Lake Huron, PA (June 25, 2021) – For most sleepaway camps in America, the summer of 2020 was unfortunately a casualty of the global Covid-19 pandemic. As the country slowly returns to a sense of normalcy, camps have reopened but are finding themselves severely understaffed as European counselors and specialists, the lifeblood of many camp workforces, have not been able to come to the States due to visa issues and travel restrictions.
Camp Huron Lake, located in Pennsylvania’s Poconos region has struggled to fulfill all of its staffing needs with only days before a camp of four hundred plus children arrive. Director Marty Feldstein, a veteran in the camping industry, is being forced to make drastic changes by assigning multiple positions to each staff member to ensure no role at his bucolic oasis is left unfilled.
Dr. Jon Fingerhut, a pediatrician/neurologist and father of Junior girl camper Ravyn and Super Senior boy Adym, will not only be the camp doctor for the first half of the summer but will also serve as the Boy’s Side porter in his off hours where he will take orders from twenty-one year-old high school dropout Dave Walker, a local elementary substitute janitor and the new head of camp maintenance.
Walker is excited to have a professional like Fingerhut under his employ. “He better be able to handle a plunger or I’ll kick his ass good. Them boys sure can stuff the toilets up.”
Feldstein has been tirelessly working on filling open slots for the past few weeks. Recently, Israeli Dance specialist, Tamar Peretz, was appointed as the go-to for boys’ roller hockey and will also be responsible for creating the forty-five gallon drum of artificial fruit drink at each meal. Peretz has already been given the giant wooden paddle used to mix the fifteen bags of sugar-laced powder into a colorful yet tasteless beverage.
Rebecca Sharvitz, a pre-law student at the University of Wisconsin, will not only be a Sophomore girls Assistant Group Leader but will double as the camp nurse although she has absolutely no medical training whatsoever. Sharvitz claims to be a fast learner and hopes to make great strides in helping sick or hurt campers.
“In high school, I had a job at Sixteen Handles frozen yogurt. It only took about two weeks for me to learn how to use the scale. I didn’t realize the cup had to be on top of the scale in order for it to be weighed,” Sharvitz explained. “But I’m usually a quick learner. I’m sure I’ll figure out how to draw blood from a seven-year old’s arm or decide what drugs I should give a kid who’s suffering from allergies. It’s all trial and error.”
It seems as if no one is immune from double duty as Feldstein’s mother, Sylvia, the camp’s ceremonial bubbe, will be heading up the Mountain Biking and Skateboarding electives although she last rode a big nearly a three-quarters of a century ago in her native Poland.
“She’s got an artificial collar bone on her left side and a steel rod in place of her right femur but you know the saying, ‘It’s like riding a bike’ so she should be good to go,” Feldstein commented. “The hill is pretty steep but she also has a titanium hip so I taught her to fall on her left side to minimize any injuries she sustains while barreling down the forty-five degree slope.”
Feldstein will continue in his dual roles as Camp Director and Visiting Day hot single mother schmoozer.
Dude, you’re brilliant 😎