Timber Lake West: a co-ed sleepaway camp in the Catskills

The day is built on three components — athletics, waterfront and electives. Five activity periods run between breakfast and dinner, two of them electives the camper picks from more than thirty options, followed by free play and canteen and an evening activity. Athletics mixes clinics and instruction with inter-camp tournaments and games played for fun, and the FAST programme (Fitness and Athletic Skills Training) adds age-specific multi-sport skill and performance work for campers who want extra intensity.

Enrolment covers all regular camp activities, the canteen, laundry and linen service, counsellor tips and round-trip bus transportation from the New York area. The camp states plainly that there is no tipping of staff at any point in the summer.

Campers live in modern panelled cabins, called bunks, each with full bathrooms and storage space for every camper. Three to four counsellors and eight to ten campers make up a bunk. Campers make their own beds and look after their belongings; professional housekeeping staff clean and sanitise the bathrooms daily. The camp treats bunk living as the core of the experience — where campers learn to live as a group, share and respect each other.

All meals are included and taken in the camp dining room, with breakfast after morning line-up, lunch at midday, an afternoon snack and dinner in the evening. The Planet West canteen is open during free play.

Athletics: basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, golf, tennis, volleyball, Ga-Ga, leagues, inter-camp games and tournaments. Waterfront: a private spring-fed lake and two heated pools for waterskiing, kneeboarding, canoeing, kayaking, an inflatable obstacle course and swim team. Adventure electives: go-karting, skate park, zip line, climbing wall, high ropes, archery, fishing, hiking and pioneering, mountain biking and nature. Fine arts: ceramics, painting, stained glass, woodshop, candlemaking, macramé, modelmaking, rocketry, tie dye, mask making and the shirt factory. Creative and performing arts: theatre arts, digital photography, culinary arts and rock band. Fitness: aerobics, dance, martial arts, rollerblading, spin and weight training.

The camp occupies 380 secluded acres on a Catskill mountaintop with its own private spring-fed lake. Sports facilities include four regulation lit basketball courts, six tennis courts, a regulation hockey rink, a regulation baseball field, two lit softball fields, a lit soccer field, a regulation lacrosse field, a beach volleyball court and two volleyball courts, a golf driving range and putting green, two Ga-Ga courts, an indoor basketball court, a gymnastics centre and a fitness centre. Elsewhere on site there are two heated swimming pools, a go-kart track, a skate park, a rock-climbing wall and ropes course, an art barn, a dance studio, a movie theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre, a social hall, the dining room and the Planet West canteen.

A short session that still contains a whole summer: a beginning, a middle and an end, with a Visiting Day, a colour war and closing activities, which is what lets families pair camp with other plans without giving up the traditions. The camp is co-ed and most campers come from the New York metropolitan region and South Florida, with others from across the United States. Each group has a Head Counselor and a Friendship Coach who watch over the relationships inside the group and stay in touch with parents, and the camp works to a one-to-two staff-to-camper ratio. The STARFISH values programme runs through the session, built around character development and the impact of small acts of kindness.