Sesame-Rockwood Day Camp to Celebrate 60th Anniversary

Sesame-Rockwood Day Camp, one of the Philadelphia region’s oldest and most well-respected day camps, will celebrate its 60^th Anniversary with an Alumni Reunion Luncheon at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, at its campus in Blue Bell.

The Luncheon will be followed by the camp’s annual Spring Fling event until 3:30 p.m.; RSVPs for both the luncheon and Spring Fling are requested via email at Reunion60@srdaycamps.com.

Owners Howard and Dale Batterman, who purchased Sesame Day Camp from founders Ed Itzenson and Max Kushner in 1986, invite anyone who attended or worked at the camp since its inaugural year in 1954 to reminisce and reconnect with old friends.

Former campers and staff will also enjoy seeing six decades of camp photographs and memorabilia.

“The Sesame-Rockwood legacy includes thousands of campers and camp staff, and we look forward to welcoming them back to camp,” said Howard Batterman. “We have watched numerous campers come back to work as counselors over the years, and are proud that some of our former staff have gone on to operate their own summer programs."

"Our alumni include many multi-generational families, including the children of spouses who met at camp," Batterman continued. "We have wonderful stories among our 60-year-old camp family.”

Itzenson, age 85, who resides in Elkins Park, enjoyed a distinguished career as a Philadelphia School District teacher and principal. After building a reading program around a six-foot long black rat snake that he kept in his sixth grade classroom, he became the district’s first city-wide science collaborator in 1954 thorough 1957, as well as the first swimming instructor.

He and Kushner met as overnight camp counselors, and subsequently founded the original Sesame Day Camp on the grounds of the Mermaid Lake Swim Club.

Itzenson recalls that in 1954, a full summer of camp tuition – including lunch – cost $175, and 65 boys and girls enrolled.

“Camp was a wonderfully safe place for kids to be during the summer, and a place for them to learn outdoor living skills that they wouldn’t learn at school,” Itzenson says.