The camp expanded to a co-ed camp in 1929 with 11 girl campers and five staff members.Īt that time, the camp was still based on outdoor activities, according to Villapiano, who said activities consisted of swimming, camping, boating, canoeing and baseball.
It was a true learning experience.”Ī Seashore tradition, the annual yearbook documents activities at Seashore, which has grown to three campuses and classes for students from preschool through grade eight. The early camps were Spartan by nature, based outside and focused on camping. “It was supposed to help young boys spiritually, physically and emotionally by emulating and being around people who would teach that. “Camping was done for a variety of reasons ,” Villapiano said. In the first years of the camp, it was a boys only, eight-week program with just seven campers and two staff members. Today the camp serves more than 700 boys and girls each summer and employs more than 100 staff members per season at its three locations on Second Avenue, Broadway and off Morris Avenue.īut when the industry was pioneered eight decades ago, it was quite different than what campers experience today, Villapiano said.
#SEASHORE DAY CAMP PROFESSIONAL#
Villapiano summed it up by saying: “You know you’ve got it right when week eight of the summer comes and the energy level is still running so high that campers don’t want the program to end.”Īccording to Villapiano, a former professional football player and state assemblyman, more than 40,000 young people have spent summers at Seashore and more than 60 percent of the staff were once campers themselves. “If things do not work out, we eliminate them and each Friday we offer a special event, such as reggae groups for Caribbean Day.” “The camp is set up so kids can do the things they enjoy,” Villapiano said. Yankee and Mets games, and excursions to water and amusement parks. The camp also offers an attraction called The Trampoline Thing, a rock-climbing wall, jewelry designing in a bead room, speed boating around the Statue of Liberty, trips to N.Y. Today, the co-ed camp offers a variety of events for campers, starting with a daily instructional swim and advanced sports camps and large-scale interactive special events with international performers like reggae bands and break dancers. Villapiano noted that what worked for campers at the beginning of last century has changed for today’s campers. The summer camp first opened its doors in the 1920s in a small building off Springdale Avenue in what was then the Little Italy section of town. Seashore was founded by John Cittadino, a teacher and swim coach in Asbury Park, who was Villapiano’s godfather. The camp, led by Villapiano, his sister Carolee, and his brother Gus, is a thriving family-owned business designed for children ages 3 to 13 that has become a tradition at the Jersey Shore, according to Villapiano. “We constantly research the market and introduce new activities that give campers a chance to stretch their imaginations, develop skills, test limits, build confidence and try things they might not experience elsewhere.”
“We know for children to want to get up early in the summer and take a bus to a structured program after being in school all year, there has to be variety, excitement, challenges and most important, a lot of fun,” said Villapiano, who has only spent three summers away from Seashore since he attended as a camper himself. The event will give children a chance to preview the new activities planned for summer camp 2006, Villapiano said.
#SEASHORE DAY CAMP FREE#
Seashore will host a free “Day of Fun” on Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m., as a tribute to area residents for their patronage over the years, director John Villapiano said in an interview last week.
The camp, which was founded in 1926, opened as the first day camp in New Jersey and one of the first in the United States. Seashore Day Camp, located just one block off the Long Branch shore, is celebrating 80 years of serving the county’s youth this weekend, and according to the current director, remains “one big happy family.” Vintage photos show young campers posing in front of the elephant slide, a camp icon. Their father, Augustus, (l) worked for Seashore founder Gus Cittadino and took over operation of the day camp when Cittadino retired in 1974. PHOTO BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Clockwise: Siblings John, Gus and Carolee Villapiano are the third generation to run Seashore Day Camp during its 80 years of operation in Long Branch.
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