Waterford Starts First Full-Day Summer Camp

In August of 2011, a single mother wrote a letter to First Selectman Dan Steward asking why the town does not have a full-day summer program for children. In the letter, the woman said daycare was expensive, and there was a large need for a municipal full-day summer program.

Steward directed Waterford Youth Services and Waterford Recreation and Parks to research and possibly create a full-day summer program. Waterford had offered a half-day summer program, but never a full-day summer program.

Well, the two departments have come together to build the Camp D.A.S.H. summer program, a seven-week full-day summer camp starting this year they are announcing today. The program is affordable at $100 to $150 per week, depending if the parent wants extended care, or $650 for the entire seven weeks.

“We are excited,” Waterford Youth Services Director Dani Gorman said. “It fills a need.”

The program will cost no extra money to the town, according to Gorman. Recreation and Parks Department Program Coordinator Kerry Sullivan and Youth Services Program Coordinator Erin Eccleston are most responsible for the camp, Gorman said.

The Program

Fliers will go home today will all Waterford students about the summer camp. The camp is for students currently in kindergarten through sixth-grade, and runs from June 25th to August 10th.

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Recreation and Parks and Youth Services will take the first 100 people who sign up for the program. To sign up, parents can contact Sullivan at recreation and parks at 860-444-5881 or Eccleston at youth services at 860-444-5848.

The program runs every weekday, rain or shine. Parents can sign up for the 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. hours for $100 a week or the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours for $150 a week.

The students will go to Pleasure Beach every Friday if the weather holds up, Eccleston said. The camp will be based out of Great Neck School.