some families, even getting a reduced rate isn’t enough.

“We have families who have been coming for years and simply can’t afford it no matter how much help we offer unless we gave a full scholarship,” he said. Moshava, however, does not offer full scholarships.

A full summer at Moshava costs $6,500.

At the NJ Y Camps, the amount of scholarship money given out has been rising steadily year after year, with payments going from $800,000 just a few years ago to $1.2 million to $1.5 million last year. This year aid given to families jumped to $2 million, Robinson said.

At Gan Israel, it jumped 40 percent.

At least one family that used to pay “discreetly” for other families this year asked for scholarship money. “How could we say no? It’s real; it’s frightening,” said Solomon.

Many families are booking fewer weeks for their children. At NJ Y camps, 84 youngsters are registered for two- and three-week stays — as opposed to standard four- and eight-week stays — in a new program Robinson started “because we knew some kids wouldn’t be able to stay as long this year.” Previously, the minimum stay was four weeks. While Robinson is happy to have them, he said, “That’s a big number. It takes just as much work to recruit a two-weeker as an eight-weeker.”

Specialty camps

Rabbi Frank Dewoskin, director of the Reform movement’s Camp Harlam in Kunkletown, Pa., suspects that trend is due only in part to the economy. He attributes it also to the rise in popularity of one- or two-week camps that focus on a particular area of interest, such as robotics, sports, or art.

“People are coming for the first session [of regular camp], and then trying to take advantage of specialty camps,” he said. It’s a trend he’s seen over the last few years. A full summer at Camp Harlam costs $7,770, a single session $3,885.

Many area camps have managed to keep enrollment fairly stable, in part by enrolling new campers who might otherwise have gone to pricier private camps.

“We are picking up a lot of kids who would have gone to more expensive camps — these are big numbers,” said Robinson. “Some switched for financial issues, either real or perceived; a tremendous number of new campers are shopping down” — looking at camps they would not have looked at in better economic times.

Many area camps have instituted new policies to help families who are struggling financially.

Silverman of Moshava, who used to require payment in full before the start of camp, is offering flexible payment plans. He decided not to give the staff raises this year, and has hired slightly fewer staff members, although, like most Jewish camps, immersing staff members in Jewish life and training them to be Jewish role models is “part of the mission” of the camp, he said.

In a few rare instances, camps have pulled off the impossible. “We’re doing quite well,” said Scott Lantzman, director of the Gesher Summer Program at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston. “This is the eighth year in a row our numbers are up. We’re 30 campers ahead of pace.” The day camp, which costs about $4,200 for a full summer, has received requests for scholarships, but does not offer any. Like other camp directors, Lantzman is being more flexible with payment schedules and will not penalize families financially who pull out at the last minute.

He thinks his high enrollment is due in part to natural growth — his program is a relative newcomer to the summer camp scene. But he also thinks his prices have attracted refugees from the area’s higher-priced private day camps.

One subgroup he fails to understand is his preschool group. The number of children enrolled jumped from 30 or 40 to 65. “This age group could stay in synagogue camps that are less expensive…it’s bizarre.”

Diana Ackerman at JCC MetroWest’s Camp Deeny Riback in Flanders reports the camp is having its best year ever to date. At about $5,300 for a full summer, there are no refugees from higher priced camps. Rather, she said, they are seeing a sharp increase in campers who might otherwise have gone to sleepaway camp.

“We are seeing families who are taking a deep breath and deciding to stay at home. They’re not going on fancy vacations. They’re staying home and working, and they’re sending their kids to camp closer to home for the full summer. These are definitely families who would otherwise have chosen residential camps,” Ackerman said.

She did acknowledge, however, that there were times in December, January, and February when she said to herself, “‘Oy oy oy. We’re really getting hit.’ I was ready to adjust our budget, our staff, our programming. And then in April, the floodgates opened.”

At Camp Harlam, things are not as bad as Dewoskin had feared.

“In October and November, we were concerned. We adjusted our budget, expecting a much lower number of campers and a big increase in scholarship requests. But the reality is, our enrollment is actually ahead of the last five years at this time.”

He credited the campership program sponsored by the Foundation for Jewish Camp, offering $1,000 incentives to first-time campers at Jewish residential camps (see sidebar).

Because he had raised extra money and budgeted for a decrease, he said, he can now return to the previous operating budget and still cover expenses.

One bright note is that hiring staff is easier this year than in other years, say camp administrators, something they attribute directly to the economy. “Families are not vacationing; teens are not going away. Their parents are saying, ‘Get a job.’ College students can’t get paid internships. We finished hiring in April — we’ve never done that before, and we’re still getting applications every day,” said Lantzman.

The real worry, however, is not summer 2009 but summer 2010. “People are not booking tours for next summer. People are being cautious,” said Robinson.

“Parents did their best this year not to disappoint their children,” said Silverman of Moshava. “But if they don’t have, they don’t have.

“It could be they managed to pull it off this year,” he said, implying that it’s a feat that the parents might not be able to pull off next summer.

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