Tag Archives: Tradition

Sports-A-Thon 2016

As Marc Honigfeld once stated, “ What’s better than kids helping kids?” For the 11^th year in a row, Trail’s End campers took their athletic skills to the fields and the courts to make a difference and to give back to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, as well as Sunrise Day Camp at their annual overnight Sports-A-Thon. During visiting day, the LT’s had a booth where many TEC families made donations to sponsor the members of the Sports –A- Thon.

Each leadership trainee is a captain to a different colored team comprised of campers in 8^th grade and above. The campers’ energy and excitement was reflected in their decked out outfits that were colorful and vibrant from head to toe. The teams are on the go, playing different sports against other teams, including soccer, mini tennis tournaments, euro, egg toss and much, much more. Each team has a schedule, and different events happen every half hour to keep the night going and the energy alive and vibrant.

The spirit of every camper was truly shown through out his or her involvement in every hour of the sports-a-thon. Each camper played an important role in this special event and they were able to show how vital their participation was in supporting cancer research as well as Sunrise Day Camp.

Our campers live ten months for two and being part of the Sports-a-thon enables them to give back to their communities and children with cancer by enabling these children to also participate in the wonderful experience of summer camp.

After hours of competition and seeing a smile on all the participants’ faces, it was amazing to experience the sense of accomplishment and teamwork felt throughout the camp. This event has already raised over 100,000 dollars to date, and we will continue to participate in this rewarding event in the coming years, with the hope to find a cure to childhood cancer.

Buddies Trip Week!

The Buddies left the camp last week and took on Costa’s Family Fun Park for half a day. Costa’s Family Fun Park allows the campers to take a break from the courts and fields, and head over to the arcade games they all love to play. Campers also showed off their new golf skills by playing a fun game of mini golf. The day ended with water slides and ice cream cones topped with tons of sprinkles which the campers enjoyed immensely.

The next day the Lower Buddies had a pool party with Rona, Marielle, Sara, Julie and Lindsay . The pool was filled with fun floats including swans, donuts, pretzels, pizza which turned TEC’s swimming pool into a festive and yummy adventure.

The Buddies final day of trip week included the annual trip to go blueberry picking at the Paupack Blueberry Farm. Campers spent the day eating and picking blueberries. The buddies picked 83 pounds of the delicious blue treats! The next day, each camper was very excited to see their blueberries being served at breakfast.

College Day 2016

College Day or what some call a “mini” Olympics, broke out Tuesday around 4:00 pm. The teams for the 2-day competition were the South Dakota State Jack Rabbits, University of North Texas Green Horns, and lastly, the San Diego State Aztects. These last two days gave our Second Year Varsity campers a chance to come together as a group, and lead camp through a sports-filled friendly competition.

The Second Year girls, matching with their French braided hair, as well as matching shirts, and the boys matching in their button downs, showed the rest of TEC how they’ve been ready for this moment the day they walked through the gates. A boy and girl, who have been overall great leaders and campers, are chosen and rewarded to be in charge of one of the three teams. However, each Second Year camper gets a role, whether being a rope burn captain, an athletic captain or a cheer captain.

College Day started off with the traditional running of the bases, which was filled with spirit and sportsmanship. The next day was followed by a morning and afternoon filled with competitive sports such as soccer, softball, flag football, relay races and more. Of course the Varsity European hand ball game was the all time favorite. New talents were found, and new relationships between different ages were built as each Second Year put their best foot forward to make sure all of the campers and staff’s College Day experience was the best one yet.

College Day ended with the famous rope burn. Four Second Year campers, who have been looking forward to this since their first College Day, work together to build that fire higher, higher hoping to burn the 8 ft. tall rope.

The lucky winners were the Yellow Jack Rabbits who swept Rope Burn and Overall Cheer, making them the Overall College Day winners.

4th of July Show!

Trail’s End Camp hosted the largest BBQ in Beach Lake, for the Fourth of July Monday night, continuing the tradition of hot dogs and hamburgers on America’s birthday. The July 4th spirit was in the air last night, while the Buddies and Rangers put on a show for the Trail’s End Camp family. The cook out slope was colored in shades of red, white and blue as everyone was painted from head to toe in our nation’s patriotic colors.

The youngest, but loudest campers participated in our annual Fourth of July show proudly representing our country’s Independence Day. The night began with campers performing traditional songs while the entire camp was singing and dancing along. The cook out slope was filled with smiles and laughs, showing all of the new friendships that were formed over the past week.

After a fun concert, beautiful fireworks exploded over the sky to end the night. The Fourth of July show is an important tradition at TEC that has been in place year after year. This special event also enables the youngest campers to show how important they are to our TEC family. Many campers were able to step out of their comfort zone to either crack a joke, or have a solo in a song on stage. The July 4^th show is one of our favorite events in camp that gets the second week off to a great start.

Goldberg Stadium

Saturday was a special one for the entire Trail’s End family as we welcomed our campers for the start of our 70^th season and then unveiled the new basketball stadium prior to the start of our Opening Campfire. With great pride, Marc announced to the camp that the stadium would be dedicated to Starr and Stan Goldberg.

Since the early 1960s, the names Starr and Stan Goldberg have been synonymous with Trail’s End Camp. In 1960, Stan was hired as a counselor at TEC. Two years later Starr joined him. Little did they know, 54 summers later, they would still be here AND they never, ever could have imagined that they would be celebrating this summer as their 30^th year of owning Trail’s End, with their children and grandchildren by their side.

The Goldbergs make everyone truly feel at home. Their spirit and energy is boundless which is why our secret club is blessed to have this amazing couple leading us each and every day. Our camp slogan “better for having been at Trail’s End Camp” can be best felt and seen because of them. All of us are better for having had Starr and Stan Goldberg in our lives.

The amazing new basketball stadium, where campers will be shooting hoops and creating memories, has a press box, sound system, lights and a scoreboard. It will be an ever lasting reminder of these two amazing and loving camp icons.