Pine Knoll offers great camp experience

Date: 8/2/2010

Aug. 2, 2010

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Managing Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW -- It's truly a hidden gem. Save for two small yellow "enter" and "exit" signs tacked to trees and a simple banner reading "East Longmeadow Recreation Department" strung across a black chain link fence, the Pine Knoll Recreation Facility looks, at first glance, very much like a stretch of underdeveloped land on Allen Street.

But take a trip up the hill and you'll find eight acres of property perfectly suited to host a summer camp.

The morning I visited, close to 180 children, ranging in age from four to 13, were taking part in a host of activities. For one group, it was pool time and in the shallow end, under the watchful eye of the lifeguards, a group of boys was shooting baskets into a hoop two counselors had just positioned at the edge of the pool.

On a hill nearby, another group was cooling off on the slip and slide a long, dish soap-and-water slicked tarp that let bathing suit-clad kids take a fun ride down a gently sloped hill.

In the field below, a giant soccer ball and a row of brightly colored sacks sat waiting to be used. Nearby, a third group was testing out their pitching arms trying to knock one of their counselors into a dunk tank.

In the distance, more campers were checking out their hand-eye coordination by trying to pop Silly Band-filled balloons with darts.

Most hadn't visited the Nature Cabin yet, where Minnechaug science teacher Tina Lowe and a host of resident turtles and fish were waiting to share age-appropriate mini-lessons about the camp's surroundings. In the Arts & Crafts cabin, a counselor was pre-cutting lengths of hemp in preparation for the afternoon's rope bracelet making activity.

I thought to myself as I surveyed the beehive of activity around me, this is the kind of camp I would have wanted to attend as a kid.

"There's a lot more kids who come here now because the word is spreading," 17-year-old counselor Tyana Vanzant, a Pine Knoll veteran who'd been attending the facility since she was five, said. "There's more activities now [and] we're more into water activities because the summer is hot. Before we just had the pool, now we have the slip and slide and the water bounce house [too]."

Vanzant said when she was a kid, camp counselors kind of took the lead from the kids when planning activities. Camp Director Neil Henderson, a Springfield school system kindergarten-to-grade-five science teacher who took over coordinating Pine Knoll three summers ago, has modified that approach, creating a more structured day for Pine Knoll campers with planned activities at set times.

"Now we do what's on the schedule," she said. "I think [that's] better. They know what's next and they can't wait for that . they tell us what's next."

Henderson and a staff of 46 teachers, lifeguards, college-age and experienced teenage counselors, supplemented weekly by between 35 and 50 Junior Counselors in Training (CITs) younger teens who come to learn leadership skills and/or fulfill school community service requirements plan, prepare and oversee the slate of activities outlined for each day.

The CITs, Henderson said, have the choice of performing camp maintenance duties, working in the office, or assisting counselors with younger campers' activities.

"On a given day we have just under 300 people here, staff, CITs and kids," he said. And though each day has a schedule, "it's not like school, we're not in perfect lines." He encouraged counselors to read the mood of the kids in their group and modify an activity, or even break groups into subsets and host alternative activities if say, some campers don't feel like participating in arts and crafts one day.

Another of Henderson's additions to the camp is the snack bar, where campers can buy treats ranging from bottled water and Gatorade to snack chips, lollipops, Twizzlers and other candy at prices ranging from 10 cents to a dollar.

No camper, Henderson said, is allowed to spend more than $2 per day at the snack bar.

With a limited annual budget for day-to-day expenses, Henderson uses the profits from the snack bar to purchase extras for the camp, such as balloons for the Silly Band game and soap for the slip and slide. Snack bar profits have also funded some major additions, such as speakers for the pool's sound system, paint for some of the buildings and flowers for the grounds. Last year the snack bar's profits bought a power washer for the pool deck.

"The Department of Public Works came in three years ago and sided the buildings and put in the parking lot, Henderson said. "Then the CITs painted and we bought yellow chairs and picnic tables from the snack bar profits."

"Every year we make a little dent, we fix things paint things, plant flowers. It's not the old Pine Knoll [facility], it's something new," he added.

Park and Recreation Director Carolyn Porter said the changes both in the programming and the facilities are beginning to show in the numbers of parents enquiring about enrolling their children at Pine Knoll.

"We had a total of about 140 kids in full and half-day programs [last year]," Porter said. "This year we closed [enrollment] the first week at 180."

"We haven't raised our rates in three years," she added. "I'm very committed to keeping it affordable for people, she said.

The camp is open to both East Longmeadow residents and non-residents. For children between four and five years old, the cost is $60/week, $105/two weeks for a half-day program from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Full-day camp, which is offered for children from four years through grade eight, is $100/week, $190/two weeks. Hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Early morning care is available for an extra $50/two weeks; after camp care until 5 p.m. is $60/two week. Non-residents pay an additional $15 per session for camp or additional care.

The town of East Longmeadow purchased the former East Longmeadow swim school property from Dr. Charles "Red" Silvia, swim coach at Springfield College, in 1996. Since that time it has continued to develop the property as a summer camp, kindergarten fall soccer program facility, membership pool and facilities rental property