Welcome to Camp Baco for Boys. We are a full season camp, and we’ve been family run and operated with love and care for nine decades. We believe that camp at its best is when your child has magical moments that emerge from the backdrop that we supply.
We provide the unspoiled setting, expert instruction, and careful supervision, the safety and structure for campers. We challenge, teach, and cheer them on. Through our wonderful culture, children grow as they bond on the fields, in the lake and in the bunks. These are the values on which the camps were founded and they exist to this day.
Where times have changed, Camp Baco – and what kids get out of camp – remains constant: children play all day, learn new skills, challenge themselves, make lots of new friends, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!
Health
Our campers’ health, safety and security are paramount.
Health Clinic
Each camp has its own health clinic, staffed 24 hours a day by registered nurses and a doctor. Each clinic contains private examination rooms and private overnight rooms. We are a short distance from a major hospital in Glens Falls, New York and EMT support is stationed locally.
If a child is injured, put on medication, has a fever or is admitted to the health clinic, we contact parents immediately.
Safety/Security
We hold ourselves to the highest standards in maintaining camp safety and security.
We are:
- Accredited by the American Camping Association
- Member of the New York State Camping Association
- Member of the American Independent Camp Association
We hold a:
New York State Department of Health Permit
Food
We serve delicious and well-balanced meals and snacks, including lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and we make sure that there are plenty of choices that kids like.
We accommodate children with special diets – peanut-sensitive, gluten-free, and lactose intolerant, for example. Our food staff and counselors are adept at accommodating dietary needs.
If a child has a peanut allergy, the campers in his or her bunk are alerted ahead of time and asked not to bring food with peanuts into the bunk.
Activities are generally assigned according to age group; group scheduling allows campers to develop social skills, and to have fun with their best friends. We recognize that everyone has strengths. By participating in activities with their peers, campers shed their inhibitions, form strong bonds with each other, and gain confidence and ability in activities that they might not have ever tried before.
Counselors who are specialists in their fields always supervise all activities at camp. Because of our instruction, professional approach to teaching and our spirit (!) campers can expect to become better ball players, swimmers, actors and musicians.
Team Sports
We offer an all-around sports program to encourage healthy competition. Instruction is built into every activity. This enables campers to develop self-confidence and learn leadership skills. Our facilities – sports fields and an indoor gym — are filled with activity all day long.
Boys play baseball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, roller hockey, flag football, ultimate frisbee, and beach volleyball.
Inter-Camp Games & Tournaments
We arrange for those campers who choose to, to participate in tennis matches and athletic tournaments. Our campers enjoy visiting other camps nearby and hosting camps here, too.
Inter-camp games and tournaments are for campers entering the 6th grade and up. Campers at all ability levels can participate in inter-camp games that we arrange with nearby camps. They can try out to play on tournament teams in soccer, basketball, baseball and hockey.
Individual Sports & Activities
Tennis
For many campers, tennis is the focal point of camp. The program is run by a tennis pro who has been working at camp for many summers. We offer tennis instruction to campers, where they focus on skill building, drills and practice play. There are eight tennis courts at Camp Baco. In addition to intra-camp games and tournaments, campers enjoy participating in inter-camp tennis tournaments and USTA hosted tennis tournaments. Private lessons can be arranged for campers with our pros for an additional fee.
Pioneering, High Ropes & Climbing Tower
Our pioneering program takes full advantage of our beautiful mountain surroundings. Specially trained counselors guide campers on age-appropriate hiking trails throughout the Adirondacks. Campers learn how to hike safely and smartly while enjoying the wilderness. In addition, campers learn camping skills on overnights.
The climbing tower located at Camp-Che-Na-Wah is used by campers from both camps and supervised by certified counselors. Scrambling up the tower and rappelling down are skills that test a camper’s strength, agility and courage, as well as their Spiderman genes.
Older campers enjoy our high ropes and zip line course. Situated at Camp Baco and supervised by certified counselors, campers enjoy acting like tight rope artists while taking in the magnificent view of the mountains from the top of the tightrope. Not surprisingly, high ropes are among one of our favorite activities at camp.
Archery
We think that some of the best things about camp are the most unexpected and old-fashioned; and campers of all ages enjoy trying to hit bull’s-eyes at the archery range. Archery helps them feel strong and focused, plus, it’s pretty fun.
Weight Training
Senior boys enjoy heading to the open-air pavilion, with a full suite of weight-training equipment.
Waterfront
Our beautiful lake is the heart of camp. Baco has a fully equipped waterfront on Lake Balfour, where campers cool off and have fun every day.
Swim Instruction
Every camper receives swim instruction through the Red Cross “Learn to Swim Program.” Our Red Cross-certified instructors teach campers swimming, diving and lifesaving techniques to develop confidence and a life-long love of the water. Older campers can participate in Red Cross certified water safety courses specially designed for lake swimming.
