New Leadership for Armonk’s Breezemont Day Camp But Traditions Remain
There are plenty of obstacles for a child to overcome throughout the school year. There may be challenges academically or socially, and even if not particularly serious, they can take its toll and chip away at a child’s self-esteem.
Come summer, however, a day camp should be an oasis to allow children to be children, and provide them with a wealth of opportunities to have fun, grow and help them reach their potential.
At Breezemont Day Camp in Armonk, that’s what new part-owner and Camp Director Gordon Josey and staff plan to make sure happens this summer when roughly 300 campers between 3 and 14 years old set foot on the 15 beautiful acres off Cox Avenue. Its grounds might make you believe for a moment you’re at a sleep away camp in the Adirondacks.
“It’s not about whether you’re the smartest or if you struggle in school, or something silly happens and it sticks with you 40 years later,” Josey said. “You come to camp and you can really recreate yourself. It’s really all about being a good person.”
Breezemont will carry on in 2014 with much of the same approach that has attracted thousands of children and their families to the grounds for more than three-quarters of a century. Josey and his team succeed former longtime owner and director J.R. Tesone, who passed away in February.
Despite the upheaval–Tesone started as a counselor at the camp nearly 50 years ago and had run Breezemont since 1986–returning campers and their families as well as newbies will find a lot to be excited about. Josey said the location, easily reachable from almost anywhere in Westchester, and its woodsy surroundings keeps youngsters coming back for more. Most of the children live within 25 to 30 minutes of the site, although some come as far away as Manhattan, he said.
“We want to keep the same values, the same traditions but want to have improved facilities, improved training to help our young families,” said Josey, a native of Scotland who spent the summer in 1990 as a camp counselor in the United States on an exchange program and fell in love with camps. He also operates a traditional summer sleep away camp in West Virginia and specialty camps in Manhattan and Spain.
“At camp, everybody is cheering you on because everybody wants their fellow camper to (succeed),” he added.
Like any day camp, Breezemont’s bread and butter is its activities. From the time a child leaves home in the morning he or she is continuously engaged. Even on the bus heading to camp in the morning, there is the “bus bag” where counselors have a bag of tricks and other activities.
Once at the site, campers swim twice a day, weather permitting. There’s a full range of sports, including tennis, baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, boating and fishing, Josey said.
Then there are a host of artistic activities, such as arts and crafts, music, theater and jewelry making. There are also some fun academic-type activities–nature and science and a “book nook,” the camp’s electronic library–for children to participate in.
Even on a rainy day, campers don’t sit idle staring at a movie on a television screen, Josey said. There is a special curriculum that has been devised for the times when inclement weather intrudes.
“As long as the kids are engaged then it’s quite nice to have a rainy day because they’re not running around in the heat,” Josey said.
Children are split into small groups of no more than about a dozen and are overseen by four or five staff members. For three- and four-year-olds, the groups have boys and girls but after that the children are separated by gender.
Helping children to find their voice is a key component for Breezemont, said Nancy Shenker, a public relations spokeswoman for the camp.
“The things that are rewarded at camp are very different from the things that are rewarded academically at school,” Shenker said. “At school they’ll record who got the A’s, while at camp (it’s) who was the most helpful, who was the best problem solver in some new challenge.”
Speaking of staff, Josey said Breezemeont takes its daily responsibility of supervising children from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. seriously. Much of its roughly 100-member staff are comprised of adults. While there are some high school and college students who serve as counselors, they are overseen by the group leaders, who are all teachers during the school year, and senior counselors, younger adults who are out of college with the majority of them working in education.
Then there are the activity specialists who lead the wide range of sports and arts programs. Most are physical education teachers or art or theater majors who enjoy spending their summers in a fun atmosphere helping children.
No one sits in an office, but Josey said he is easily reachable for parents who have questions or problems.
“I think the hardest job you’ll ever have is being a camp counselor,” Josey said. “I say that because you learn so much more as a counselor for the summer. Come to camp, you really learn. It’s hard work, it’s taxing, it’s responsibility, timekeeping, problem solving.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
