The Boys & Girls Club’s Camp Simmons is in full swing at their sprawling Lake Avenue oasis at the end of a residential dead end.
While the summer of 2025 has been a hot one, the camp features a large in-ground pool where children are grouped by ability for swimming lessons, and there is a pond for fishing and canoeing.
The camp has many traditions and campers are able to form lasting friendships and lifelong memories. They particularly look forward to Friday hamburger and hot dog barbecue lunches with grills manned by staff and local celebrities.
Greenwich Public Schools principal Diane Chiappetta-Fox from Hamilton Avenue School, Dr. Daniel Russo from New Lebanon School and Eduardo Calderon from Julian Curtiss School with board member Kelly Vintiadis – offering campers ketchup and potato chips to go with their barbecue lunch at Camp Simmons. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager.
Helping in the Camp Simmons barbecue area were counselor Brian Ceballos and counselor in training (CIT) William Breed, a rising 8th grader at Brunswick School. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Greenwich Public Schools principals Dr. Daniel Russo from New Lebanon School, Eduardo Calderon from Julian Curtiss School, and Diane Chiappetta-Fox from Hamilton Avenue School readying the grill for 300 campers at Camp Simmons. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Boys & Girls Club board member Kelly Vintiadis readying for about 300 campers at the Friday barbecue. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Camp Simmons is in their second year of a partnership with Corbo’s that gives parents the option of ordering lunch for their children from Monday to Thursday, with a variety of choices including the popular chicken fingers with dipping sauce.
There are eight one-week sessions of camp at Camp Simmons and enrollment has increased over the years to its current level of about 300 campers. This summer Club staff have appreciated having the 77-acre Lake Ave facility since a major renovation of the Clubhouse at 4 Horseneck Lane in downtown Greenwich is underway. According to Ms Dianis, Club kids will be back in the renovated building on Sept 8 and an open house and ribbon cutting event for friends and supporters is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept 30.
This Friday the guest sizzle specialists were Greenwich Public Schools principals Dr. Daniel Russo from New Lebanon School, Julian Curtiss School principal Eduardo Calderon and Diane Chiappetta-Fox who is the principal at Hamilton Avenue School.
Just in time for Friday’s barbecue lunch about 15 students arrived by mini van after spending the morning off-site in an academic pilot program funded by the Per and Astrid Heidenreich Foundation.
The Club’s Director Of External Relations, Laura Dianis explained that Club alumni and Former Youth of the Year recipient Mike Chambers, who is now the Executive Director of the Per and Astrid Heidenreich Family Foundation, was key in launching the pilot program that identifies students going into first grade who need some extra help to achieve grade level.
“We are with them all year, after school, getting them to grade level,” Dianis said.
Campers gathered on the lawn before their Friday barbecue lunch at Camp Simmons. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Ready to sing the Camp Simmons in song. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
A popular spot on the field is the Gaga Pit where campers enjoy the fast-paced game that is similar to dodgeball where players use their hands to hit a ball at other players legs below the knee aiming to eliminate them. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Mike “Canoe Mike” Gerald with rising 5th grader Bianca Moreland and rising second grader Benicio Rapetti at Camp Simmons. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
This summer there are about 300 campers at Camp Simmons, where weekly fees are kept at a modest $225 for members. (Annual membership fee at the Club is also intentionally affordable at $75). And, according to Dianis, last summer they awarded $113,000 in camp scholarships for those in need.
Among the staff are several who have count their summers at Camp Simmons in decades, including Mike Gerald, who knows the camp song backwards and forwards.
He can vividly recall the day Starla Tejada and Isabella Pemberthy crafted the words to the song that is now part of the shared memory of all the kids and staff at Camp Simmons.
“They came up to me about 10 years ago – they’d been sitting by the fire pit coming up with a little song, just the two of them, and coming up with a dance routine to go with it,” he recalled.
Camp Simmons is the place to be.
We have swimming, crafts and archery.
Don’t forget our nature walks.
Canoeing on the lake is really fun
Sitting and chilling in the sun.
The counselors, they really care.
I’m coming to Camp Simmons again next year.
In fact, Mr. Gerald marks 2025 as his 33rd summer at Camp Simmons since high school, because he was also a club member and camper since the age of 8. These days, Gerals, who has been described as a Kid Magnet, is the Club’s Athletic Coordinator.
At Camp Simmons he’s known as “Canoe Mike.”
Campers at Camp Simmons range in age from 6 to 12.
Counselors in training are 14 and 15 years old.
Teen camp is for 13-15 year olds and includes one day a week at Tod’s Point, one day at Island Beach and a weekly field trip.
According to Ms Dianis, the teens also go on college visits that have included Marist University in Poughkeepsie, NY; Pace University in New York, and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.
At Camp Simmons, Chrystal Gjekaj and Viviana Giresi, both rising sixth graders at Western middle School. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
Don Palmer, who is VP of Programs and Youth Development for the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich with Diane Chiappetta-Fox who is principal at Hamilton Avenue School at the Camp Simmons Friday barbecue. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager
See also:
At Camp Simmons, Children Take “The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson”June 26, 2025
Found objects make for apropos sculpture along the Camp Simmons driveway. July 18, 2025 Photo: Leslie Yager