Well the website epinions have some reviews of Camp Pocono Trails.
Some reviews from the site:
Pros: NICE PIECE OF PROPERTY
Cons: Unsupervised, sexual promiscuity, chauvinistic director, poor management and unstructured.
I was an overweight child who was sent to a "fat camp." I, like some of you, was relaxing on a Sunday afternoon and was doing a little channel surfing. As I was flipping through the channels and came across a T.V. show called fat camp. My attention was instantly drawn to it. Now my children are battling weight issues. You can see why I was curious to watch this program.
As I proceeded to watch I was amazed at what I was seeing. There seemed to be no supervision, no focus on health. The owner (which I couldn't quite figure out why he looked familiar at first) was this brash, arrogant, uncaring man who should not be disciplining let alone working with children. As I continued watching it became even more disturbing when campers seemed to be only interested in who was "with" who, and counselors appeared to be having relationships with campers. The only thing that the camp had going for it was a nice piece of property.
I was glued to the TV. It was like not being able to look away from one of those really bad accidents you see on the highway. Suddenly the name of the camp flashed up on the screen ALONG WITH THE DIRECTOR'S NAME of Camp Pocono Trails. That's why he looked familiar - he was the director of the camp I went to WHEN I WAS A KID. It had been several years since I had seen this man(fortunately for me) and he now ran a new camp. It all made sense to me now why this camp seemed to be run so poorly with an uncaring feel to it.
When I was 14 when my parents sent me to his camp. Since I had a weight problem they figured this would be the ideal place for me to spend my summer. I will never forget it, or THE DIRECTOR. The children lost weight and the camp seemed be a good place to send your kids, at least my parents thought so. They were dead wrong. There was no supervision at all. Campers were sneaking out of cabins every night, there were boys in girl's bunks, tons of sexual pressure, no structured activities,and the food was awful, and all I wanted to do was go home.
I remember going to see THE DIRECTOR(big mistake) to tell him how upset I was and that I wanted to go home. I can certainly remember the jest of the conversation with him. I told him how I felt and what was bothering me and he basically told me that girls can't really ever make
up their minds, that I was fat and that the world did not like fat people and I should just be thankful I was here. It was very touching.
I was able to call home and told my mother the conversation and within a few hours I was out of there.
If you are considering a weight loss camp for your child, please do some research. But I can say with certainty, that any camp with THIS DIRECTOR as the head is not a good choice. There would be a fat chance I would
ever send my children to one of his camps.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 5000
Type of Camp: Other
Camper to Counselor Ratio: Counselors were few and far between
Financial Aid Available: No
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Pros: none
Cons: Campers pick on each other. Director is rude,aggressive, angry,intimidating and dislikes overweight people.
I drove my daughter up to New Image Pocono Trails camp. After spending most of the day there, I had a really bad feeling about leaving my daughter. Kids were left completely unsupervised and when the counselors did show up, they were unqualified, not warm and welcoming and didnt care at all about the campers & only their own social lives. Kids where crying and upset and the counselors were too busy talking to each other to comfort the newly arrived campers.
Within days, my daughter called me hysterical. Then she kept calling. And with the camps policy of unlimited calling, plus the camp being full of cell phones, she called me, her Dad, her Grandparents, her friends and even lent her phone to other campers to make calls. She was having a horrible time and not going to activities and I couldn’t understand how she was left alone to spend so much time on the phone. Clearly, the camp was disorganized, unsupervised and frankly, not safe for kids.
Finally, I had my daughter get a counselor on her cell phone. This counselor said the most of the kids were extremely unhappy and that even most of the staff was really unhappy and complained constantly. She totally denigrated the camp and told me what my daughter already told me, that the director, was rude, mean, and a major jerk! He would routinely embarrass kids and staff and she felt, he actually hated overweight people! He would yell and curse. And being that he looked to me to be about 6ָ” he is very intimidating. Many of the staff were simply packing up and leaving.
When I called the camp, I was toldit was all my daughters fault! ( She was 10 years old.) I was thinking this couldnt be happening. Then my future calls were not taken by the director. If your kid goes to this camp and you have a problem, you are helpless. I drove up to the camp and yanked my child from that awful place. The person in charge even refused to see me. They have no respect for the parents. My daughter has nightmares and separation anxiety after her brief stay at New Image Camp Pocono Trails. Calls for a refund were ignored.
Then, I spoke to other families whose kids where at Camp Pocono Trails New Image Camp. All of them were unhappy with the lack of supervision and concern for emotional and physical safety at Camp Pocono Trail. The camp promises anything to parents, but never intends to do what he says. One mom told me she was promised a refund but it never camp, dispite many calls.
They were very aggressive on the phone when selling me the camp. I should have taken that as a warning, but the camp looked good in his video. Mistake! Had I looker further, I would know now what I didnt know before. They have a history of running camps that closed down. There are limitless numbers of complaints registered about Pocono Trails. This place is a nightmare. Dont send you kids here.
answered by
David
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08-19-2009 at 01:36 AM
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