Unirondack is a really special place. It’s hard to pin down exactly where the magic comes from, and that’s probably because it lives in many places. It lives in the breathtaking landscape we’re lucky enough to be hidden away in. It lives in the incredible people who make up our community. It lives in the intentional effort we put into creating the most compassionate, inclusive community we possibly can. It lives in the unique programs and therapeutic opportunities for profound growth and self-discovery. It definitely lives in the weirdness, the silliness, the larger-than-life inside jokes and tear-inducing laughter.

There’s so much we could talk about here, but here are just a few snapshots of the kinds of things that make our community unique!

Community Agreements: At the start of every new session at camp, we empower our campers to engage in discussion about the kind of community they want to build. Campers then set their own community guidelines, norms and expectations, and participate in building and maintaining a positive, progressive, equitable, and fun environment that they all helped to design.

Choose your own Adventure: We believe that youth empowerment begins with youth autonomy. Campers at Unirondack create their own experience by selecting the activities that interest them the most. Everyday they get a new list of unique and imaginative original programs to choose from, catering to every interest under the sun. And if they’d rather take a break to recharge with a book, that’s OK! Activities are always optional.

Camp Council: Campers and staff gather together every day to participate in a daily discussion called Camp Council. We use this space to connect as a whole community, share stories about the day’s adventures, make announcements, share concerns, and make changes. In this space, campers have the opportunity to make real, impactful democratic decisions about the way we run camp. This is another way we support our mission to empower youth.

Social Justice Workshops: Along with a huge selection of fun, silly, active, creative, outdoorsy, and educational programs, we offer a once-weekly optional workshop on a social justice topic, led by an expert guest facilitator. Workshop topics change every week, and are designed to informative, engaging, interactive, age-appropriate, and fun!

Restorative Justice Approach: We do not believe in punitive discipline for our youth. Instead we approach conflict with empathetic conversation in an effort to listen and understand all perspectives, and to help youth understand the impact of their actions and invest in a process of repair. Youth are directly involved in developing a strategy for success that may involve things like conflict mediation, boundary setting, and staff supports to make sure everyone has what they need.

Check-in is between 2PM and 4PM on the Sunday at the start of your session(s)
Check-out is between 10AM and 12PM on the Saturday and the end of your session(s)

We know you’re excited to get to camp but please do your best to arrive during these check-in and check-out windows. There is much to do on the morning of arrival day as we set up for check-in, and we are unable to accommodate early arrivals. If you do arrive early, you may be greeted by a staff member and told to wait until our check-in procedure is set up and ready for you at 2pm.

When you pull in, you’ll be directed by our staff to find parking and make your way to our check-in table for cookies and paperwork. (What’s that they say about a spoonful of sugar?) 

Arriving by train or plane?

Unirondack has a shuttle service that picks up and drops off campers at the train station in Utica, NY, and the airport in Syracuse, NY. This service can be added to your registration for a fee. If you’d like to learn more about trains, planes and/or our shuttles, please visit this link to view our info document.

Unirondack campers choose their own activities. And there is a LOT to choose from!

We offer all the camp classics, like swimming, boating, arts & crafts, board games, athletics, music, theatre and outdoors skills, BUT, we offer SO much more than that.

While other camps usher their campers through a structured set of scheduled activities, Unirondack campers choose their own programs from a list of creative, unique activities that change every single day. Whether your camper loves art, sports, board games, outdoor adventures, or designing runway fashion out of string cheese, they will find something right up their alley every single day. 

Here is just a taste of some of the programs we have run recently:

Jam Band, Trash Sculpture,  Unirondack Newspaper,  Lock Picking,   Auctioneering 101,  Lord of the Flies, Intro to Philosophy, Making Flip Books, Destroy a Nalgene,   Mythology Magic, Spy School, Watercolors in Canoes, Survivor,  Fruit Surgery, Competitive Napping, Pirates Vs. Ninjas, Soap Making,  Comics & Zines,  Vampire Nightclub, Bottle Orchestra, Gender Rebellion Discussion, Calvinball, Guess What's in My Ravioli,  Making Popcorn in a Canoe,  Costume Kickball, Exploring the Bog, Creating a Pyramid Scheme, Darkroom Photography,  Clay Sculpture,  Body Image Discussion,  Cut-Throat Bake Sale,  Bug Weddings, Nerd Trivia,  Tiny Playwrights,  Counselor Sundae,  Build a Superhero, Pet Rock Habitats,  Disability Advocacy Workshop, Water Balloon Baseball,  How to Go Zero Waste, DIY Instruments, Fairy Houses,  LGBTQ History Jeopardy, Black-Out Poetry,  A Capella, Screenprinting,  Extreme Floor is Lava,  Bookbinding, Improv,  Plant Identification, Neorodiversity Parade, Sports for People who Hate Them,  Crochet Animals, Rock Climbing (on real cliffs!),  Cardboard Boats,  How to Make Your School More Inclusive, Camp Documentary,  Natural Fibre Dye,  Trans Health Q&A, Random Acts of Kindness,  Dirty Jobs,  Climate Crisis & Hope Discussion,  Make Your Own Cryptid,  Foley Artists,  Queerness in Nature Workshop, Extreme Musical Chairs, Social Change Ecosystems, and Zombie Apocalypse Survival.

