YMCA Camp Lakewood

I loved coming here as a kid and now my kids do also. We talk about my memories on the drive to camp. Old man I guess. The kids love coming here and cant wait every summer. It is also nice to have a week without them. They have many activities like horse back riding, swimming, canoeing, and the love the spaghetti dinner with no utensils. Send your kids here if you can.
Jun 23rd, 2023

im coming back to this camp for my sixth year, i highly recommend this camp to parents who want their kids to be more independent and/or well rounded. im seeing stuff about it being less ideal while talking about the food, but most of the time you're hungry enough to eat basically anything that is put in front of you because you're exercising all day. im kinda nervous about going to east camp but also excited at the same time. the counselors have been nice in the past. i would suggest having a bit more guidance about how things work such as checking into east camp, but other than that everything is fine. :)
Jun 16th, 2023

Aug 19th, 2022

Horrible customer service all around. Do not take your child here if you want your concerns to be ignored. I have taken this up to the corporate level, My and my husbands emails have have been ignored numerous times. So now I have no reason but to post here as a last resort. My son attended camp Lakewood this summer as it was his first sleepaway camp. A week before camp started i got a call from a camp counselor informing me that he couldn't attend due to staffing issues. When we inquired further as to the reason we got in touch with Melissa DiFiori (after the first email attempt was ignored) and was told that he couldn't come to camp because they didn't have the staff for kids that have disabilities. First off i signed him up in March and second of all he only has an IEP for academics (which i had to fill out 10 pages of paperwork for). So clearly they do not honor 1st come, 1st serve and cut the kids with academic IEPS?? so after we pressed further he was allowed to come to camp. I feel sorry for the others with disabilities that got cut who signed up well in advance. Once we got to camp, the counselor (Malibu) was very cold when we arrived. We weren't allowed into the dorm to help him get settled in and didn't hear anything about how it was going for him for 3 whole days!!! the pictures they took were 2 days behind so we didn't hear anything for at least 2 days. when we finally picked him up on day 3 i asked his counselor Malibu for an update and he didn't have much to say. My son said he hated camp. I contacted Melissa Difiori via email again and my email was ignored for weeks. I called the corporate office and she finally called me back after 2 weeks. I voiced my concerns with her and she dismissed all of them, didn't sympathize or apologize for anything. I emailed her boss Matt Clark and he never got back to me either. The director of inclusion services (Laurie McTearnen) emailed me back but gave me a general statement but not really addressing any of my concerns. Shame on you YMCA - 1st sleepaway experience was a disaster, your administration is unresponsive, and your discrimination tactics against kids with disabilities aren't going unnoticed.
Apr 7th, 2022

Mar 11th, 2022