Camp Shane

My parents sent me to Camp Shane a number of years ago. I am now a parent and would highly advise against sending your kids here. Putting aside the fact that the facilities were substandard when I went, there is really no magic to the weight loss. The Camp used simple calorie counting. Kids were fed three square meals a day which typically consisted of cold chicken or bread with melted cheese (hopefully they have changed the cuisine choices). The genius of the camp is its layout. To get to the cafeteria, you have to walk up and down a steep hill for each meal so the kids end up losing weight. I suspect many kids simply gain it back when they get home (despite the classes on calorie counting taught by junior nutritionists.
Ultimately, the camp encouraged the development of a thriving black market for contraband food despite the counsellors efforts to screen the mail.
In my youth, I went to other Summer camps and magically lost weight there as well.
There is just no magic to this. If you have a kid that wants to go-​great. If not, don’t buy into the hype and force your child.
Conclusion: I would never send my own kids there to the extent they struggled with a weight issue and I still have strong negative memories about this place.

This place holds a warm feeling in my heart. This is the place I grew up, the place that gave me confidence and my safe bubble. It’s a place where I was in a bubble and no one can hurt me. When I was told by my parents that I was going to Camp Shane I was devastated. I felt as if I was being sent to an island where fat people dwell because they could not associate with the thin and beautiful. I couldn’t be more wrong. The staff became my family and gave me the push and love I needed to be successful. The other campers were all in the same boat. It was the first time I could share clothes and talk about my feelings in which others truly understood me. When you heard the word fat, you could laugh about it instead of feeling like getting into the fetal position and crying. They had therapy sessions and guidance counselors and in general caring human beings at this camp. There was always a counselor around to talk to. The facility could be a bit more updated. The equipment is old and there are newer machines available and the gym building itself could be updated but it’s a traditional camp and there is a work out waiting just out the front door of the gym. Your clothes wont make it home but who cares? They wont fit anyway. At Camp Shane you learn a healthy lifestyle, self confidence, a better outlook on life, character building and so much more. I urge everyone to have this experiment and then pay it forward. You won’t be disappointed.

I’m a Mom of a 1^st time camper and I just wanted to say thank you for my child’s incredible experience at Camp Shane! More importantly I honestly take offense to the few reviews that are posted here. My child’s intro to Camp Shane was a whirlwind. He had waaaayyy different plans than going to’fitness’ camp as a 1^st time camper at 15 years old but his ‘friends’ had their own plans… All spring I had hoped to get him to do anything more positive than be home all summer with these ‘friends’ but it was the 1^st day after school ended that we needed a definite plan B. I know firsthand that we take an action when the pain is great enough… and the pain was great enough… Thanks to a very knowledgeable and understanding staff, he was at camp FOUR days later! Honestly when I dropped him off that first day, I had no idea what to expect because camp was empty. All 3 of my children had gone to a ‘regular’ sleep away when they were younger… you got there… hugged your friends and continued to ‘play’ all summer. Here you come, you get weighed, get your BMI measured, see a nutritionalist and the work begins. A completely different and opposite experience… I held my breath until I saw that HUGE smile on his face on visiting day because we weren’t able to speak and I knew it had been a life changing experience for him! His counselors were EXCEPTIONAL!!! His older siblings love him to pieces but it was his counselors that have lived his life, and because his siblings are not able to identify with him struggling through weight and self esteem issues, these counselors really helped him so much in every way! When he came home he was so sad because he really missed everything about his experience and I asked him what his favorite part of camp was… I thought he’d say he loved soccer, baseball, water sports… his answer was that his favorite part of this camp was that there was no judgment. That was it. No judgment of people that are around him in this negative world we live in…4 months later and he’s doing great! He’s joined our local gym and bicycles there about 4 – 5 times a week and continues to eat healthy, read ingredients in the supermarket before we buy something new and even tells his 2 older brothers how unhealthy, bad and gross his daily ex-​favorite Taco Bell meal really is for them! Is it a 5 star camp? No… But when you have a kid that needs nutritional and self esteem help/​guidance that you’re lacking to do so at home for whatever reason’s, Camp Shane’s accepting environment is life saver. I can’t begin to express how grateful we all are to the staff and educators!

