Melville Camp Went From Life-Long Dream To Reality
/By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com
Completing its second year, Camp W in Melville offers a variety of summer activities including, athletics, creative arts, academic tutoring and more.
Since he was 12 years old, Evan Wofsy, owner and director of Camp W, made opening up a summer camp his life-long dream.
“My sixth grade math teacher asked me what I wanted to do and I said, ‘I want to own a day camp someday,’” Wofsy, 45, of Melville, said. “That’s all I ever wanted to do. I absolutely love it.”
Growing up, Wofsy spent 14 summers at Brooklake Day Camp, first as a camper and later as a camp counselor. For the next 22 years, Wofsy worked for Camp Horizons in Livingston, New Jersey, as their sports director and assistant camp director.
In June 2015, his dream became a reality opening up Camp W in Melville.
Located at Birchwood Intermediate School at 121 Wolf Hill Road, the camp provides various actives for boys and girls between ages 4-14 years old, including athletics, creative arts, academic tutoring and special events.
Camp W makes full use of Birchwood’s seven-plus acres of land, offering athletic programs that include soccer, softball, basketball, flag football, floor hockey, karate, volleyball, gymnastics and more.
The camp also use a dozen classrooms in the school where creative arts programs include arts and crafts, puppet making, drawing, dance, music, drama, and jewelry design; and other unique activities like rocketry, cooking, Lego design, plastic model making, comic book creation, video game animation and more.
Wofsy said campers get “choice periods” where they choose what they want to do.
“Every two weeks, they get new choices so they’re constantly getting new activities and they’re never bored with what they’re doing,” he added. “That’s one of the things that makes this camp enjoyable for the full eight weeks. It’s constant change.”
Wofsy said enrollment has doubled this year with 148 campers participating
The programs range from two-eight weeks, with prices between $1,600-$4,100, including transportation. Wofsy added that parents get a discount if they take care of their child’s transportation.
The season started in June and will come to a close tomorrow, Wofsy said. He added that for next year, the camp will continue to grow and come up with new activities.
“As good as things were this year, most of these kids will come back and I’ve got to come up with new things because new is always good,” Wofsy said. “It’s great to hear what they love but you also have to spice it up and come up with new activities.”
Wofsy has been a math teacher at the Whitney E. Houston Academy in East Orange, New Jersey since 1993. He also owns a security company, Bar Mitzvah Bouncer Inc.
“The best thing you can do is listen to what the kids are saying and then after you see all that, send your child to my camp for a day and you’ll sign up by the end of the day. I’m sure of it,” Wofsy said. “We want people to be happy.”
Camp W
At Birchwood Intermediate School
121 Wolf Hill Rd.
Melville, NY
631-692-6222
campwdaycamp.com
