"Without this program, these children would be relegated to hot, overcrowded and impersonal homeless shelters for the duration of the summer. This camp allows homeless kids to feel like 'regular' kids for five weeks, thus enabling them to forget about their homelessness."
Who We Serve
The GCCC summer camp serves up to 150 homeless and disadvantaged children aged 5 to 13.
Why There Is a Need
Without the camp experience, most of the children we serve would not get any form of summer recreation or enrichment and would spend the summer idle at home or in the streets.
Many of the children have multiple problems in their lives and, increasingly, are sent to the GCCC because they are deemed too difficult to handle by other local camps. GCCC has had tremendous success working with these children.
Parents, guidance counselors, social workers and teachers consistently report that the camp has a strong, positive influence on the children who attend in the classroom, in their home lives and throughout their teenage years.
The Program
The GCCC Summer Day Camp, which has been in existence since 1976, provides an enriching recreational program for a five-week period in July and August.
A typical day at camp includes swimming lessons, recreational swimming, other sports, arts and crafts, and drama. A pizza party and weekly awards ceremony are held every Friday and field trips are scheduled as funding permits.
Special activities such as Olympics Day, Heritage Day, Carnival Day, a Talent Show and a Fashion Show add enriching dimensions to the camp program.
In 2006, in addition to traditional camp activities, the camp was able to offer special interest activities such as hip hop dance and rap poetry. Both activities were funded through grants.
Dance instruction was introduced to provide children who do not enjoy sports with an alternative way to get some exercise.
Rap poetry was introduced to provide children with an entertaining way to practice their creative writing skills.
The camp was also fortunate enough to benefit from the volunteer efforts of a professional artist who ran an arts and crafts program three days a week.
Many of the children come to camp hungry so breakfast, lunch and a snack are provided daily. Campers are also welcome to take food home with them. Additionally, clean clothing, new sneakers, bathing suits, towels and school supplies are distributed as needed.
Approximately 22 counselors and staff are employed at the camp. Many of the children who were once campers return to be counselors-in-training and then counselors. To ensure that all children receive close, individual attention, the ratio of campers to counselors is 5:1 for the 5-6 year olds, and 8:1 for the 7 to 13 year olds.
The fee for camp is $600 although the actual cost to GCCC is $900. The County of Westchester reimburses GCCC $400 for each child in foster care or in the shelter system. Other families pay on a sliding scale but only a few are able to pay even $200. The balance must be made up through fund-raising.
Our Location
Camp is held at the Kearny Sports Building at Good Council Counsel High School, 35 Orchard Street, White Plains, from 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily.
How You Can Help
The summer camp welcomes donations of bathings suits (in all sizes including adult), towels, swim goggles and suntan lotion.
Your financial donations can help:
