City Offering Free Summer Camp for Local Youth

Mayor Cory A. Booker, Department of Neighborhood and Recreation Services Director Tharien Karim Arnold and Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC) Executive Director Linda Watkins-Brashear announced today that the deadline to register Newark children ages 7-17 for Camp Watershed, the City’s annual free two-week summer day camp, is Monday, June 11. Advance registration for one of the four sessions is required. Families interested in registering can pick up the forms at 94 William St., 2nd Floor, or any local recreation center. Families must provide proof of a physical examination, proof of residency and immunization records for their children. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
 
The camp located at Pequannock Watershed in West Milford, offers Newark youth daily activities like hiking, low and high ropes/initiative courses, gardening, boating, swimming, computers, field sports, archery, and arts and crafts. Also being offered are outdoor living skills, classes on good environmental practices, and nature quests to introduce urban youngsters to various types of animals and plants. The four two-week day camp sessions begin on Monday, July 2, and conclude on Friday, Aug. 24.
 
Camp Watershed is administered by the Newark Watershed Conservation, Development Corporation Conservation, and Development Corporation. Children attending Camp Watershed will be picked up daily from one of seven sites throughout the city by the Division of Recreation and Cultural Affairs. Buses pick up children at 8 am and a return time of no later than 5 pm. A list of sessions and pick-up/drop-off sites is attached. Breakfast and lunch are provided as part of this free summer camp program, through the Department of Neighborhood and Recreational Services’ Division of Recreation and Cultural Affairs.

The Newark Pequannock Watershed supplies the City of Newark with its water and sells water to the surrounding suburbs. The Watershed resource, from a land-use perspective, is also managed by the NWCDC. Large reservoirs and streams are part of the watershed’s physical make-up. More specifically, the watershed has four reservoirs normally open to recreational boating and fishing. Swimming is available to campers at Echo Lake. The Newark-Pequannock Watershed is a 35,000-acre natural resource owned by the city of Newark.
 
The Newark Watershed is designed to accommodate year-round recreational activities including hiking trails, horseback riding and hunting and fishing during the appropriate seasons. No campfires, picnics, unleashed pets, or all-terrain vehicles (ATV) are permitted within the watershed property. Hiking is permitted from sunrise to sunset. All hunting ends after Dec. 31, and resumes in October. For more information on the watershed, visit their website at newarkwatershed.com.

– Staff reports