FROM CAMP FRIENDS TO SOULMATES: HOW CAMPS 'R' US BUILDS COMMUNITY THAT LASTS A LIFETIME
What one Long Island family wants every parent to know about the lifelong value of summer camp.
Camps ‘R’ Us • Long Island, NY
We say it often: camp is more than a place to spend the summer. It’s where friendships take root, where kids discover who they are, and where memories get made that outlast any single season.
Every now and then, a story lands in our inbox that proves it all over again.
A few weeks ago, we heard from Olga, a longtime Camps ‘R’ Us family from our Bellmore campus. Her daughter Monica had just gotten engaged. And the person she’s marrying? Someone she met right here at camp, years ago.
“Had it not been for the camp,” Olga told us, “they would not be getting engaged right now.” We’re not going to pretend that didn’t make our day.
A summer that changed everything
Monica Sarduy and Daniel O’Keefe first crossed paths as campers on the Bellmore campus. Like so many kids who come through our doors, they spent their summers laughing, making friends, and growing up together, one activity period at a time.
– Monica and her camp friends.
The friendship didn’t fade when camp ended. Daniel was at Monica’s Sweet 16. He took her to prom. In June 2019, they made it official. Daniel went on to graduate from Binghampton University and graduates law school this May. Monica graduated with honors from Queens College and went on to build a career in social media on Long Island.
– Daniel at Monica’s Sweet 16
– Daniel and Monica, prom night
A few weeks ago, he proposed in Central Park. She said yes.
What strikes us most about Monica and Daniel’s story isn’t just the engagement. It’s everything around it. One of Monica’s closest friends, someone she met during those same summers at Camps ‘R’ Us, will be standing beside her at the wedding. The bonds formed at camp didn’t fade into a distant memory. They became part of the fabric of her life.
The cost of camp per summer is one thing…
the cost of meeting your soulmate? Priceless.”
Their story is a beautiful reminder of what camp is really about. Yes, there are the games, the trips, the activities, the non-stop fun. But at the heart of it all is community: the friendships formed during a game of gaga, the conversations over lunch, the shared moments that quietly turn into something that lasts a lifetime.