Camp Walden FAQ's

1. Where is Camp Walden located?
2. Who are the Owners (Directors) of Camp Walden?
3. Who is the Co-Director of Camp Walden?
4. Where do most Camp Walden campers come from?
5. How Co-ed is Camp Walden and how is the instruction?
6. How would you describe your program?
7. How do you select your staff?
8. Please describe the camper's schedule?
9. Could you describe a "typical day"?
10. Do all campers eat at the same time?
11. How do the children get to camp?
12. How competitive is Camp Walden?
13. How many campers are there?
14. How is the food?

1. Where is Camp Walden located?
Camp Walden is ideally located in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, just 5 miles from Lake George, NY. Walden is approximately 3 ½ hours from New York City and Boston, 2 ½ hours from Montreal, Canada and one hour from Albany, the State capital of New York, and its International airport.

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2. Who are the Owners (Directors) of Camp Walden?
Lauren and Mark Bernstein are the owners and full time directors at Camp Walden. Lauren has a wealth of formal training and practical experience in education and summer camping. Summer camp is in Lauren’s heart and soul. She grew up as a sleep-away camper and stayed on to become a counselor and a group leader at her childhood camp. Her day camping and resident camping experience includes full-time positions as Girls Head Counselor, Boys Head Counselor, Assistant Director and Director.

Lauren holds a Bachelors degree in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida, a Masters in Reading from SUNY Albany, and a Masters in Leadership and Administration from the Bank Street School of Education in New York City. Lauren has taught in public and private schools and served as the vice-principal of a 400 student private school in Schenectady, NY.

Mark Bernstein holds a degree in Business Economics from Union College and a Masters in Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Mark is a hi-tech entrepreneur, with expertise in multi-media and distance learning. He and his former business partners invented the first PC-based “virtual classroom” and “web conferencing” software product. Mark also spent his childhood summers at camp, and during college summers returned to work as head counselor.
Lauren and Mark are joined by their two children, Julia and Michael.

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3. Who is the Co-Director of Camp Walden?
Robyn Spector is the director of Camp Walden. Robyn’s career at Camp Walden started in 1980 as an 8 year old Freshman Girl. Robyn attended Camp Walden as a camper right through her CIT summer. She then became a Bunk Counselor and proceeded to rise up through the camp ranks holding positions as Group Leader, CIT Coordinator, Activities Coordinator, Girls Division Head, and Assistant Director and as Director since 1996.

Robyn’s educational Background includes a BA in History from McGill University and a MA in Criminology from the University of Toronto. She is married to Robert Spector since 1995. Robert is the Chief Economist of McLean Budden, one of Canada’s largest money managing firms. They have two daughters, Shaye and Raigan.

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4. Where do most Camp Walden campers come from?
Each year, campers come to Camp Walden from all over the Unites States, Canada and the world. Our largest concentration of campers, come from the New York City metropolitan area and our second largest is from Montreal, Canada. The camp also attracts a fairly large amount of campers from Florida, and California.

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5. How Co-ed is Camp Walden and how is the instruction?
Camp Walden is a co-ed camp with a strong emphasis on instruction and participation. Most activities, such as athletics and arts and crafts are not co-ed, but instead are grouped by gender and age so that the instruction is more appropriate. However, most evening activities and special events such as carnival, theatrical presentations, color war and trips out of camp are co-ed, which creates a real world social experience for our campers. Our programming and scheduling is designed to take the best benefits of single-sex camp and co-ed camp and meld them together in an appropriate way. Our program for both girls and boys is instructionally very strong with an emphasis on participation while providing an opportunity for healthy competition.

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6. How would you describe your program?
Camp Walden offers a wide range of activities for every camper's interests. Campers participate in land sports, waterfront activities, creative and performing arts and outdoor adventure activities. Our campers enjoy structured programs as they move with their age group to and from activities - this gives each camper the chance to enjoy a well-rounded program. Elective periods are also built into the schedule. Campers can thus choose additional activities from a wide variety of athletic, adventure, and performing or creative arts according to their interests. Combined with our scheduled sports and waterfront activities, the elective periods allow campers to customize their summer program. Our campers finishing 5th grade or younger have one elective period each day and our older campers have two elective periods.

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7. How do you select your staff?
Camp Walden takes great pride in our staff, and the strong commitment that they have to children. Many of them have grown up at camp and understand deeply the wonderful impact of a Camp Walden summer experience. These counselors and the other carefully screened and selected staff members, prove to be excellent role models and incredibly warm and nurturing care givers. Many of our senior staff have college degrees in education and are full time teachers and/or coaches during the school year. Our specialty staff has a vast amount of experience in their various disciplines. No matter what the focus, our camping professionals provide the foundation that ensures campers a summer that is active, safe, and loads of fun.

Camp Walden makes sure that both reference and appropriate background checks are completed on our staff. We provide training during our pre-camp orientation and constant support and supervision throughout the summer. With a camper-to-staff ratio of nearly 2:1 each camper receives a lot of individualized attention.

Most importantly, Camp Walden maintains a high staff return rate so that we are able to maintain strong continuity with little turn-over. Our staff works diligently to ensure that every camper is encouraged to experience new activities, express themselves creatively and to improve existing skills all while enjoying and cultivating friendships.

