Grace Community Center
"Scarsdale Girl Donates Items for Summer Camp"

Scarsdale Girl Donates Items for Summer Camp

Most 10 year olds dream about all the gifts they’ll receive on their Birthday.  Not Tamara Covil.  This Scarsdale 10 year old dreamed about sharing her Birthday fortune with needy children.  So she asked the 10 kids invited to her Birthday party to bring swimsuits, towels and goggles to donate to the homeless boys and girls who attend the Grace Church Community Center (GCCC) summer camp. 

Her friends responded enthusiastically and Tamara was able to donate two large bags of swim gear to Eileen Torres, Director of the summer camp.  Ms. Torres told Tamara and her sister Natasha, 11, brother Robert, 7, and mother Kate who accompanied her on the delivery, that many of the 100 homeless kids who attend the camp do not have bathing suits at all or have suits that don’t fit.  She said that camp staff sometimes cut down old pants to make suits for the boys, but that getting suits for girls was tougher.

For the past 28 years, the GCCC summer camp has operated for five weeks in July and August. It serves up to 120 children aged 5 to 13 who would otherwise have little access to any form of enrichment or recreation during the summer or, in some cases, at any other time of the year.  

For the remainder of the year, campers and some counselors, many of whom were campers themselves at one time, participate in a GCCC after-school mentoring program.  The goal of both programs is to provide at-risk children and teenagers with access to caring adults, help them to make better choices in their lives and encourage them to stay in school.

The GCCC Summer Camp, located at the Kearney Sports Building at Good Counsel High School, relies heavily on financial and in-kind donations from private individuals, corporations, churches and synagogues.  Anyone wishing to donate bathing suits (in children’s and adult sizes), towels, swim goggles or suntan cream to the GCCC summer camp can do so by contacting Alice Conrad at 949-3098 ext. 100, or by dropping items off at the Scarsdale home of Kate Covil, Tamara’s mother, who can be reached at
472-0068.

Grace Church Community Center is one of Westchester’s largest social services agencies.  Its mission is to serve Westchester’s neediest and most at-risk residents.

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