(This is an example Schedule. Exact times may vary.)

7:30 - Wake up - Good morning!

8:00 - Breakfast - Mmmmm… Do you smell pancakes?

8:45 - Cabin Cleanup - Time to tidy up your cabin, relax, shower, or finish getting ready for the day

9:15 - Morning Program - Different every day! On Monday we use this time to create our community agreements. On Friday we do a giant collective art project! Once a week we offer an interactive program on a social justice topic, usually led by a guest presenter. And on the other days we offer a selection of fun pop-up activities for campers to choose from.

10:30 - Workshops - A week-long themed program where campers gather with the same group of people each day to work on a project, develop a skill, or just enjoy an activity together. Campers sign up for a workshop from a list of 7 or 8 different programs, advertised to them at the start of the week. Examples include things like ceramic making, Improv games, DnD, boating adventures, clothing design challenges, martial arts, Survivor, discussion groups, random acts of kindness, random acts of weirdness, mural painting, a capella, and so much more we could never possibly fit it all in!

12:00 - Lunch - Food! We eat our meals together in the dining hall, with family-style food service. Campers are welcome to eat inside, our eat outside at one of our picnic tables for a quieter eating experience.

12:45 - Cabin Hour - Some time to relax, hang out and do some low-key activities before a busy afternoon

1:45 - One Shots - Campers can choose from a list of 7 or 8 one-off programs that change every day! We always try to balance each day with artsy, active, musical, messy, weird, brainy, creative, wholesome, nerdy, and outdoorsy options. There are WAY too many to list, so let’s just say there’s always something for everyone!

3:00 - Free Time - Campers can spend this time as they choose. Our camp store, waterfront, boathouse, art shop, athletic field and sports equipment shed, board game room, library, ping-pong lounge, music corner, dress-up closet and stage are all open for use!

5:00 - Camp Council - A daily gathering where campers and staff can share highlights about their day, make announcements, share concerns, and make decisions together about things are done at camp.

6:00 - Dinner - Yum!

6:45 - Indigestion - Campers can choose from pop-up games and activities happening around camp, participate in a discussion group, or just relax and enjoy time with their friends

7:30 - Evening Program - Evening program is where our staff go all-out with their creativity. They are typically camp-wide immersive experiences where the space is transformed into a world of imagination. Step inside your favorite fandom and meet the characters, get chased by zombies, solve a murder mystery, survive the Oregon Trail, or help a scattered group of disgruntled Greek gods find their way back to Olympus. Try your best - our staff will NOT break character :)

9:15 - Campfire - A quiet and reflective space where we wind down at the end of each day by sharing stories, poems, songs and more. Campers and staff alike are welcome to share a submission, or just enjoy listening to what others have brought.

10:15 - Lights Out - A good night’s rest is important when your days are this busy!

Click here to view our summer packing list

Our cabins are rustic wooden cabins with bunk beds and range in size from 8 beds to 16 beds. All our summer cabins have private bathroom facilities with toilets and sinks, and campers utilize a central showerhouse with private stalls. Cabins are staffed with 2 or 3 counselors per cabin who sleep in staff bunks in each cabin.

None of our bathroom facilities are divided by gender, and campers have access to plenty of single-occupancy bathrooms for those who prefer this style over multi-stall bathrooms. The vast majority of our campers stay in all-gender cabins. Campers have the option to request a single-gender cabin, and while we do our best to provide this option, it’s availability is based on demand and so we can’t guarantee it in all cases. If you’d like to learn more about our all-gender cabins, visit our FAQ page here.

Campers are deeply involved in the process of developing norms, expectations and agreements within their cabins. On the first night of camp, campers sit together with their cabin mates under the guidance of their counselors to share their needs, boundaries, hopes, and worries. Together, the cabin community builds a set of agreements about their space, including things like a visitor policy, expectations about changing clothes in shared space, noise, daily routines and more. In this way, we seek to give campers the opportunity to create their own cabin experience, while learning about the importance of taking care of each other and honoring boundaries in shared spaces.

