Holiday season of helping others

Give Thanks by Stuffing the Bus for CHOW and the Jersey Shore

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We hope you enjoyed the food, the floats, the football.... and most of all, you just enjoyed being with family.  And know that this Thanksgiving we were incredibly thankful; we truly appreciate all of our campers and staff.   Thank you for making Stonybrook Day Camp (serving Essex County and Morris County) so special.

This summer many of you generously donated to Livingston’s CHOW (Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse) for a Stuff the Bus food drive.  You wowed us with your generosity and stuffed our camp bus to the limits.  Well, we want to let you know that CHOW is sponsoring a very special Stuff the Bus on Nov 30th which will benefit the Jersey Shore residents of Ventnor and Atlantic City.    

While many shore towns were hit extremely hard during the hurricane, Livingston Township and the Livingston Public Schools was looking to have a large impact and provide their students with a service learning opportunity by working to partner with an area in tremendous need. Atlantic City and Ventnor suffered extensive damage to their businesses, homes and beach.  Both towns have diverse populations that live at the beach year round and many have economic situations that have only intensified after the storm.  The communities were in the actual eye of the storm and the destruction can be seen everywhere.

On Friday, November 30^th, Livingston Public Schools will provide a bus to drive to all nine schools and collect health non-perishable foods, personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies.  The bus will also stop at Aquinas Academy, Newark Academy (confirmation pending) and local businesses including Kings, Shoprite, Regal Bank, the WestEssex Tribune, YMCA, Kids at Heart, The Westminster Hotel, Eastman Corporation, Livingston Public Library,  Livingston Town Hall, The Learning Experience and Senior Community Center and others to be announced (all collection points). On the following day, December 1st, the bus will drive down to Ventnor, NJ to bring the much needed goods.  

If you would like, we welcome you to take the lessons of giving from the summer- the campers truly enjoyed being a part of something so special- and continuing on your own (as many of you do regularly).  Take some non-perishables, cleaning supplies or personal hygiene items and drop them by one of the many donations collection sites.   It will make a world of difference to someone in need and is a perfect way to celebrate all that we have to be thankful for.

And for more info on CHOW please like the CHOW facebook page, run by our very own camp mom’s, Stacey Rubinstein and Jodi Rothfeld. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Livingston-CHOW/425506660836139

Thanks and again, we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

www.stonybrookdaycamp.com

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Sandy and Not Sandy Schapitl !!!

We wanted to reach out to say that we are hoping everyone in our camp family is coping during this very stressful time.  With Hurricane Sandy and Nor’Easter Athena, we know many have had to deal with power outages (some still without power), school closures and damages to homes.  While everyone in our area has been affected in some way, we know it has been especially tough on some.  Please know our thoughts are with you .

We wanted to share a few ways to help that you might be interested in participating in and a few resources.

$5 dollars pledged to the American Red Cross for Wearing your Camp T-Shirt!

November 13 is ‘International Wear Your Summer Camp T-Shirt Day.’ Camp Craze, a New York based marketing firm, and its parent company CRAZE Interactive will donate $5 to the American Red Cross for each picture of a camper wearing a camp t-shirt submitted to their social media sites.  See http://blog.campcraze.com/international-wear-your-camp-t-shirt-day-1113/ for more info on where to post.

Art & Journaling Supplies Needed at Federation

And from the mom of one of our campers, Jewish Chaplains are on the ground in affected areas in NJ. They need journals and art supplies to help council children who are processing the aftermath of Sandy. Please drop off journals and art supplies to the Federation at 901 Rt. 10 Whippany 9am-5pm.  Thanks Stacey Brown, mom to Max, for letting us know!

CHOW shelves are empty and in need of any food donations

Many participated in the STUFF THE BUS for CHOW (Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse) this summer.  It was an amazing outpouring of support for the food pantry open to people of all faiths by appointment only.  CHOW has been feeding local members of the community but has sent a great deal of food to individuals displaced by the hurricane.  Please consider dropping off non-perishable, healthy food items to CHOW at St. Philomena’s Church 386 South Livingston Avenue (donations can be left in the main church entrance) or at the West Essex Tribune offices next to Shoprite in Livingston.

Randolph Family in Need

During an incredibly tragic accident during the hurricane, parents, to 4 children, died when a tree hit their pick up truck.  Below is a wish upon a hero link to see how you can help them with a donation as their eldest daughter tries to help her family in the wake of this tragic situation.

http://www.wishuponahero.com/wishes/?id=1316547

Elmo Talks Hurricane

Parents of younger kids may find this resource helpful.  In an effort to help soothe children scared or confused by Hurricane Sandy, Elmo appeared on New York’s WNYC radio station earlier this week. Elmo spoke with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, along with Sesame Street education representative Rosemarie Truglio, about how he was coping with the storm.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/30/sesame_street_s_elmo_appears_on_wnyc_to_talk_to_children_about_hurricane.html

Please let us know of any drives or additional ways to help.  We would also love to know about any amazing resources that you have found helpful as we are always looking to share with our camp family.

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American Camping Association Accreditation

At Stonybrook Day Camp we are committed to providing our campers with high quality programming and we always focus on safety as well as having fun. 

We work very hard to do so and we know we are successful when we see happy campers and their parents. Our hard work paid off this summer because smiles say it all, but we just got some official news that confirms what we know to be true. 

We’d like to announce that after completing a rigorous inspection process requiring our program to meet almost 300 standards for health, safety and program quality, Stonybrook Day Camp is officially re-accredited by the American Camp Association!  

This is the GOLD STANDARD of accreditation in the camping world and we are just thrilled.  Thanks to all of our staff who helped make this happen because we realize this is an accomplishment that involved many. We appreciate all that you do and we celebrate by planning many good things for Summer 2013!  

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