Summer Camp

Aleck dressed in his official summer camp shirt, posing with Sox, right before the end of camp.

Since Aleck spent last summer recovering and rehabbing from major orthopedic surgery, we knew that this summer it was time to dive back into the world of summer camp. He had spent a summer at one of the local JCC (Jewish Community Center) summer camps two years back and had an excellent time. After all, they have drama, they have martial arts, they have STEM programming and an airconditioned building when the days got too hot. But they also have a large price tag, made even larger by the aide we had to pay for as well so Aleck could enjoy himself. Both the camp and the aide offer scholarships, but you have to apply for each one separately, and in the end, our bottom line was the full cost of a high-end summer camp for basically 3.5 weeks.

When we moved into our new home it was impossible to ignore the massive brick building only blocks from our apartment, with its lovely outdoor pool, tennis courts, baseball field, track, and soccer field. When we found out two of his good friends from school had gone there and were planning to attend again this summer we knew we had to check it out. When they told us the aide was no extra charge we knew we had to make it happen. So at approximately 7:54 in the morning the Monday after we got back from spring break, Craig and I sat on opposite sides of the house, laptops open, browsers set up to the sign-in page, fingers on our trackpads counting down the seconds. By 8:01 we had successfully signed up for camp and by 8:30 am it was already full (or so I was told on the mommy Facebook groups, I didn’t go back myself to check, I was too busy doing a victory dance).

In the spring we met with the aide coordinator to go over Aleck’s needs in an aide, and for her to verify that we really did need someone dedicated to Aleck for the summer. Seems that having an aide is all the rage these days at summer camp and we might have to prove our worth. Luckily that proved to be a very easy meeting, the coordinator definitely had a soft spot for our little guy by the time we said goodbye and assured us it would all be taken care of by the first day of camp.

Walking up to Aleck’s camp in the morning reminded me so much of my own community center camp growing up in New Jersey. Giant fans inside to keep the air circulating, a gym on one side, and a dance studio (auditorium as Aleck corrects me) on the other complete with the identical 1980’s era ballet posters my aunt and uncle had in their home growing up. There was also a game room and an art room on the other floors, and that faint scent of marijuana wafting from the back of the building (to be fair, the older guys who play tennis in the morning can often be seen with something hanging out of the sides of their mouths as they finish their early morning games).

The activities were simple enough; they went swimming every day, they had theme days of all shapes and sizes, they set up giant water-based inflatables for a day of “water park”, they played sports, they went on scavenger hunts, and they even took them on field trips throughout the city. But the highlight for me as a parent was definitely the talent show. Thankfully they set us up in folding chairs on the grass, instead of inside the unairconditioned auditorium. Each age group, also divided by gender, did a dance to a piece of music starting with the six-year-old girls doing Ariana Grande’s 7 rings (I almost died it was so cute), to the older boys doing a fake fighting dance to the theme from Mortal Combat – wait, maybe this really was the camp I went to! The parents were courteous enough to wait to the end of the show to leave instead of leaving after their own kids had finished, definitely a departure from what I see at most school talent shows/music shows, and I expected a big announcement for me to pick up my folding chair and put it away at the end but the staff took care of all of that for us. (To see Aleck and his group click here).

Unfortunately, we did have a problem with Aleck’s aide, she ended up being laid up for more than half the summer with a bad back, so the aide coordinator was scrambling every day to get other aides from other camps to fill in. She was so apologetic, turns out the girl already had back problems but didn’t disclose them when she interviewed for the position. Luckily enough lots of kids take family vacations during the camp season so we probably ended up with about three days in total where Aleck couldn’t go to camp. At the beginning of the summer, as I do with the beginning of the school year and each new aide in school, I talk to Aleck about appropriate and inappropriate touching. These aides have to get him dressed for swimming every day and I work for centers who focus on this topic, so I know how important it is to be sure to keep that conversation going. And with each substitute aide at camp I reminded Aleck about our talk about the bathing suit parts, and what’s acceptable and what’s not, and he repeats it back to me. From the sounds of it, each aide was lovely, no complaints and Aleck had his favorites, including his original aide who made it back for the last week of camp. Aleck, to his credit, never complained about missing days during camp or about switching aides all the time. I know seven-year-old Lynnie would have been moaning quite a bit. He’s just such a trooper.

This week is Aleck’s first week not in camp and on Monday I got a really good picture of how much he enjoyed himself. We took our dog, Sox, for a walk to the dog park that’s adjacent to his camp. While watching the families playing in the pool I saw him looking forlorn through the fence, a wave of sadness had crashed over his head. He looked at me and asked if we could go inside the building so I tied up Sox and we headed inside. Well, if that was a wave of sadness this was a total tsunami, because when he walked inside and he didn’t see any of the familiar faces that were all there just a few days earlier the tears started to form in the corner of his eyes. Judging his entire camp experience by that moment I knew it was a successful summer and I have a strong feeling we will be back again next summer.

We walked Aleck to camp every day in his wheelchair, that way he has it when he gets tired and so he can make it to some of the sports fields which are a bit of a hike. He was so excited when he saw the wheelchair symbol at the bottom of the “L” in “PLAY”. He pointed to it and said, “look, mom, this symbol is for me!”

What do you think?