FAQs
We are a co-ed, sleep away camp for children ages 7-16 in two, three, five, or seven weeks. We are not religiously affiliated.
Southwoods campers come from all over the world! They are children who love the small community feel, want to do a little bit of everything, and put friendships first. While we offer loads of different activities, the cornerstone to our program is adventure. Our campers participate in exciting and age-appropriate outdoor experiences that will stay with them the rest of their lives. The Southwoods camper is one who appreciates the natural world and all it has to offer.
Our 1st and 3rd sessions are two weeks long. The 2nd session is three weeks. These can be mixed and matched to create the longer five and seven week sessions. View our dates & sessions.
We select foods that are kid-friendly and picky-eater approved. We serve hot options cafeteria style for breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with a salad bar of various veggies and proteins and a sandwich bar with sunbutter and jelly. We can accommodate many types of food allergies and food preferences ranging from vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, gluten free, nut free, etc. Our special meals are made by our experienced kitchen staff and are free from cross contamination and allergens. In order to keep everyone safe and happy, we are committed to being a tree-nut and peanut free camp.
Campers live in cabins called “bunks”. All of our bunks have private bathrooms, spacious floor plans, sinks, ceiling fans, and ample storage for our campers to unpack.
Lower camp cabins house 8-12 campers whereas upper cabins are 12-14. Counselors live right in the cabin with their campers with 3-4 counselors per bunk. In our youngest bunks (3rd-5th grade), General Counselors help perform the parental functions that help campers learn independence in a supported and supervised environment.
Campers shower in style at Southwoods. We have 4 modern shower houses with private, individual, showers: Upper Boys, Lower Boys, Upper Girls, Lower Girls.
Our team of licensed nurses, PA’s, and NP’s live on-site and are always available for the medical needs of our campers and staff. We do daily medications three times a day and always have on-call medical staff for the unexpected bumps and bruises.
We are located a short drive from hospital and EMS facilities.
We are a technology-free camp environment. Campers are fully unplugged during their stay.
Parents are given our office contact information, as well as the Leadership Team’s contact information. We are always just a call or text away. In the first three days, a Director will call and give you the update on how your camper is doing. At the end of every week, we send out a newsletter letting you know the goings-on at camp. In addition, our media team posts pictures every day to your Campanion App so that you can see your campers smiling faces! The app uses facial recognition so you’re not weeding through pictures to find your child. You can message your campers through our one-way mailer system. We print them and give them to the campers daily. In response, they write to you! So you don’t have to wait for snail mail, we scan and send letters to your inbox.
Campers have different needs depending on age. At Southwoods, we divide camp between 6th and 7th grade to ensure our kids are being given the care they need during their stay. Lower camp cabins have General Counselors that are brought on solely to help with the “parental functions” in the cabin. While Upper Camp campers don’t need this type of help, their counselors are generally older and more experienced with teenagers to give them the guidance and mentorship they need to round out their camp experience. Upper camp has more free choice with their programming. Lower camp has more cabin programming to ensure our youngest campers get to experience a little bit of everything camp has to offer. Most importantly, as campers get older, the experience grows with them all the way up to LIT, or Leaders in Training. This final year of camp is the cherry on top of the cake. We save all the best for our LITs. It’s really true: there is nothing cooler than being an LIT.
Many campers take one of our chartered buses to travel to and from camp. Busses leave from Westchester, NY; Manhattan, NY; Paramus, NJ; and Philadelphia, PA. Campers who fly to camp arrive at JFK International airport and are either shuttled to one of our bussing locations to travel with their friends, or depending on the time of their arrival, driven directly to Southwoods. Parent’s are welcomed to drop-off or pick-up their camper as well!
Laundry is sent off once a week to be washed off-site. When it comes back to camp it’s folded and given back to our campers.
No, we are not a uniform camp. However there are times that campers wear their Southwoods shirts, such as traveling, league play, and Color War. We ask families to come with one white and one blue Southwoods shirt.
Yes. We do visiting day on Session 1 departure and Session 2 departure. For our campers staying 5 weeks or longer, parents are invited to come see their children, tour camp, or go off as a family and enjoy the Adirondacks. For families of 5 or 7 week campers who cannot come visit, we schedule phone calls with your camper.
Our counselors come from all over the world. Most of our staff are college students with experience in the areas they teach. They are kind, compassionate individuals with a love for camp and a desire to mentor children. All staff are background checked, extensively interviewed, and are reference checked before they arrive to camp. Our Leadership Staff are 21+ and are seasoned camp professionals. They lead the counselors, communicate with parents, and ensure campers have the support they need throughout their stay. Our Directors, Carl and Maddie Acosta, along with Assistant Director, Stefanie Friedman, are veteran camp professionals who are fully dedicated to the safety and happiness of the Southwoods community. Read more about them.
There is a travel fee of $100 each way if campers take the bus or are picked up by one of our camp vans. Families wanting to use ShipCamps to get their campers baggage to camp can expect to spend aprox. $175/camper. ShipCamps is not mandatory, but if it’s within your families budget, makes the process of getting your campers gear to us significantly easier. We ask each new family to send their camper with one white and one blue Southwoods shirt from Everything Camper. This is not mandatory - but there are times where we ask campers to wear their Southwoods gear, such as Color War, picture day, off-camp trips, and inter-camp competitions.
Everything Camper has a wide variety of super cool CSW gear for all types of campers. Most campers will come with at least a few pieces of logo’d clothing. We reccommend one white and one blue Southwoods shirt and a sweatshirt for campfire nights. No logo’d clothing purchases are mandatory.
We are committed to making camp available to all interested families, and will make every effort to work with you to find a tuition that works for your family. Partial aid to families with financial needs is based on individual family circumstances. To be considered for financial aid, please contact Carl Acosta at carl@southwoods.com.