Boating, Canoeing, Sailing
Campers love our boats and they learn boating skills on canoes, kayaks, and funyaks and sunfish sailboats. Bobbing along on the lake, learning boating safety skills and how to handle a lightweight sail boat are all skills campers can carry with them for a lifetime.
Waterskiing
Waterskiing is one of the most popular activities at camp and each camp has its team of certified Water Safety Instructors and its own “Ski Nautique” ski boat. Leveled according to each camper’s ability, our instructors get campers up on skis and confidently circling the lake in no time! We also offer skim boarding and wakeboarding, which the children say is almost more fun that waterskiing.
Free Swim
What would camp be without free swim in Lake Balfour? Every day, campers can enjoy a free swim period where they bob with friends on floats and noodles, leap off the diving board or practice what they learned in swim instruction that day!
Arts & Crafts and the Performing Arts
Creativity is a hallmark of camp and campers are given ample opportunities to immerse themselves in performance activities and in Arts & Crafts. We have indoor and outdoor theaters at both camps – they’re entertainment hot spots – great for shows and concerts; our arts and crafts pavilions are among the favorite spots at camp for campers of all ages.
Arts and Crafts
Campers enjoy such activities as drawing and sculpting, beading and tie dying in our arts and crafts buildings. We have pottery wheels and kilns for campers to try their hands at making pots. Campers adore Arts & Crafts, not only because the activities are just plain fun, but because of the buildings themselves: Baco’s arts and crafts pavilion has a creation station on a balcony overlooking the lake.
Musical Theater
Campers of every age participate in our musical theater programs, which are run by musical theater and dramatic professionals with Broadway production credits. For children who choose to perform in plays, there is a junior show, an intermediate show, a co-ed senior show and, for our oldest campers, “The Big Show,” also a co-ed production where boys and girls rehearse and perform together.
Musical Performance: Rock Band
Campers who play an instrument can bring theirs to camp and participate in the rock bands we form. Our music program, taught by counselors who are musicians, help kids learn to play in rock ensembles, culminating with a performance in front of their camp friends. It seems as if everywhere you go, you hear music.
Special Events & Trips
Summers wouldn’t be complete without special excursions off camps’ grounds. In our camp-owned buses and vans, we take campers hiking, and to bowling, and mini-golf. A favorite excursion is to a few of the local amusement parks in the Lake George area, too.
Senior Mini-Camp Program
“Mini-Camp” is an elective program that includes options such as: intensive workshops in basketball, arts, soccer, tennis, swimming, day hikes, overnight hikes, local sightseeing trips at no extra cost.
The “Mini-Camp” program also includes the option of a co-ed trip at an additional fee.
Campers in our senior age division can choose to travel out of camp on one, two and three-day trips to Boston, Vermont or Montreal to sight see and have fun being tourists. These trips are co-ed and chaperoned by senior staff; boys and girls take separate luxury buses and stay safe on separate floors of the hotels. These trips require an additional fee.
A Typical Day
That’s a tough one because there is no typical day, because we write a new schedule every day to suit the needs of the campers.
Most days, campers have a full schedule of structured activities, punctuated by free plays after lunch and after dinner.
Since schedules are written daily, campers have an opportunity to make suggestions for their next day’s schedule. If, for instance, an age group is in the midst of a fun roller-hockey competition or lightning ball match they may ask to play again the following day.
To give you an idea, here’s how the day “typically” flows!
Wake up call!
Our day begins with morning visits to each bunk from camp group leaders. Campers come together with their counselors to the dining room and the day begins!
Meals:
Campers eat with their bunks and their counselors. Food is served buffet-style. Before lunch and dinner, campers and staff gather for all-camp announcements including honoring campers who achieved something special that day.
Clean up:
After breakfast, campers and counselors return to their bunks for the best part of the day: “clean up!” (Just kidding, but chores are an important part of the learning that goes on at camp).
Activity periods:
There are three activity periods in the morning and three in the afternoon for junior and intermediate campers. Occasionally, junior and intermediate campers have a choice of activities where they can split from their bunk groups. They can and spend a relaxing afternoon sailing, head to the tennis courts, enjoy Art & Crafts, go on a nature hike, play music, etc.
Senior campers are assigned to “Senior Electives” in the morning and have three structured activity periods in the afternoon. Seniors create their own elective schedules.
There is at least one free swim period every day for all campers. Campers who choose not to swim can participate in other activities such as basketball or tennis.
Optional intra-camp leagues are available to all age groups in soccer, baseball, basketball, roller-hockey, lacrosse, flag football, ultimate Frisbee.
Of course campers might be involved in rehearsals for shows, participate in tournaments, be on a hike, or on a trip, all which would be worked into their schedule for the day.