My son had the most incredible experience ever this summer at Camp Shane. They not only worked on his weight issue, but also through their cognitive therapy helped him with his self esteem. For years my son talked about entering talent contests but was always so intimidated by his peers. Not only did he go in once but twice he sang solo on stage and was so proud of it. He made some great friends who he speaks to on a daily basis. What joy it brought me as a parent to walk around the mall on visiting day and have so many other campers come up to him and say «hi».
His bunk counselor was terrific and extremely responsive. He gave me a great sense of security. The boy’s head counselor was amazing and wrote extremely detailed emails to me. I couldn’t believe how much he knew about my son in such a short period of time.
The office staff makes the registration process so easy and they also helped with submitted medical forms for reimbursement for the therapy sessions. It was a pleasant surprised to finally be able to be reimbursed for these sessions.
My son and his friends are counting the days for camp to start again.

The Lure of Meaningful Assistance — Meets a Harsh Reality
I don’t write reviews. I don’t often take the time or have the inclination. Yet, my experience with this camp, its owners and various staff has compelled me to write this review. I hope that by doing so, I can help another parent, another child, another family, by saving them time, energy, and money. Importantly, advising them to seek an alternative weight-​loss/​get healthy camp solution that offers a safe, caring, and respectful camp environment.
Of the many complaints that I have after sending my child to the camp for 2-​years are:
~ Lack of appropriate supervision
~ Inappropriate behavior among staff, among campers & staff
~ Inadequate nutrition education
~ A focus on food control vs. self control/​self maintenance
~ Inexperienced staff and educators
~ Dismissive camp management that would rather collect money that resolve issues
My attempts at providing constructive feedback to the camp failed. My advance notification, canceling my child’s session, was met with a phone call that persuaded me to reconsider, even in light of the above grievances communicated. A promise of review and consideration of a refund of the substantial deposit submitted were not completed. Even when an errant email that found its way to me instead of the camp office requested that they send me a form letter denying my request and charging me more money, the camp fumbled on their follow-​through. Better yet, were emails from camp asking for balance due for my current camper, when my child never reported to camp.
Left with no other seemingly viable alternative, parents may think that choosing this camp is better than doing nothing. I encourage you to look elsewhere. Help is available. You do not need to, and should not, send your child here.

The facilities are of a typical overnight camp, fine. The staff are very reluctant to deal with parents concerns while the kids are at camp. I had such a difficult time talking to anyone but the secretary, I got very concerned. My daughters were writing me that it was a bootcamp and all this other stuff so I called and emailed the camp for 2 WEEKS before I was able to speak to someone. They promised call backs and never did, never emailed back anything but we will look into it. It is scary because you are trusting them with your kids and they have no concern for the parents at all. They don’t want to hear from you or for you to know what is going on. Worrisome.

Camp Shane? Camp Shame, more like.
I used to walk around the unpaved, dirt «track,» looking at the locked chain-​link gate thinking how easy I could scale it and escape. I really hope they’ve updated their gym because for the amount of money you pay to go here, you should be guaranteed to be able to work out on a new machine for a half hour without someone kicking you off. I was paying to be there and the stupid, obnoxious Tae Bo instructor asked me to get off the exercises bike (which was probably purchased 10 years ago)! The exercises room was in a shed that was open less than half the time and the little equipment they had was ANCIENT.
In all fairness, I did choose to spend 6 weeks– practically an entire summer– at this place. I ended up leaving after 5 because I was so homesick and miserable. I liked the aerobics classes a lot, but that was the only thing this place has going for. Watch the MTV special, no one actually likes it. Everyone realized within the 1^st 10 minutes of stepping foot here that they were scammed.
The amount of food was not enough for me, I was starving all the time and I was nearly half the size of most of the women there. The food actually tasted okay, but I’m pretty sure it’s because the portion sizes were so small and when I wasn’t sleeping (10pm-​8am), I was working out.
My weigh loss was great, I felt excellent, but losing weight that fast guarantees that you’ll gain it back (and then some) really fast. It’s especially not healthy to yo-​yo and go to a place like this every summer to lose all the weight you gained in the winter. Do yourself a favor and spend the money you would spend on this place to hire a personal trainer and nutritionist.