UPDATED ON 8/9/20

Shibley Shibley!

After careful consideration and thorough planning, we are excited to announce “Shibley Lite,” modified programming at camp this summer.

LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE FOR 8/17-8/28

CLICK TO ENROLL

Shibley Lite Program Details:

• SHIBLEY LITE CONTINUES THROUGH FRIDAY, 8/28
• Weekly rate: $575 ($550 for 2^nd, 3^rd child)
• Kindergarten – 8^th grade campers
• Swim, arts, athletics, adventure & more!
• Parent drop off between 8:30am and 9:00am
• Parent pick up between 12:30pm and 1:00pm
• Two healthy snacks each morning
• CLICK TO SEE OUR SHIBLEY LITE FACT SHEET FOR COVID-19 SPECIFIC SAFETY PROTOCOL
• A Shibley Lite Parent Handbook will be provided to all enrolled families

CLICK TO ENROLL

Sincerely,

The Shibley Team

It is with a heavy heart that we write to you today to announce that Shibley Day Camp will not operate this summer. We know that this is the right decision for our Shibley Day Camp community, and we will be back and better than ever for Summer 2021.

As the country reopens over the next few weeks and months, families and individuals will have to make decisions with which they are comfortable. Camps and businesses must do the same and we appreciate and understand that we will not all come to the same conclusion. We have all assessed the risks and made a variety of choices throughout the last 3 months. We have many more decisions to make as we work together to see this pandemic through.

When schools closed and the state shut down in March we were optimistic that summer would come, and camp would open. We expected to have answers and clarity that we still do not have. There is absolutely nowhere that we would rather be than with your children and our staff at camp. To think of a summer without pitching to the super seniors, dancing with senior camp or climbing through the playgrounds with our junior campers is disheartening.

Thinking of camp while continuously reminding people to keep their distance, virtually the opposite of everything we believe in, was becoming equally as disheartening. A socially distanced environment is contrary to the closeness of the Shibley community.

We also cannot say with high enough certainty that we will have a coronavirus-free camp community, and there are still many questions about the virus. Our community includes our campers and staff. And it includes you, the campers’ grandparents, the parents and siblings of our staff, and additional caretakers, all of who will be in close contact with campers and others outside of camp hours.

Outside of our own families, Shibley is our life. We think about camp every day of the year. We are heartbroken. It seems inconceivable to have to wait 13 more months to return to our summer home together, but when we get there it will be exponentially more special.

Thank you for being part of our community. We miss you all and will continue to provide virtual and in-person programming (when permitted) throughout the year so that we can stay connected until we meet again for summer 2021.

Sincerely,

Heath, Stefanie, Randi & Bob

My favorite quote has been hanging in my classroom or office since the day I started my career in education. You may have seen it posted recently because April 15 was Jackie Robinson Day. He said:

Now more than ever does that ring true. And it’s EASIER THAN EVER to have a positive impact on other lives. If you are not an essential worker (THANK YOU TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE!!!) all you have to do is stay home and wait this out. The more people that do it, the less time we will have to continue living this way.

Besides preparing feverishly for camp, like always at this time of year, I’ve decided to choose a few skills to focus on that I’ve always wanted to improve. Now more than ever is the time to practice something you’ve always wanted to get better at or take up something new that you’ve never had the time for.

I’ve been playing a lot of drums and recording music that my friends and I have been working on for a long time. I’ve practiced more on drums over the last few weeks than throughout most of my life. I’ve always wanted to produce an album of these songs (some we’ve been playing for almost 20 years) and now it’s coming together.

Another skill I’ve tried to improve during these last few weeks is cooking. I’m pretty good on the grill but still not great inside in the kitchen. I’ve found some easy recipes to try and some of them have been quite tasty. Or at least my family is being nice and telling me so! Alexa is still a better chef than I am.

I’ve dusted off my teaching skills and made my way through 2^nd and 7^th grade subject matter I never thought I would see again. We successfully taught Sari how to ride a bike. Now we’ve been riding around the block daily which is great exercise and gives us a greater chance of her going to bed at a reasonable time:)

My wife and I have enjoyed taking online yoga classes. I have always wanted to get into a regular routine and now seems to be a good time to do it. Ohm.

