Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my deep concern and frustration regarding the exorbitant costs associated with frum summer sleep-away camps.
I have witnessed firsthand how these exorbitant fees place an immense financial burden on parents who are already struggling to make ends meet.
The summer camp experience is undoubtedly a cherished and valuable opportunity for children to grow, learn, and create lasting memories. However, it is disheartening to see how these camps are choking many families due to their astronomical price tags. Are these camps simply money-makers? I have no idea. What I do know is that the cost of sending a child to a frum sleep-away camp has reached such heights that it has become nothing short of a financial nightmare for numerous parents.
The implications of this issue extend far beyond mere financial strain. Parents are forced to make difficult decisions, sometimes sacrificing basic necessities or going into debt just to provide their children with this formative experience. The pursuit of this summer experience should not come at the expense of a family’s financial stability, not to mention its impact on the health and wellbeing of the parents and the accompanying stress.
It is essential for the broader frum community to acknowledge and address this problem. While it is true that running a summer camp costs money, the current situation seems to have spiraled out of control. The alleged “escalating costs” should not be disproportionately transferred onto parents, particularly those who are already grappling with financial hardships.
It is high time for camp organizers, community leaders, and relevant stakeholders to come together and find practical solutions to alleviate the burden on parents.
Does it make sense that I am paying for 4 weeks of camp almost as much as I pay for a year of school?
I kindly request that Matzav.com bring attention to this matter through your esteemed website, as I believe it is crucial to shed light on the profound impact these exorbitant costs have on frum families.
Thank you for considering my perspective on this pressing issue. I hope that together, we can strive towards a more inclusive and affordable summer camp experience for all frum children.
Sincerely,
D. B.
New Jersey
19 comments:
The adjoining are starting funds to subsidize parents for sleep camps.
More funds are also coming for rent subsidy, food subsidy, sheitels subsidy and more.
Also soup kitchen are coming to each and every local area in Lakewood and the surrounding shterlach.
That’s on top on HUD, food stamps and other programs. And on top of the Lakewood BOE paying for about 25% tuitions of in town and out of town yeshivas and mesiftas.
The worst are the travel camps for girls 11th grade & older. They are kimat the only camps that cater to girls that age. The most "economical" of the bunch are $3000 for 10 days, not including airfare & extras. The 10 days includes 2 days of return trip to far out locations so it's essentially 8 days. Some travel camps, though lengthier than 10 days, cost in excess of $10,000! Even more troubling than the above is that yentas operating travel camps hold they are not accountable to anyone. They milk this middah ra to the max. Some are simply losers who cannot hold down a normal job because they are not normal, they are not baalei acharayus. They pick favorites of who they allow to come, regardless of who signed up first. They don't flinch when rabbonim call to tell them they should be ashamed of themselves. Any further phonecalls are filtered so that the rabbonim can't get through. Some of them hold sky high deposits that they profit from over a very lengthy period of time, sometimes for more than a year. Many of them are taking the camp to destinations inappropriate for bnos Yisroel. Some of them have sketchy answers as to what kashrus standards they adhere to in yehupitz, probably because the kashrus IS sketchy. One "camp" is a film production company that uses the girls as actresses that any other other company would pay them for acting instead of fraudulently posing as a camp to squeeze big $$$ out of their victims.
All the Schnorring fund types mentioned in the 1 pm comment zeinen nisht genig. The Sfardi Super-Schnorrer vus halt zich Satmar has got it all figured out. First, after the ponzi scheme with seforim stores, it was going around to kehillos & foundations of millionaires-billionaires to cry crocodile tears that you are nebich an oremmeh Yid vus hut nisht the basic necessities. Then you start using websites like the Chesed Fund to anonymously shrey you are in "distress" without so much as a single Ruv backing it. When the platforms get complaints you source a letter from a Ruv that was for someone else & you black out the name of the nitzrach for "privacy reasons" to perpetrate the fraud. You reach for the sky with your hasugos to ask $100,000 for the "distress" and another page monning $400,000 for supposedly doing kiruv on Tuna Beigelach & OTDs. Even after you plow lots of the fraudulently obtained gelt into real estate investments, you have money left over for summer camps. Schar limud during the year is anyway free when you mumble Ich hub nisht.