Any summer camp will tell you that at the top of their list of priorities is camper safety. At Unirondack we operate under the standards and requirements of the New York State Department of Health and our rigorous Health & Safety Plan. Below, for your viewing, are the NYS DOH standards as well as our Health & Safety Plan.

• NYS Health Code for Summer Camps

• NYS Health Code for Food Establishments

• NYS Health Code for Swimming and Bathing Beaches

• Unirondack’s Health & Safety Plan

Interested in what we are doing to keep campers and staff safe from Covid-19?

Testing, vaccinations, masking, refunds and more - find out what Camp Unirondack is doing to keep our campers and staff safe and healthy this summer.

Click here

Our staff is recruited through word of mouth within our community as well as job postings in national camp publications. We staff a kitchen, a maintenance staff, support staff, and a large program staff. All staff, regardless of their position at camp, are interviewed about their educational philosophy and values, and are expected to be active in the larger camp community with campers. We are looking for progressive, open-minded individuals with a commitment to youth empowerment, physical and emotional safety, and inclusive and equitable practices.

Our program staff consists of 20+ counselors and program specialists which gives us a counselor to camper ratio of 1:4 and a staff to camper ratio of 1:2. Our counselors are 18 years old or older and our leadership staff are at least 21 years old.

Before camp begins our staff attends a rigorous 11 day training program tailored to their position. During staff week we cover all state-mandated health and safety policies and procedures, emergency protocols, program planning, event management, sanitation and cleanliness, camp traditions, activity facilitation, conflict mediation, emotional support and crisis management, youth development and mental health, our social and philosophical goals, and so much more.

Full list of all-staff training modules (does not include specialized training modules for each staff department):

• Norms and Lore, Habits, Traditions, Stories etc…

• Staff Week Intro / Staff Living in Community: Responsibility, Accountability

• The Unirondack Way: Philosophy & Approach

• Building and Maintaining a Healthy Community with Youth

• Nuts & Bolts Parts 1 & 2

• COVID-19 Protocols

• Accessing Empathy as a Caregiver

• Tour of Camp for Missing Camper Drill

• Incidents and Emergencies, UESP Forms

• Physical, Conversational, & Emotional Boundaries with Youth

• How to Clean Unirondack

• Politicized Policies: Camp as a political environment

• Living in Community: Responsibility, Accountability, and Opportunity

• Staff Expectations/Accountability

• Unwinding Overworking Culture

• Social Intervention Awareness

• Anti-Colonial Toolkit 

• Anti-Racism at Unirondack 

• Camper Needs: ASD, Panic Attacks, Downs Syndrome, Auditory Processing

• LGBTQ+ 101 for Unirondack

• Advanced Queer Theory at Unirondack

• Sex Education

• Disabilities, Ableism, and Accessibility

• Caring for and connecting with neurodivergent youth

• Professionalism & Expectations

• Camp Systems: Walkie Talkies, Logs, Comm, Slack, Sound Systems

Interested in becoming a staff member at Unirondack? Click here!

Unirondack food is not your typical camp food. To think that conscious food creation is not an essential part to building an intentional community runs counter to any successful camp world we know. Unirondack creates as many dishes as possible from whole ingredients and thinks about the nutritional diversity of dishes each day and week. Meals like spaghetti and macaroni and cheese are camp classics but we also pride ourselves in more diverse dishes such as peanut soup, Thai-style stir fry with pad Thai, spanakopita, sushi, and jerk chicken and tofu.

We are exceptionally adept at accommodating vegetarian and vegan diets that are not just removing meat but providing tasty replacements using tempeh, tofu, seitan, and vegetables and are always happy to accommodate our dairy-free and gluten-free campers.

We are allergy friendly and food sensitivity friendly. We are seasoned in meeting the needs of those with allergies of all kinds, as well as picky eaters (even EXTREMELY picky eaters!), and are happy to work with your camper directly to create a food plan that meets their needs. If a camper can’t find something they like, we’re happy to make them something else! Campers with significant concerns about food should reach out to us directly before they arrive so that we can make a plan for success.

Additionally, we know that ingredients matter. All of our meats are locally sourced, we do not use high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils in any dish, and we use as any pesticide-free and organic ingredients as possible.

Our meals are communal and family-style with all staff and campers joining to eat together for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The dining hall seats 100 and is often buzzing with energy, so we offer plenty of quieter outdoor seating for campers who would like a break from the crowds. Between meals, plenty of healthy snacks are always available.

Campers are welcome to bring their own food and snacks from home, and we will provide mouse-proof storage options where campers can access their snacks whenever they want them.