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8. Please describe the camper’s schedule?
Each group is given a weekly schedule, which is posted in each bunk. It outlines the daily activities campers will follow.  It is a great mix of activities allowing each camper to improve upon skills and try different things.  Built into the daily schedule are elective periods. Our campers just finishing 5th grade and younger receive one elective per day and our older campers receive two electives per day. There also is an additional choice time after dinner each day called free-play. Free-play is a time where all of our activities are open to give our campers even more instruction and opportunity for an area activity of their choice.  Even our waterfront is open during free-play, so there is additional time to water-ski, go tubing, swim, boat and enjoy the lake.

Walden has many “special days” that differ from the “regular” schedule.  Our campers enjoy trip days to places such as White Water Rafting, Water Parks, and Six Flags Amusement Park. One day per week is a sleep-in morning when campers can enjoy a fancier breakfast and an afternoon special event. Special events include The Amazing Race, Carnival, and Waldenstock among others. We also have Tribals, in the first session which is a 3 day color war and during second session we have our four day Color War event. On occasion we will offer optional guided hikes up local Adirondack peaks. Campers may also elect to participate in any number of tournament teams in which they will compete against neighboring camps.

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9. Could you describe a "typical day"?
We wake up a few minutes before eight and the fun begins!!!  Up and dressed and out to line-up where we have morning announcements and raise the flags. After breakfast campers return to their bunks for a short clean up period. Then the activities begin.

We run 6 periods during the day – 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. It is a full day of friendship and excitement.  After lunch we have a rest and relax time when campers relax in their bunks, read, write letters, play games... The afternoon consists of two activity periods with the third being a General Swim, where all campers come to the waterfront to participate in boating, swimming, waterskiing, beach volleyball or tetherball or take a dip in the pool. Prior to dinner campers will have a brief period in the bunks to wash up and shower. We have an evening line-up prior to dinner and from approximately 6:30-7:30 each evening we have free-play. During free-play campers may elect to do any activities they choose. Counselors are located throughout camp and assigned free-play posts.  Our specialty staff wait for our campers in all areas of camp.  Evening program begins at 8pm, and that is either a special program for each individual age group or often an exciting and fun program for the entire camp to attend.  When evening program is done, younger campers will return to their bunks, while older campers enjoy the privilege of staying up a little while longer.  Those campers are either involved in sports under the lights or they will socialize in our camper lounge where they can listen to music, play ping pong, foosball, air hockey, pinball, and grab a snack. Camper bedtimes range from 9:00 pm, for our youngest campers, to 10:30 pm for our oldest campers (finishing 10th grade).

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10. Do all campers eat at the same time?
Yes, at camp everyone can eat in our dining room at the same time. This helps to promote a very strong family atmosphere where everyone at camp knows each other. Our meals are served buffet style and there is always salad bar and vegetarian options available.

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11. How do the children get to camp?
We offer bus service for campers from the Tri State area directly to Camp Walden as well as from Montreal. Bus service is free of charge. Buses will leave from a pre-determined central location. The buses bring campers on the first day of camp and will return campers to those same locations on the last day of camp. In addition, we are located within 60 minutes of Albany International Airport and we shuttle campers to and from the airport. All campers will be greeted at the airport by a Camp Walden staff member. We also offer an escorted flight to camp for campers traveling from Florida and California.

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12. How competitive is Camp Walden?
Camp Walden places its emphasis on participation and instruction while providing ample opportunities for campers to compete within camp and during inter-camp games. We compete with other camps in boys' and girls' soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, lacrosse, roller hockey, softball and swimming. Walden's philosophy is to allow any camper who wants to participate, to be "on" an out-of-camp team. We also make sure that every camper, regardless of their skill level, has the opportunity to compete against another camp if they choose. At Walden, we love to compete and we play to win, but most importantly we enjoy the team spirit and the experience of playing together and doing our best.

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13. How many campers are there?
Camp Walden has approximately 300 campers at capacity. We find that this number is large enough to have all of the facilities and opportunities of much larger camps but is small enough to create an intimate atmosphere where every counselor knows every camper, and every camper knows each other and the entire staff. This provides for a strong sense of community. Campers of different ages learn to appreciate each other and develop big-brother and big-sister type of relationships. It is part of what makes Camp Walden such a special place.

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14. How is the food?
We are told by campers, staff and parents on visiting day, that our meals are excellent with a large amount of variety and choices to meet everyone’s needs. Breakfasts consist of a rotation of pancakes, waffles, French toast, scrambled eggs, etc. We will also serve cold and hot cereals, a fruit bar and yogurt daily. We have special bagel breakfast one day per week. Lunches and dinners always consist of healthy, kid-friendly foods. We serve a variety of pasta including spaghetti, ravioli, and lasagna as well as sub sandwiches, Mexican foods (including tacos and fajitas) and dozens of other delicious meals such as pizza and grilled cheese. Meals are planned well in advance and are always well-balanced and nutritious. At lunch we also serve a soup and a salad bar and we have a salad bar available at dinner every night as well. Vegetarian options are always available. Our expert chefs are also delicious bakers so meals are capped off by something special for dessert. Frequently throughout the summer we will have themed meals such as Italian Night or Halloween Night, where the meal and dining hall décor will reflect the chosen theme.

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