Even bigger losers than travel camp operators are toddler playgroup operators who are sometimes dumb as doorknobs & grub vee ferds. Especially the ones who outright steal. They take in more kinderlach than they plan to look after & immediately throw some out while keeping the registration & other fees + month's tuition. If there was >ever< a "profession" for those whom stand zero chance in any real job description.
Nu. The girls gotto do whatever it takes to halt ois deh Mann.
One of those travel camps is owned by a yappy Boro Park woman from a billionaire mishpocho. When you call, she interrogates you a mile a minute. If after about 2 minutes she determines you are not from her Feinschmecker shnit, she says I need to call you back tonight. That's her way of telling you to get lost. She won't call and she will never take your calls again.
That the travel camps claim to be for Bais Yaakov maydelach is giving agmus nefesh in the next velt to Sara Schenirer
An outrage indeed by ETLICHE travel camps!
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Att--Girls--New-For-Summer-2019-.html?soid=1102390656878&aid=mcOY1uSVSnA
Far from tzniusdik to take Bais Yaakov maydelach "PARASAILING"!
Watered down Bais Yaakov in KG Metro does not exempt from basic halacha shaylos
Wed May 17, 04:12:00 PM 2023
Oh. Oh. Some one's kinderlach/Zaddikim got thrown out from play group.
Wonder why ??
Keep this FF guy FAR FAR away from BYKG. Who know what he saw when he tagged along to the ParaSailing thing. Don't forget, he is a mikvah expert as well.
Wed May 17, 10:45:00 PM 2023
Sounds like this guy couldn't afford the rat race and is now venting that his lot in life is not as his friends tell him it should be.
Whoa! Parasailing???!!! You've probably heard yener big kanoiee pontificate elsewhere to rail against the littlest no nos
"Keep this FF guy FAR FAR away ... he is a mikvah expert as well"
You must be speaking of your mechuton Bryks who even after the OU had him kicked out of chinuch, the dastardly Queens Vaad as part of the massive cover up for your gantze mishpooche still has him running the veiber mikvah in KG. Otherwise, shooting the parasail messenger was a nice try to create a smokescreen for you & the Mrs.
Now you got to be really confused that on the one hand it infuriates you that the OU wouldn't participate for a change in a cover up, not even one that's close to your heart. On the other hand, running around shilling for the OU & covering up their scandals is a numero uno sipuk for you.
It’s nice when fool falls right into the setup. It maybe even feels good.
Go FF Go.
Right on brother.
Look what lengths unzerreh landsman is going to, using silly attacks to cover up after that embarrassing whopper was exposed that his wife's travel camp engages in public parasail pritzus! Hayituchen, the big holier than thou guy who criticizes everyone else for (in his dimyonos) falling short in frumkeit?
No one is fooled either by "right on brother", his feigning to be another reader to give shkoiach to his own nonsensical scribbling.
And of course the other farbitterdeh grumblings are also him when kedarkoi he mocks a critic of playgroups that the critic's kids must be ausvarfs, and mocking a critic of snobby rich people as being a wannabe. Since he is the Crusader against any exposure whatsoever of corruption, he will use any dirty tactics to silence anyone advising the oylam how to protect themselves from corrupt people (such as himself)!
Once again 12:22 forgot to take his “candies”.
Candies can be his pills or his fress - free of course.
He klopped on the key board and not he nor anyone else knows what he’s mixed up about.
Like the other giy always says: boos Zooey ehr.
No one is mixed up. It's klor vee tog that the Big Hypocrite 'You Know Who' had the rug pulled out from under his Holier than thou act, with proof that his wife's travel camp engages the maydelach in pritzusdik activities. Like any other time that he finds his fake, fraudulent self in a corner, he lashes out with made up insults, like that his critics are medicated
CCRC knows nothing about ‘ klor vee deh tog’ other than his endless free fress addresses and hosts. And even there no one is sure he knows. For one’s fresses tog und nact, no shkiah and Alos hashachar limitations, no neighborhood
Limitations and no kashrut limitations.
The truth is the camps don’t overcharge anything. But the parents who their kids a credit card so they can order from Doughies each and every night (they have free delivery on orders over 1000.00 I think or something like that or a flat 100.00 delivery) and the whole camp gets together and orders “alteh gitteh zachen” nu that makes it out of reach for many.
Post a Comment