NYC parents bribing summer camps amid record demand

Explore More

Last July, Manhattan mom Stacy was devastated to receive a rejection letter from the Poconos summer camp her 8-year-old daughter couldn’t wait to attend — in 2023.

Due to “unexpected and unprecedented” demand, her child would not be granted a bunk at sought-after Tyler Hill, the camp said. Even with a year to spare, the family hadn’t applied soon enough.

Stressed-out Stacy, who requested The Post use a pseudonym to spare her further embarrassment, began texting up a storm, leaning on every mom she knew, eventually obtaining the number of a higher-up at Camp Playland in New Canaan, Connecticut.

“I called begging, asking for a favor,” Stacy said, noting that she name-dropped three family friends with kids already enrolled. It didn’t work. Then she offered to pre-pay for two years — the camp, already at capacity, declined. Once again, she was out of luck.

Interest in the traditional summer rite-of-passage has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Well-off New York families are so eager to secure slots at exclusive camps — such as French Woods in the Catskills and Hampton Country Day Camp on Long Island’s East End — that they’re trying to beg and bribe their way in, sometimes going so far as to hire high-paid consultants to help them negotiate the process.

“Camps are harder to get into than colleges these days,” said Stacy, who eventually had to settle for signing her daughter up for a less exclusive camp upstate.  

Competitive Manhattan parents are poised to jump through hoops to get their kids a seat at the campfire, but it’s often for naught. Steve Bloom, the owner of Camp Playland, which rejected Stacy’s 8-year-old, says it’s really just about the amount of space that they have. But, he revealed to The Post, that doesn’t stop parents from bringing their extraordinary sense of entitlement to the process.

“A lot of [them] send their kids to private schools, so they think they can make donations — I had a mother call from the city, offering to pay triple the tuition. Parents are used to that mindset, but we do not accept it,” Bloom said. His seven-week day camp costs $8,635 per child. Reservations for summer 2023 were closed by mid-September of last year — only days after signups opened.

In addition to money, Bloom has been offered everything from free Super Bowl tickets to baked goods — none of which he accepted, he insists.

“We have to shut it down fast,” he said.

At Trails End in the Poconos, families begin visiting two years before enrolling their children, Marc Honigfeld, owner and director, told The Post. This year, registration for summer 2023 closed the second week of July 2022 — a record for the camp, which costs $15,125 for the summer and only admits 85 new campers per year. There are currently more than 100 hopeful families lined up to visit the property this year.

Jay Jacobs, who owns Tyler Hill — which also didn’t have space for Stacy’s daughter — said that this past summer was unlike any other. It was the first time he had ever been offered a bribe by a parent, telling The Post that he was offered “thousands of dollars” in exchange for a slot — one that simply didn’t exist.

Camp Tamakwa, in Ontario’s Algonquin Park, was already starting a wait list one week after registration opened last October for its full summer program —  a record for the camp’s 87-year history.

“We’ve had to say no to some people,” Leslie Hartsman, director at Camp Tamakwa, said of the “incredible demand” the camp has seen this year.

Even day camps appear to be suddenly untouchable. Manhattan dad Scott, 38, who declined to give The Post his last name, was left struggling to find a spot for his 5-year-old son when he was rejected from their desired camp. He and his wife shelled out a non-refundable $1,500 deposit in November — just to sit on a wait list.

“Under no circumstances did it occur to me that this is a full-year process for day camp for a kindergartner. It went from being a thing I hadn’t thought about in the slightest to being a major point of concern,” Scott said. “We just freaked out.”

In January he finally got a slot.

“It was absolutely shocking to me how far in advance you need to think about this and how quickly you need to act and the stakes involved,” he said.

Some desperate families are looking to outside consultants.

Jennifer Hartley, 42, a Long Island mother of two, turned to Arlene Streisand and Stacy Fleischman, consultants at New York City-based Camp Specialists, to help with summer plans for her family.

The consultants, who have long-standing relationships with camp directors, got her two daughters into a camp in the Poconos boasting gourmet food and excellent swimming. The cost was a cool $25,000 for seven weeks, but Hartley said it’s money well spent.

“You’re [talking about] your children. You want to send them to a place where they’re going to be tucked in and feel like they’re at home,” Hartley said.

But, it’s not just about finding a place where Junior can feel safe and cozy. Jake Schwartzwald, director of Everything Summer, a camp consultancy whose services can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $7,500, noted that many parents see summer camp as an early networking opportunity for their children — a rustic precursor to social clubs at Harvard and internships at Google and Goldman Sachs.

“There is an element of meeting kids who, as you grow up, might be in the same orbit professionally,” said Schwartzwald. “These families are making an investment in that.”

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlf3R7j2tmaWtfo8akec%2BaqZ6mpKh6o77Im6Cnn12owq65xKtknJmdpcBurcyim2aqlZi8s7CMnZymmZ6ZfA%3D%3D