Evening Activity
In addition to their daily schedule, there is always an evening activity. Some of our special evening activities are talent shows, scavenger hunts, tag games, and campfires.
Snack
Snacks are served after afternoon free play, and after evening activity.
Taps – Lights out
Campers return to their bunks after evening snack. They take showers, write letters, and play quiet games, listen to a story until lightsout, which begins at 9:00 p.m. for our youngest campers, and increases every 15 minutes for each older grade group. There is a counselor on duty in each bunk at all times.
If you do not find the date/time you are looking for or have a question, click above button to contact the provider.
Deposit – $4,000, Balance due by 5/1
Camp Baco is a full season, all-boys camp that has been family run and operated with love and care for nine decades. Camp Che-Na-Wah is our sister camp. We believe that camp at its best is when your child has magical moments that emerge from the backdrop that we supply.
We provide the unspoiled setting, expert instruction, and careful supervision, the safety and structure for campers. We challenge, teach, and cheer them on. Through our wonderful culture, children grow as they bond on the fields, in the lake and in the bunks. These are the values on which the camps were founded and they exist to this day.
Where times have changed, Camps Baco and Che-Na-Wah – and what kids get out of camp – remains constant: children play all day, learn new skills, challenge themselves, make lots of new friends, and most importantly, HAVE FUN!
Meet Our Directors
Barbara & Allison Wortman, Directors
Mother/daughter team Barbara and Allison Wortman believe that camp is truly special. Their aim is to foster growth in children in an environment that is encouraging, fun and free-spirited; one that is unlike any other community that children are likely to encounter. The Wortman family approaches this goal both seriously and with serious delight. Watching each child blossom in camp’s youth-oriented community makes them feel privileged.
Barbara arrived at camp in 1974 with Bob Wortman, who she’d met in college. With her background teaching music and as a special ed teacher, she was a natural fit at camp.
Allison is the third generation of the Wortman family to plant her feet at camp to help share and spread the positive values that are so deeply rooted here. Allison grew up at camp, and has worked in numerous staff positions from counselor to her current role. Allison holds a Master of Science in Camp Administration and Leadership from Touro University.
Their favorite part about running camp is knowing that the Camp Baco and Che-Na-Wah experience provides so much pleasure to so many people. They see camp as a place for campers to grow athletically, educationally, emotionally and spiritually, gaining leadership qualities and confidence along the way.
Our Staff
Greg Silver, Program Director, Head Counselor
Camp Baco’s Head Counselor and Program Director, Greg Silver, began attending camp when he was eight years old. His grandparents, Alice and Lester Sternin, owned Camp Che-Na-Wah from the late 1959 until 1986. Greg has never missed a summer at camp and worked his way up from basketball counselor to group leader to his current role, which he’s held with great pride since 2002.
Greg’s responsibilities at camp are far-ranging: he writes the daily schedules, hires and trains staff and plays a myriad of other roles. His favorite job is as the spirit and face of Camp Baco when he runs the twice-daily meet-up of campers and counselors before each meal. Greg always has a smile on his face and does whatever it takes to make camp special for everyone. His favorite words from campers? “Greg! You gave us the best schedule today!”
When Greg is not at camp, he is the dean of student life and high school placement at a charter middle school serving underprivileged students in New Jersey.
Danny Silver, Administrator/Basketball Director
Like many senior staffers at Camps Baco, Danny has numerous roles. As head of the basketball program, he makes sure that the boys have an opportunity for learning and competition within camp and through inter-camp games. He keeps the ball in play off the court, too, assisting his brother, Greg, the program director, mentoring staff and supervising campers.
Danny, like other senior counselors, cherishes camp. He was a camper for ten years and has been a counselor for nine. His grandparents, Alice and Lester Sternin, owned Camp Che-Na-Wah from the late 1959 until 1986. He says that more than any other influence, camp has shaped him into who he is today. He says that camp is special because of the strong sense of community and pride that defines every day, every activity and every action.
Danny is a physical education teacher at a private K-9 boys school in Manhattan. He coaches soccer, basketball and baseball.
Marc Huberman, Athletic Director
Marc only spent one year as a camper at Camp Baco; but it must have made a big impression on him: he has worked at camp on and off for 26 years. Today, Marc focuses on working with department heads and specialty counselors to improve skill instruction and he supervises the pioneering and waterfront programs at Baco. He has a love of the Adirondack Mountains, has hiked most of the trails here, and his passion for the environment is infectious.
Marc says that Baco is special because it feels like a family, and the fact that 95% of the campers and 80% of the counselors return each year gives him an opportunity to watch them grow.
Marc teaches physical education and health at a high school in the Bronx, and he is an adjunct professor of physical education and recreation at York College CUNY.
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