This Week in Ramapo

By Michelle Antosca

I started to go to summer camp when I was 5 years old, 50 years later summer camp is still a big part of my life!  I have only missed summer camp 1 year in the past 49 summers, from camper, CIT, staff member, full-time camp director and for the past 24 Director of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Ramapo. When I was in school my friends thought I was being punished each summer when I would leave and go to camp, but it was my favorite place to be each summer.  The friendships, activities, and adventures were amazing and still to this day help me as I prepare each year to work on the next summers programs for the Town of Ramapo.

I look back and see what camp did for me, a shy kid, that didn’t like to be in front of people, where I would to have to sing, dance, do skits and speak in front of people. What a nightmare! However, each summer it would get a little easier and I would begin to enjoy it more.  What I have carried with me and hope to bring to camps each summer is that camp is a safe place, somewhere we can step outside of our comfort zone and try things without worrying what someone may say.  When I finished graduate school, that very camp had a job opening and I applied, not knowing that I would have to stand on a table and sing camp songs to a very large group of people I didn’t know, but I did it and the rest is history!

Now I try to bring those very same memories and opportunities to the Town of Ramapo camps each summer. We plan all year, as soon as one season ends, we evaluate and begin to plan for the following summer. I love going to the camps the first week to see all the faces, most smiling, some still trying to see if they like it and some not happy at all.  By week 3, kids are settled in, trying new things, singing, playing and laughing. Then we enter the final week of camp, and you see the shift, the kids, the staff, know that it is almost over.  They exchange cards, take pictures, shed some tears and don’t want to leave camp.  It is at that moment that we know the impact summer camp has on kids. The freedom from school, the freedom from being on their phones and devices, and just outside enjoying each other.  Devices were not an option when I was at camp, but as they have now become all-consuming it is wonderful to see kids (and staff) just being kids and playing.

One of the most gratifying parts of this job is when I start interviewing kids to work the following summer.  When I ask, “why do you want to be a camp counselor?” and they say they went to one of our camps as a kid and have great memories, they share stories about their counselors and that they now want to be there for the campers. My own children grew up at the Town camps and this will be their first summer as CIT’s, I can only hope they have similar experiences.  It truly comes full circle and that is something that drives me each season to continue to make our Town camps a place where kids can be kids, young staff can get their first job at a place they have known for years, and we all can grow a little. 

Wishing you all a happy and safe summer 2026! 

For more information regarding Ramapo Parks and Rec, readers can go to www.ramapoparks.gov, call 845-357-6100, or contact Michelle at Antoscam@ramapo.gov.