Greenwood Trails

Reviews (4)

• Good summer camp for teens

  January 2023

  If what you're looking for is a sleep away camp (and I think you are, based on the need for "good accommodations"), I would suggest looking at Greenwood Trails. It's in Connecticut, about 2 1/2 hours from Brooklyn. They have cabins, a pool, a lake, a lot of activities. It is co-ed. My children have had different experiences with it but my daughter (now nearly 12) continues to love it. Last year, she tried a lot of new activities: fencing, rock climbing, wood crafts, photography. She often enjoys arts and crafts and swimming and has long been a fan of science. My son's experience was influenced by his desire not to go anywhere when he returned after the pandemic. Previously, he had had a very positive experience. He really enjoyed trapeze, baseball, archery, gaga and photography. This is a camp that likes to do a lot of very messy activities in the evening. Last year, when it was very hot, they made sure to have water activities and extra time in the pool. They have handled COVID very well.

• Review from the 2022 Summer Camp Survey

  September 2022

  Location: Winsted, CT How old was your child when they attended camp this summer? One child was 8-11, one child was 10-12. Review: When researching sleepaway camps, one of the many things that we looked for was diversity among the campers. We didn't want the token child of color in the video; we wanted many children of color. Greenwood Trails has a lot of children of color. Our children had expressed that they wanted cabins with bathrooms which Greenwood Trails has. They have a lot of activities: swimming (pool and lake), kayaking, arts and crafts, gaga, archery, baseball, science, photography, fencing, trapeze, fishing and lots more. They encourage campers to complete "trails" over the course of the years and paint their camp sticks different colors when they complete the trails. This encourages campers to move out of their comfort zones and try new things. The structure of their weeks is majors and minors. Campers choose majors for the week and then minors for each day. The minors are a little wackier, sometimes messy. My daughter recently was happy that a minor of D&D moved to a major and is hoping it will take a spot on one of the trails for future years. My children are very different. My son, who is older, attended one year of GWT before the pandemic, then one year after. He was anxious about attending at first (we only did two weeks the first year) but was sobbing as we drove away. The second year, after a year and a half of pandemic and in between his 7th and 8th grade years, he had a very bad summer (though it was reported that all boys his age throughout the country had a rough summer at sleepaway camp). It was particularly challenging for him socially. The camp was experiencing their first year of encountering non-binary campers which my son fiercely supported and there was a lot of discussion, it appears, about a variety of sexual identities which he was not prepared to do yet. The camp has since gotten their own training on how to deal better with non-binary campers and trans campers. My son did not attend in 2022. My daughter, however, was ecstatic to return and had, possibly, the best summer she has ever had. Free from her older brother's shadow, she tried out things she had never tried before, made many new friends and got over her fear of performance. One of the things that this camp prides itself on is the messy activities that they do in the evenings. When they say pack clothes that will get destroyed, they mean it. The clothes will be paint splattered. You will see pictures of your child gleefully covered in multi-colored paint. This past summer was particularly hot and I was relieved to see that they had a lot of water activities that they pulled out of nowhere to make sure the kids were cool. My daughter particularly enjoys Snack Shack and getting her hair Dutch braided by the counselors. She frequently is seen doing friendship bracelets in the pictures. As a result of her time at sleepaway camp this year, she has taken up fencing at home and has declared that she wants to try new things this year in sixth grade. We have definitely seen a positive change in her since her time at Greenwood Trails this summer. The staff is very communicative and supportive. Nurse Barb has been there forever and is a great, kind support to the kids when they aren't feeling well. My son has food allergies and the camp is nut free which he liked. He would talk to the chef about the food that was available to him for each meal. The Associate Program Director even called me from the grocery store once to ask about ingredients in a certain bread. What would you change about the program, if anything, and why? I would like to have instructional swim. My daughter loves being in the pool and hates the test for the deep end, even though she could do it and we have discussed it with the staff. Would you like to add anything related to COVID and how the camp handled it? GWT handled COVID VERY well. In 2022, they required everyone to have a PCR and a day of home test with proof. In the five weeks that my daughter was there, there were only instances of COVID and they sent the child home to recover and had the cabin operate as a pod in activities. There was no outbreak and it was contained. Counselors were given a place to hang out on campus away from the kids for days off and were told certain places that they could and couldn't go if they were leaving campus. While they do not require everyone to be vaxxed, the majority of people are. I do wish that they required it.

