Challenge Camp in Tuckahoe in Their 32nd Year of Summer Fun

Imagine you're trying to figure out options for your son or daughter's summertime experience and nothing in the Westchester area is offering exactly what you are looking for.  For Challenge Camp Director Carole Berman, this was exactly the case in the Summer of 1981, when she bravely decided to start her own camp, not only for the benefit of her children, but for others in southern Westchester.

What began as a humble endeavor with 150 students has now seen an entire generation of Westchester kids, all having fond memories of their days at Challenge Camp creating projects, making new friends and learning more about the world around them in one day than they would inside of a classroom.

"I remember Joe came home and told me that we had to cut up all the plastic rings from the six packs of sodas or else fish and other wildlife could die," Rosina LaVerde fondly recalls from her son's days at the camp in the early 1990s.

The summer camp has now grown to over 350 students, with 60 instructors and over 80 different courses parents and students can choose from.  There are two summer sessions and over 50% of the students generally stay on for both. The camp day is generally from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. and the first session runs from Jun. 25 - Jul. 20 and the second session runs from Jul. 23 - Aug. 10.

"If you enjoy what your doing then the job is never overwhelming," said Berman referring to the sheer size that the camp has grown to over the years. "I love meeting talented instructors and Westchester has many of them, parents included," she added.

Here are some of the courses offered at Challenge Camp this summer:

• Astronomy Delight
• The Illusionist
• Books of Thunder
• Productions of Into the Woods and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
• Whose Line is it Anyway?
• Brain Strains
• Junior Enterpreneur
• Urban Design
• Mini-Cooper Auto Club
• Legal Eagles
• Checkmate 2
• Lights Camera Action
• PC Builders Academy

Berman says that there are a very large mix of students from in and around Westchester and for the Yonkers native who taught for 23 years as a reading specialist, one of her greatest rewards come when adults approach her nowadays with fond memories from the summer camp they grew up attending.

"It's amazing how so many adults still have not only the memories from camp but the projects and even treasures that they created," says Berman who continued that, "there's no telling what implications and affects the camp experience can have on a child later in their life."

For Berman's son Marc, the experiences at the camp were quite profound as he learned how to play chess at the camp at an early age and then by the age of 13, became the top ranked chess player in the U.S.

"We try and stay with the times, for example while on a trip to Paris a few years back, I collected some artists boxes and was inspired to begin a course much like the tv show Project Runway," recalls Berman whose office is still run out of her private residence, once down in the kitchen and now in a converted upstairs bedroom.

"My daughter came back from areas affected from the 2005 Tsunami and told me I should start a Philanthropy course where kids can learn what it is like to raise money for a cause, so we now have a course called "Seeds of Peace" that addresses such issues."

For a list of over 80 different courses that are offered by the Challenge Day Camp, which takes place at the , please visit their website at challengecamp.com where you can find other useful information such as photo galleries from years past and camp registration information.

Patch wants to know if your son or daughter has attended Challenge Camp in the past and what were some of their experiences?  Be sure and leave your memories in the comments section below.