What have you taken up or worked on improving over the last 6 weeks?

The Early History Of The New York Mets

The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants of the National League both moved to California after the 1957 season.  During the next 4 years New York City did not have a National League team.  New York only had the Yankees from the American League.  New York wanted to again have a team in the National League, so the New York Mets were added in 1962.  Where did they play their games as there was no Shea Stadium or Citi Field yet?  They actually played their first two seasons at a stadium called “The Polo Grounds” which was located in upper Manhattan between 155^th and 157^th Street adjacent to the Harlem River. The New York Giants baseball team used to play there before they moved to California.  Also, the New York Jets football team played there until they moved over to Shea Stadium.

The Mets colors are blue and orange, originally chosen to honor the city’s National League baseball history. The Blue was for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Orange was for the New York Giants baseball team. Blue and Orange are also the colors on the New York City flag.  Who hit the first official home run for the Mets?  It was appropriately hit by Gil Hodges who had played for the Brooklyn Dodgers before joining the Mets in 1962 and who also later became the Mets manager.

On April 11, 1962 the Mets played their first official game and lost in St. Louis to the Cardinals.  On April 13, 1962 it was the first game the Mets played at their new home at the Polo Grounds which they unfortunately lost.  However, on April 23, 1962 the Mets won their first official major league game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.  Then on April 28, 1962 the Mets won their first home game at the Polo Grounds with 16,987 fans in attendance.  On September 18, 1963 the Mets played their final game at the Polo Grounds and then moved to the newly completed Shea Stadium for the 1964 season.

On April 17, 1964 the Mets played their first official game at Shea Stadium losing 4 to 3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  However, 2 days later on April 19, they won their first game at Shea Stadium beating the Pirates 6 to 0.  The stadium was originally going to be called Flushing Meadows Stadium but was changed to William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, which ended up being referred to as just Shea Stadium.  Also, the official name of the team was the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club which ended up being shortened to just The Mets.

In the early years of the Mets they were not a very good baseball team.  In 1962 their record was 40 wins and 120 losses.  Then in 1963 they had 51 wins and 111 losses.  However, in only their 8^th year in existence in 1969, they won their first National League Pennant and went on to face a highly favored power house Baltimore Orioles team in the World Series.  The Mets lost the first game of the series in Baltimore. Game 2 which was also in Baltimore was won by the Mets 2-1.  Then on Oct. 14, 1969 the first ever World Series game held in Shea Stadium was won by the Mets 5-0 with over 56,000 fans in attendance. On October 15 the Mets won the next game 2-1 in extra innings.  Then finally on Oct 16, 1969 with 57,397 fans at the game, the Mets won 5-3 shocking the country and the Baltimore Orioles as the Mets won their first World Series.

Let’s Go Mets 2020

Hello from Shibley. This is Billy and Danny M. reporting to you from Jr. Camp. We have been working hard the past few months on a big project.  We have completely leveled the old Junior Camp corner behind the bunks by the ravine.  We are completing a new retaining wall that is over 200ft long. We will back fill and grow grass with a fully automated irrigation system. The end result is more field space and creative play areas designed specifically for our Junior Campers.

You might be asking yourself, “where did the car wash go?”. No worries! We have moved it to a new location behind the 3 pools. We spent time clearing the area leveling the ground and pouring a new 20ft x 50ft concrete pad. As we type, the car wash is getting completely updated with some new features and will be ready for camp 2020.  It’s going to be so “cool” and get a lot more use than it has in the past!

Mario and Danny C. have been hard at work and we are all really look forward to seeing everyone soon and showing you in person the updates we have made for summer 2020.​ Be well and safe!

UPCOMING SHIBLEY ZOOM SCHEDULE:

• • • • • Sun. 4/19 – Story Time – 10am
          • Let’s have a morning pajama party!
        • Sun. 4/26 – Pets & Stuffed Animals
          • • • • w/special guest appearances by                                     Daisy, Franklin & Friends
        • Sun. 5/3 – Family Scavenger Hunt
        • Sun. 5/10 – Dance & Fitness Encore

We will send links and update times as we approach each ZOOM

We look forward to seeing you online!