About Camp Shady Brook

Our mission

To effect positive change in our community by creating opportunities in the outdoors for personal growth, leadership development and the building of relationships through exceptional camping experiences.

Our Philosophy

At YMCA Camp Shady Brook, we believe every participant should have the following opportunities:

• Participate in a community in which all are safe and accepted
• Receive support and guidance in setting and achieving goals
• Increase self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-esteem
• Expand their sense of responsibility for the communities shared experiences
• Develop healthy, supportive relationships with peers and mentors
• Appreciate nature in a beautiful outdoor setting
• Explore and expand new and existing skill sets

Our Commitment To Inclusion

Camp Shady Brook is made up of people of all ages and from every walk of life working side by side to strengthen communities. Together we work to ensure that everyone, regardless of ability, age, cultural background, ethnicity, faith, gender identity, ideology, income, national origin, race or sexual orientation has the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity. Our core values are caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility - they guide everything we do.

GENDER INCLUSION RESOURCES

Our Commitment to you

Camp Shady Brook measures success in several ways, one of which is the number of friendships it helps create. We want each child to forge lifelong relationships with their fellow campers, creating relationships where they can be their true selves.



Camp Shady Brook also measures success in terms of each camper’s personal growth. Whether it’s developing a new sense of independence or becoming more respectful, responsible, caring, or honest, we work to make every camper proud of who they are and who they can become. Campers take on a host of new challenges and learn new skills, such as how to shoot a bow and arrow, how to ride a horse, and how to scale a climbing wall. With each skill, they build a sense of confidence in their own ability to achieve and excel, and they leave camp stronger and more self-assured than they were before – and that sounds like success to us.

Incredible Staff

Camp Shady Brook recruits the finest leaders from across the country and around the world to be role models for our campers. Staff members are mature, driven, inspiring, responsible, caring and committed to youth development. From implementing safe and impactful programming to modeling the core values of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility to knowing how to help our campers adapt to and enjoy the overnight camp experience, our staff are incredible. Each staff member is selected and trained to ensure that your child builds confidence, makes lasting friendships, learns new skills, and grows as an individual in the comfort of a welcoming, caring, and inclusive environment.

Meet our Leadership Staff

Safety

At Camp Shady Brook, we understand the huge amount of trust put in our hands with each individual camper’s safety. We take very seriously and appreciate each opportunity to affirm the faith put in our facilities and staff. Safety is our number-one priority – we have a Health Care Manager available at all times, and all camp activities take place within the close supervision of a dedicated and well-trained staff member.

Our cabin leaders accompany cabin groups from sun up to sun down, staying in the cabins with their campers every night. Each staff member is trained in First Aid/CPR/AED/Oxygen to a professional rescuer level, and EMS response time is within 30 minutes. We follow a maximum one to seven camper to counselor ratio in each cabin, so most groups are supervised by two counselors. Camp Shady Brook is accredited by the American Camp Association.

Location and directions