• Review from the 2022 Summer Camp Survey

  September 2022

  Location: Winsted, CT How old was your child when they attended camp this summer? 13 1/2 Review: After a few pandemic summers, at 13 1/2 (post 7th grade), my son went to Greenwood Trails (GWT) as a somewhat nervous first-timer at sleepaway camp. It was a bit of a gamble as we didn't know anyone who had gone there or would be there this summer. It turned out that GWT was a fantastic choice in many ways. The program is a smart mix of structure and free choice for the kids, so they feel like they're deciding what they want to do a lot of the time. There's a huge range of activities, so there's something for everyone including not only the predictable sports, waterfront activities, and arts & crafts, but also trapeze, go-kart racing, wood shop, coding, theater production, and more. They have both a lake and a pool -- my son opted for pool only and said it was a very nice one -- and swimming is optional. Campers select "majors" morning activities that they do daily for 2 weeks and "minors" in the afternoon that change daily. My son did a lot of things he already knew and liked, e.g. basketball and soccer, but I was thrilled to learn that he also did 2 weeks of trapeze and loved it. There was also a healthy amount of built-in down time, including "siesta" after lunch where they could do quiety activities like reading and playing Magic, afternoon Snack Shack where they could get a snack or ice cream, and cabin chat before bedtime. From what I could tell in the photos, the campus is really nice (parents weren't allowed in due to Covid restrictions). I couldn't get a ton of info about the food from my son, but it sounds like it was pretty good and he raved about the meatballs, LOL. I would say that my son loved the freedom and all-day fun with kids his age, and the constant stimulation and available things to do -- an incredibly welcome change for him as a kid with no siblings. He liked many of the activities a lot, and he seemed to like the food and the general camp environment. He made a lot of new friends, he tried new things, and I can see a difference in him, i.e. he grew as a young teenager. The only thing he complained about a bit was the fact that some kids in his cabin weren't disciplined and made a lot of noice at night so he couldn't sleep well, despite counselors trying to manage the situation -- seems like a potential situation at any sleepaway camp. Last but absolutely not least, the communication, warm responsiveness, and professionalism of the staff was superb. Email communications to parents were timely, just frequent enough, short and to the point, and helpful. When I sent an email inquiring about something, I always received a reply within a few hours. My son had a bumpy first week due to some homesickness, so I was speaking by phone to counselors every other day, and they were awesome and proactive, and always put my mind at ease. They have seen everything and really know what they are doing. What would you change about the program, if anything, and why? The only thing I wish were different is that you can send your kid for one uninterrupted month -- Session A is 2 weeks, Session B is 3 weeks, and Session C is 2 weeks. So, to get a month of sleepaway, you end up doing Sessions A plus B, or B plus C, which ends up being 5 weeks AND includes a transition in the middle where you kid sees lots of other kids going home. My son did Sessions A and B, and told me after he got home that it felt too long. I'm convinced that that was because he saw kids going home midway. I know they are trying to give families lots of options, but for us, a solid month would have been better. Would you like to add anything related to COVID and how the camp handled it? Covid protocols were thorough and good. All campers had to take PCRs within 3 days of arriving AND a rapid test the morning of arriving AND bring both the results and the physical rapid test with them to submit at check-in. Parents dropped off in a field across the road from camp. There were two different times where we received emails about one camper testing positive (probably incubated for longer before arriving), and they isolated that camper's whole cabin in a different schedule and activities.

• Review from the 2021 Summer Camp Survey

  September 2021

  Name of camp: Greenwood Trails Location: Winsted, CT How old was your child when they attended camp this summer? The first time-8 and 10. Second time-10 and 12 Review: This is a sleepaway camp in the country. My children attended it prior to the pandemic, then missed a year due to the pandemic and then attended it in 2021. The first time they attended was for 2 weeks. The second time was for 5 weeks. The camp has cabins with bathrooms (something my children wanted after understanding all the options). There are a lot of activities that they can choose from: archery, arts and crafts, theater, fishing, swimming, trapeze, rock-climbing, baseball, soccer, pioneer cooking. Some of the activities from the first year had to be pared back some for the second year so I know I'm missing some. My son really loved trapeze and even did the catch multiple times. My daughter was into aquatics and arts and crafts. Both of them loved archery. My daughter also really loved science which wasn't offered as much the second year. They also have sillier minors that they can do in the afternoons. The camp is very into bonding and find ways for the cabins to bond. They do a LOT of very messy activities that involve full-body paint splatter or other similar things. If your kid isn't into that, you might want to look elsewhere. My children weren't into that the first year but engaged in it finally the second year, much to our surprise. The camp was super responsible about how they handled Covid. They required everyone to get PCR tests as they were entering the camp. Unvaccinated children had a rapid test upon arrival and then again four days later. They restructured the programs so that cabins were operating as pods for the first week until the results cleared everyone at camp. They had everyone eat all of their meals outside in a covered area. The staff were very communicative with parents. My son has a lot of food allergies and the camp is nut free. Still, my son was nervous and the staff needed advice on how to manage him both years. It was not uncommon for the head of programming to call me from the grocery store to check on the ingredients for a food item to make sure that it was safe for him. One of the appeals of the camp for us was how diverse the population was (compared to other camps). This was particularly important for us when our nephew who is Chinese American was attending the second year. Our son, who was 12 this year, reported a lot of mixed sexual identification happening in his cabin which he embraced and it appears they all discussed. This was the first year that the camp had to manage transgender campers and CIT's but they did so and plan to educate themselves further on sexual identification and transgender accommodations in the off-season. They have a no-violence policy and we did hear that two people were sent home when that was crossed. One thing that we are less satisfied about is how they handle swimming. They have a test for diving to pick up keys or a wallet at the bottom of the pool to determine where in the pool a camper can go but they do not have instructive swim classes. They have a lake and a pool. If they go in the lake for kayaking or swimming, they have to wear a life jacket. But it seems like a waste of an opportunity to have all of these kids there and not teach them to swim properly. The camp has a reunion during the year. We went to it the first year, just before the pandemic hit. My kids didn't feel they really knew too many people. However, after this year, my son was immediately getting on Discord to connect to his camp friends when he got home. My daughter has always been the driving force to go to sleep away camp and is determined to go again next year. My son is a more anxious child and was never sure that he wanted to go. When we picked him up the first year, he was crying and wanted us to turn the car around and drop him back off until the end of 7 weeks. Coming out of the pandemic, he was very resistant again but when we picked him up from camp, he was crying again. While he was ready to go home, he was also very emotional. He doesn't know if he will go back next year. Previously, he had been very afraid of bugs. He now appears to be over that. Overall, I would 100% recommend this sleep away camp. What would you change about the program, if anything, and why? The swim program. I would like them to have swim classes. Would you like to add anything related to COVID and how the camp handled it? See above.