Counselor Arrested for Accepting Visiting Day Tip

Lake Huron, PA (July 26, 2024) – Camp Huron Lake Junior Boys counselor Chayse Lefkowitz was arrested by local police late Sunday night after Director Marty Feldstein was informed that the counselor took a $40 tip from the mother of camper Bentley Goldstein for diligently looking after her son for the first four weeks of the summer.  Lefkowitz was released under his own recognizance while bail was set at $2,000.

“I love Lefty and I’m sorry we had to let him go but we have an ultra-strict policy against tipping at CHL,” commented Feldstein as he counted stacks of cash received from parents for 2025 discounted tuition. “We pay the counselors a very fair wage here so there’s no need for parents to bestow any additional funds to them.”

Lefkowitz has gone above and beyond in his care for the fifteen nine year-old boys in his bunk including discreetly changing a bed-wetter’s sheets while the rest of the group was at an activity and throwing a camper a surprise party when Feldstein forgot mention his birthday at the morning flagpole leaving the boy inconsolable for most of the day.  At approximately $2.18 per hour (14 cents per child per hour) for a full 24 hour day or $3.75 per hour (23 cents per child per hour) for a 15 hour day, Lefkowitz is grossly underpaid especially considering his Swedish co-counselor conveniently forgets any and all English when asked to help the kids yet has a perfect grip when talking to the female counselors.

Tipping once accounted for nearly half of a counselors pay package up until it was banned by most sleepaway camps several years ago.  Parents often complained about having to pay out an additional $500 to $1,000 in tips on top of the five figure sum for sending their children to the camp. Additionally, tipping at mid-season often led to campers whose parents tipped the most receive accolades such as Color War Captain or Camper of the Year despite being undeserving of those honors.

“The rules are the rules but Mrs. Goldstein was legitimately stuffing the money into my front pocket while whispering to me that she’ll just got divorced and she’d give me more after the summer then winked,” Lefkowitz, a sophomore at Syracuse, noted. “I’m not sure what she meant but she said she’ll be seeing me at my fall ZBT formal.”