Camp Danbee

Camp Danbee is a sleep away camp for girls located in Hinsdale, Massachusetts along Lake Ashmere.. Camp Danbee hosts young girls from ages 7-16. It is a camp with many instilled values such as spirit, enthusiasm, self-reflection, and more, and also offers many different activities and community service opportunities.

Goals

Danbee's goal is to provide girls with a unique and amazing summer experience while also discovering themselves and who they are. A camp with tradition but also progress, Danbee is a place where many young girls create friendships that will stay with them forever. Girls learn to overcome any challenges they may face while also making progress in all aspects of their life and having fun! Camp director, Jay Toporoff, says, "The best summer camps are places where kids can learn life skills in a safe environment under the leadership of caring adults".

Camp Directors

Jay Toporoff "has many years of experience working with children and young adults, having worked in college student affairs administration prior to becoming a camp director. Jay received a B.A. from Bentley College in 1978 and earned a Masters in Education and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from Springfield College in 1981. He completed his doctoral coursework at Vanderbilt University in the field of Educational Leadership in 1993.". His brother and business partner Mark Toporoff "was a middle school teacher, soccer coach, and camp professional before joining Danbee full-time in 1998. He received his bachelors degree in Environmental Science in 1983 from SUNY ESF-Syracuse. He later received his Masters in School Administration in 1990. Mark serves as Co-Director of Danbee and takes care of all the administrative and programming details including hiring staff, coordinating our special events and trips, and organizing our teaching program. Mark serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Camping Association and is an ACA accreditation visitor". Both Mark and Jay started at Camp Danbee in 1991.

Activities

• Fitness (Includes spinning, yoga, weights, etc)
• Tennis
• Soccer
• Swimming
• Lakefront activities (Includes waterskiing, kayaking, sailing, etc)
• Fine arts (Includes Art, Jewelry, Woodcraft, and cooking)
• Pottery
• Campsite
• Gymnastics
• Cheerleading
• Horseback Riding
• Ice Hockey
• Golf
• Theater
• Dance

Notable Visitors

Camp Danbee has hosted many notable women and men who gave speeches and inspired campers. Some examples of these people are Hillary Clinton (previous presidential candidate, senator, Secretary of State, and First Lady), Keegan Allen (Pretty Little Liars actor), and Sally Miller (entrepreneur and fashion icon).

Danbee Spirit

As defined on their website, "Danbee Spirit is hard to describe… It is a “feeling” that one gets upon visiting. It is a loving mixture of smiles, hugs, cheers, tears, dancing, and energy that when all rolled into one spells Danbee Spirit". This feeling is indescribable, and it inspires girls to get involved and put passion behind their actions.

Community Service

• As Camp Danbee also hosts a camp for the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, the campers make welcome signs for each camper who attends Seas Stars North.
• In addition, Camp Danbee also hosted "America's Camp", which was a free summer camp for victims and victims' children from the tragedy that occurred on 9/11. It lasted for 10 years, until it eventually lost a base, as the victims grew older, too old for summer camp. However, it was very positively impactful on the victim's lives, and "some campers note that they’ve known their friends at America’s Camp longer than they knew their lost parent".
• The girls participate in a "Swim-a-thon" every summer in which the number of laps they swim contributes to money that is offered to children who cannot afford to pay for summer camp.
• Because child cancer impacted a member of the Danbee community, the girls participate in creating a mural with tiles that they painted in order to create a soothing image provided to cancer patients at the hospital.
• Girls also make fleece "Blankets of Hope" to aid soldiers overseas. These blankets contain messages of hope and inspiration.
• Danube also has partnered with a project called Hearts of Hope/Hearts for Heroes in which the girls create painted ceramic hearts adorned with messages of hope to inspire people who have lost a loved one to cancer, as well as people who are currently serving or retired from the military./

References

This article "Camp Danbee" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Camp Danbee. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---