Rolling River Day Camp, East Rockaway NY

We had our children enrolled in Rolling River for 6 years with every intention to continue for years to come. One afternoon while reviewing photos from the parents portal, we discovered that a male counselor was reading to nursery school aged kids wearing women’s makeup. Concerned about gender confusion, we confronted the owners. Our concerns were summarily dismissed, nor was any possibility of a remedy offered. In our conversation with the owners, not once did they express any regard for our children or for other campers. We immediately pulled our children out of the camp. A refund was promised by the owner who then reneged. He then sent us a threatening email arising from a single factual social media post lamenting what had occurred. On further inquiry about our refund, he had his lawyer send us a threatening letter. Our children’s hearts were broken, but we had to stand up for our values. It’s disheartening that all we wanted to do was send our children to camp for fun and healthy recreation. We never expected anything like this to occur.

This maybe a bit lengthy as this rating is personal:
What I wish I knew then (If you have young children, my son was one month away from turning 3, I would urge you to really ask questions and consider your circumstances. As I thought I had) …

PROS: Camp activities correlate with the categorized age groups and the staff (majority are parents of enrolled campers- Family and family affiliates of the business) have a super-friendly demeanor and are very welcoming. One Lead Counselor, Donna was an absolute doll and my son really gravitated to her. I can tell he trusted her and depended on her based on the information provided by the division supervisor.

CONS: Certain Staff and mostly Camp counselors (older campers who have grown up in the program) struggle to uphold versatile dispositions when dealing with diversity. As a result, I saw first-hand how this affected the camps suitability to accommodate my child.
To ALL Parents: As a parent, If you have a hyper-active child and are able to provide additional support for him/her by having a chaperone present to assist him/her (which is allowed) in the program then, it is safe to consider, if affordable.

BACKSTORY: Both a family friend and I enrolled our children (aged 2 and 6) into RRDC Summer Camp upon attending an orientation. I rest assured that we both were upfront concerning our children and their behaviors: with my expressing how active my child is; and my friend expressing concern about certain behavioral issues, she experiences with one of her two children. We were assured by the presenters that these are common behaviors, it comes with age, and that there would be enough staff and experienced campers on board to accommodate the children.
In my case, I called for a meeting about 5 or 6 days in, after having been advised that my child was biting (which his previous care center attested to him never doing), throwing objects, and running away from the group. I also did observe certain changes at home and became upset when my child referred to himself as “bad” (which the division supervisor did apologize about). For the short attendance, I received a little less than half of the money back, as a courtesy, for what would have been a six-week program.

My child, AGAIN at my request (as well as the child previously mentioned), were both withdrawn less than 7 days of being in the program. I hope this really helps someone else in making the right choice for their child!

This place is covid central. They didn’t reduce capacity this summer at all. They’re all in crowded spaces everyday with new covid cases every week. They also expect you to pay over $300 in tips because they can’t be bothered to pay their staff appropriately. I have a lot more to say about this place but I’ll leave it at that.