Summer Day Camps

The YMWCA offers excellent educational and recreational summer day camp programs for children in Belleville or Newark. When a child joins the Y’s Summer Day Camp, exciting learning opportunities, unparalleled sports programs, strong friendships and caring mentors are just the beginning.

Whether a child is learning to swim the length of the pool, participating in a scavenger hunt in the woods of our Camp Linwood facility, laughing with friends as they learn a game together, or writing in her journal with the guidance of a high school honors student, the Y is helping to build the Newark community through our core values: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

When a child attends our summer day camp, he or she sees the Y community consistently modeling these values and before long, they become second nature. In addition to building friendships and memories, the children in our program gain support for their academic efforts, experience a variety of cultural opportunities, and increase their levels of physical activity. Our Broad Street facility boasts a heated swimming pool and excellent aquatics staff, a gymnasium, and diverse programming space.

For daily nutritional and physical fitness programming, the YMWCA utilizes the nationally-recognized Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) curriculum. CATCH is distinct from other programs in its emphasis on non-elimination games and continuous movement. These cooperative activities can be enjoyed by both the star athlete as well as the student who is more comfortable in the library.

Once a week, campers will spend a day at the the Y's Camp Linwood - McDonald in rural Sussex County, making the most of the peaceful rural setting. In addition to the superb environmental education program, children can hike through miles of lush, wooded trails, swim or just sit under a tree and sketch their surroundings.

Our Camp Linwood has a 20 acre, spring-fed lake for swimming, kayaking, and other water sports. In addition, the Camp’s forest, ponds and streams provide a perfect setting for environmental education, including:

Forest Ecology: Students role-play tree anatomy, look for signs of wildlife in the forest, discover forest values by making metaphors, and compete in the energy flow relay to understand how forest plants and animals interact. A focus on the Northern Red Oak, New Jersey’s state tree, is included.

Water Ecology: Students will use dip-nets to search for invertebrates in the pond, then sort the invertebrates according to distinguishing physical features or adaptations. Older students will then identify their organisms and evaluate the health of the water ecosystem according to what is found.

Wildlife Ecology: Through animal tracking and stimulation games, students will become familiar with local wildlife and their relationship with humans. This offering lets students explore natural habitats throughout camp. The search will include learning about bears, beaver, deer, squirrels and other native creatures.

We have summer day camps in Belleville and Newark:

• For Belleville Day Camp information, click here.
• For Newark Day Camp information, click here.
• For information about our Counselor In Training Program, click here.

For more information about the Y Summer Day Camp, please call Darnell Benjamin at 973-624-8900 or email him at dbenjamin@newarkymca.org

For information about our camp and conference center, Camp Linwood MacDonald, click here.