Camp Akeela

daniele levy

We had a great experience with Camp Akeela. It was super well organized, friendly and welcoming. The kids are smart, interesting, and kind. It's a wonderful opportunity for a fun-by-the-lake camp vacation for kids who normally would hesitate to jump right into one of those!

Leslie Tschaikowsky

Campers who love and grow up in their summer camps are encouraged to become CITs, and eventually counselors. Whether you have a disability or not, camp owners should feel invested in their campers growth over time. Receiving nice reviews and feedback over several summers of going to Akeela as a camper, my daughter applied to be a counselor - and was rejected flat out. My daughter had inquired over the years as to how she might get herself ready to be a counselor there, and she got what I perceived to be (in retrospect) polite brush-offs. The counselors at Akeela are okay/mediocre…most of them (some of them are not well-suited for the position, and hired probably b/c of the name of the college they are attending … which justifies the hiring comments that the counselor interviewing process is 'extremely competitive') .... but as time went on I felt like there was something amiss that not one counselor showed any traits of being ‘quirky’ (the Akeela wink-word for the types of campers that go there). When my daughter followed up a number of times to her application - she was interviewed with a new hire administrator (the owners/ongoing administrators did not engage my daughter once in the interview process) and my daughter discussed her HFA and why her disability would be a strength, giving her insight into the ways she could relate to the campers with HFA at Akeela. She was rejected and told to go work at another camp. While Akeela is big on apparently building social skills, it’s ironic and harsh that they handled my daughter’s growth and love of her childhood camp - and her desire to work there for a summer (she’s a college student, a special education major like many of the hired counselors at Akeela) - with such autistic-like disregard. If this is the type of disregard that is accepted and endorsed by owners as it relates to their former campers, you have to wonder about how that type of outlook funnels into the camp (and campers), itself. Autistic campers need autistic counselors. The camp owners should know this by now.

Dan Vogl

Our son has been going to Camp Akeela for 4 years and absolutely loves it. Each year he returns to us more more relaxed, more independent, and more confident in his social skills. After his 3rd year, he made a friend and then visited during the school year. We couldn’t ask for a better, more supportive place for our quirky, nerdy, awkward kid.

Beth Naditch

For us, Camp Akeela was very literally life changing. After googling "quirky kids camp," we attended the first family camp, to check out whether this might be a good fit for our son, who was then in 5th grade and struggling. We found a warm, accepting, and incredibly intentional place where every child was valued. The next year, our son went off for his first year of "regular camp," and it was the highlight of his year until he aged out. He made lasting friends, tried out new activities, matured beautifully, and most importantly, felt cherished by the Akeela community. We received weekly calls from his head counselor letting us know how he was doing. We arranged our family life around family camp until we aged out, and the community of friends we made there are amongst our dearest and closest friends. We all get the unique challenges, and have had the opportunity to support each other through joys, sorrows, and just everyday life. We are still grateful daily to Debbie and Eric for having this idea and making it happen!