Although he was never a camper as a child, Mark Magid has made camp business his life. Since 1995 he and his wife, Melissa, have owned and operated Black Bear Lake Day Camp in Millstone. One of several camps in Monmouth County, Black Bear caters to Mercer County residents, especially families from West Windsor and Plainsboro. That’s appropriate since Mark, who oversees the operations of the camp, and Melissa, who runs the daily programs and special events, live in West Windsor with their three kids, who themselves are campers at Black Bear Lake.##M:[more]##
Raised in the camp business, Mark’s parents founded a day camp when he was close to nine years old and considered too old for camp. “I worked the grounds, fed horses, and did a lot of cleaning and setting up,” he says.
Born in Manalapan, he is the second child with four sisters and a younger brother. His stay-at-home mother started a small nursery school for five or six kids on the ground floor of their house. Called Yellow Duck Nursery School, it quickly grew and she began renting space from churches and synagogues. “Every Friday we had to put away nursery school stuff and clean up glitter and things,” he says. “Sunday evening we would put away their chairs and set up the nursery school again.”
His father was an engineer with ITT and commuted to New York City daily. He continued to commute until the nursery school became one of the largest in the state and his help was needed to supervise the 15 yellow school buses and take care of the grounds. “Country Roads Camp, an outgrowth of the nursery school, began when they rented a swim club,” Mark says. “When the club was sold my mother purchased land and built her own facility.”
Although most of the children were required to work, they were not paid. “We were always told that the money was going towards something special and one time they bought a 35-foot wooden cabin cruiser for the family,” says Mark. “The money probably helped with our college educations.”
Magid graduated from Syracuse University in 1983 with a degree in accounting. Melissa, raised in Spring Valley, New York, graduated from Brandeis University and has a graduate degree in accounting from Northeastern University. The couple met when they were both working for an accounting firm in New York City.
As Mark climbed the corporate ladder, the accounts were growing, but his job satisfaction was diminishing. His mind turned to camps. “The family always talked about it,” he says. It did not hurt that Melissa was a veteran sleep-away camper.
The couple, who lived in New York City, borrowed a car on weekends to look for land. They found the 50 acres that they wanted and purchased the land. The camp was approved by the town on July 3, 1994, and the couple opened the camp on July 1, 1995. “While I was outside dealing with construction Melissa was inside making phone calls and handling planning, programming, and marketing,” he says.
The camp, located at 457 Stage Coach Road, in Millstone, took its name from the legend of Black Bear Lake, an area settled by the Lenape Indians not long after the great flood of 1610. While they were sleeping, their canoes disappeared, and when they awoke, the chief found only pawprints. “Although no one has ever actually seen the Great Black Bear, paw prints are often found on the trails of Black Bear Mountain,” says the camp’s website.
The two-story house on the property became the Magids’ new home. They lived upstairs and the downstairs became the office. They rented out their studio apartment. “We lived there for five years and put in a lot of hours,” he says.
The family lived on the property until their third child was born. “We knew it was time to get a real house,” says Melissa. They had met so many camper families from West Windsor and moved to Windsor Park Estates eight years ago. Their children are Morgan, 10, a student at Village School; Jason, 8, and Lauren, 7, both students at Dutch Neck School. Unlike their father, they attend the camp just like regular campers. They take the bus and stay with their groups.
The program is unique in that every child has a different camp day with four electives each day. With more than 55 electives to choose from, including baseball, aerobics, horseback riding, animation, boating, pottery, magic, clowning, robotics, and paleontology, there is something for everyone. Campers, ages 5 to 14, create their own custom-made-schedule by choosing four electives each week.
Physically challenging electives include bungee trampoline (with a safety harness), water trampoline (the coolest place in camp), the tower of power (25-foot rock climbing wall), the banana boat ride, ropes adventures, and Segway-riding. If you enjoy taking TVs, radios, camcorders, and VCRs apart, the tech wreck elective is perfect. Some campers may prefer to solve crimes using forensic science with guest detectives.
