PROSPECTIVE FAMILIES

Tours taking place this month!

CLICK HERE TO SCHEDULE

Meet our Director Jonathan and learn about our Summer Program!

DON’T GET CLOSED OUT TO SUMMER!

Why Choose Oak Crest?

Everything we do at Oak Crest is an extension of our mission: to create a summer experience for our families so exceptional that it makes campers for life and our core philosophy: to ensure that every Oak Crest camper experiences growth and success in a fun-filled, safe and well-supervised environment.

We firmly believe that by experiencing success as a child our campers will gain the skills they need to be successful in life, and those success opportunities should not be random! Our program is intentionally designed to create those opportunities for success, resulting in a summer experience for your child that will yield a more confident, independent and well-rounded human being, just for having been at camp.

During the course of the Summer, the relationships your child builds with their counselors and specialists are both meaningful and unique. These powerful relationships help to drive your child’s achievements at Oak Crest. Our professionally trained counselors and specialists are carefully hired, screened and taught to help your child find their own avenue of success during the time they are here. Our staff are not only positive role models but they are with our campers every step of the way; helping your child to succeed and even more importantly coaching them through frustrations and setbacks.

Success at Oak Crest comes in many forms from the soccer field to the climbing tower, in the ceramics studio, and on the stage in our camp show; your child will learn real skills and leave camp feeling accomplished! The intentionality of our program is affected through our wide range of age appropriate activities and highly motivated staff who meticulously plan out your child’s day. As campers progress through the different milestones of our program, they begin to realize the magnitude of their accomplishments and in so doing gain a more positive self-image and heightened self-esteem.

In addition to the skills taught in our activities, our campers learn the social and emotional skills that come with working as a group, which are invaluable and often missing in today’s world of virtual interactions. At Oak Crest, our mission, philosophy, program and staff all work together in harmony to provide your child with an amazing summer and lifelong memories.

For the past 50 years, we have seen our campers’ summer experiences at camp become a string of beacons that light up the memories of their youth and guide them towards a successful future.

Year after year, Oak Crest campers return to camp to grow and build their own paths to success as they advance through our program.

The pinnacle of a camper’s years at Oak Crest is gaining entry to our prestigious Leadership in Training program. The Oak Crest LIT Program is designed to give our older campers the tools to become the next generation of staff. As our former campers transition to staff, they are eager to give back the gifts given to them when they were children, which in and of itself is…The Oak Crest Way.

When deciding on your child’s summer program, perhaps the most important considerations are those elements you don’t see. All day camps have nice facilities filled with amenities such as ropes courses, pools, fields etc., but what are you really buying? If you are like most parents, you want your child to get something meaningful out of a summer experience and those are the kinds of intangibles you just can’t see on a camp tour. A Summer at Oak Crest yields so much more than just learning how to swim or hit a baseball; it means your child will gain true life skills, like…

The Oak Crest Way

Guided by our philosophy, Oak Crest has created a unique atmosphere to intentionally develop these skills in our campers. The magic of camp doesn’t happen because of the aquatics facility; it happens when children are in a caring, supportive environment. It happens when a child’s role model believes in them and is right there at their side sharing the experience. It happens when everything around our campers is designed to help them succeed. Everything we do from hiring the staff to developing new program areas is done to foster this environment, our camp culture, The Oak Crest Way.

The Oak Crest Way is a culture of true caring, with the understanding that caring for a child is not always just giving them what they want but truly teaching the life skills necessary to improve their Emotional Intelligence. You see, just as school helps your child’s academic skills, camp improves their Emotional I.Q. Studies have shown that the E.Q. is perhaps an even greater determinant of success in life than overall intelligence. (ACA funded study focused on the Developmental Outcomes of the Camp Experience)

At Oak Crest, we have created a culture that always considers the needs of your child first. A culture that allows them to thrive in an atmosphere of opportunity while truly learning to work with others, and interact and communicate in a real time (not virtual) way with both campers and staff. The way is about bringing something into a child’s life that can only be accomplished in a summer environment where they truly want to be every day! Camp becomes a uniquely powerful place where children can practice the very complicated art of growing up.

Staff and campers come back year after year because as a camper, every year builds on the previous years learned skills and experiences. Similarly, as a camper transitioning to counselor, once you have been initiated into the Oak Crest Way, you have the desire to give back the love and caring that your counselors showed for you. It is our pledge that your child will feel uniquely special during their stay at camp because it is exactly what we train our staff to do every single day.

Disconnect to Connect. Build Skills. Forge Friendships.

At Oak Crest, our camp journey emphasizes creating lasting friendships, discovering new skills, learning essential life lessons, and growing as an individual. You won’t find campers glued to phones or electronic devices on our grounds because we proudly uphold a screen-free environment.

Our goal is for campers to build meaningful relationships with peers and counselors, rather than with Wi-Fi or online platforms. Throughout the rest of the year, many of our campers fall into concerning statistics that have seen significant growth. Teens are spending an average of nine hours daily on digital media, while younger kids follow closely behind, spending six hours a day on devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers. Managing their digital habits has become a challenge for today’s youth.

One of the greatest benefits of camp is the natural connection formed through shared experiences between campers and staff, which is made easier without technology. Stepping away from devices during camp offers a vital break from phones, gaming systems, tablets, and laptops. Instead of screen time, campers participate in valuable face-to-face interactions through activities and conversations with their camp friends and mentors.

A key aim of our no-screen policy is to help campers develop strong relationships and improve interpersonal communication skills, free from the interruptions of phones and social media. Parents frequently share that their child’s camp time is a much-needed escape and an opportunity for kids to enjoy being kids. This essence of carefree summer days under the trees is what makes the experience so special.