A typical day includes meeting up with the group as soon as the bus stops. After morning announcement and a short game, activities begin. Everyone has swimming instruction in the morning with a free swim in the afternoon, both in heated pools. Special events every afternoon may include a clown, inflatables, a unicycle, a show, or chocolate pudding tug of war. Each group votes for a choice activity once a day with options including sprinklers, an extra swim, or football. There are five periods per day with the group by age level.
Electives include the newly added stock car racing and trains. “We’re always adding to the program and sustaining what we’ve been doing,” says Magid. The four periods of electives include more than 40 options. Each one is chosen for a week (but kids are allowed to switch if they are not happy). While they are still with kids their own age they are with kids who share similar interests and friendships develop.
Magid’s older daughter prefers the Harry Potter Club and lacrosse, his younger daughter prefers cooking and lanyards. “We have flexibility to add sessions for more children to participate. Rocketry was so popular that we added it as a full elective. Cooking, also popular, resulted in three cooking rooms. There are also three fishing docks and chess has become popular in recent years.
“Most camps do not fill up as quickly,” he says. “We are competitive and offer financial incentives and limit the enrollment due to the nature of the program. We want to keep it that way so that more than 90 percent of the kids continue to get their first choice of electives.” There are usually between 800 and 900 kids each season.
“The camp is already filled for this season and there are more than 200 on the waiting list,” he says. “I’ve been telling people that there is a low drop out rate and I don’t see many spots opening up this year. I try to be realistic with them.” Since 2004, Black Bear Lake has filled every season.
Any family currently enrolled is guaranteed a place the following year with registration prior to August 17. Families on the waiting list have an exclusive two-week registration for 2008 in June, 2007. “We encourage registration during the summer and everything, including registration and camp bulletins, is done on the website (www.blackbearlake.com),” he says.
“Many camps offer tours off-season but we offer tours in the summer so that people can see what’s going on,” he says. “If they have questions about baseball or horseback riding it is much easier to talk about it when the kids are in a session.”
“We encourage campers to attend between six and eight weeks in the summer and close to 70 percent are there for eight weeks,” he says. “Parents see that if they register for six weeks it is not much more to go for eight. We offer unique electives and kids don’t get bored. Eight week campers also have a higher return rate. We have found the fewer weeks a kid is in camp the less connected he feels.”
The camp staff includes one-third teachers who are specialists in the electives, one-third college students, and one-third high school students. Close to 90 percent of the teachers return. Between 60 and 65 percent of the college students return and close to 50 percent of the high school students return. “We like to bring in staff that knows the program,” he says. “We pay a competitive wage.”
The all inclusive price, (four weeks, $3,”600; and eight weeks, $4,”260), includes door-to-door transportation, hot and cold lunches, snacks, horseback riding lessons, and trips. There is also an option of meeting the bus at a central location and saving $350 per camper. There are two stops in Plainsboro and five in West Windsor. Before and after camp care, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., may be chosen in lieu of transportation.
The camp, with 30 wooded and developed acres, still has more than 20 undeveloped acres for growth. Over the years more pools, tennis courts, and playing fields have been added as needed. The big lake is primarily for boating — row boats, kayaks, canoes, pedal boats, banana boats, and surf-bikes. The smaller lakes are for fishing for bass, sunnies, pike, perch, blue gill, catfish, and carp. All of the buildings are air conditioned.
Another part of the business includes picnics and outings held at the campgrounds on Saturdays and Sundays. There are usually one to three groups per day unless it is a large group of 1,”000. The family-oriented day includes access to the pools, lakes, sports fields, rock climbing, and a five-hour menu. There is an additional full-time staff for this part of the business.
Mark, past president of the New Jersey Association of Private Day Camps, has also owned Outdoor Laser Tag USA (www.oltusa.com) for more than 10 years and organizes events with 10 to 1,”000 guests. He formed the company, also based in Clarksburg, out of a passion for the game. “Laser tag is also working great at Black Bear and the kids love it.”
Field days are available for elementary schools or non-profit organizations. Facilities are also donated to area recreation programs and fire departments before and after the camp season.
“We are very fortunate that Black Bear Lake Camp works. There are not a lot of options at our tier that serve Mercer County,” he says. “Without expanding the pools, dining hall, other facilities, we have the right amount of campers now — for now.”
Note: Read about other camps in the camp section.
