Newspaper Article

Sweating It Out The agony of deciding if a child should - or should not - go to a weight loss cmap. Sidebar: Weighing the Choices: Some Camps in the East (see end of text)

By Susan Cheever. Susan Cheever, a Mothering

1994

Overview

I point out to [Sarah] that these weight-loss camps are very expensive, in many cases twice as expensive as camps that seem equivalent in other ways - and even camps that provide special sports activities like horseback riding or sailing. If Sarah goes to the least expensive of the camps - Camp Shane, which has a special brochure comparing its prices to the higher prices of other camps - and loses 12 pounds in three weeks - she will be losing at the rate of about $166.60 a pound. \"Of course they lose weight here, that's a snap,\" says Michele Friedman of Camp Camelot, who says about 50 percent of Camelot campers lose weight and keep it off. \"We try to give them a plan to go home with. Each child has to realize that they and only they are responsible for what they eat. They have to come to terms with what life has given them. We give them a big boost with weight loss and then send them home with a way to cope.\" Camelot sends each camper home with an information packet and puts out a monthly mailing. Weighing the Choices: Some Camps in the East CAMP SHANE Where: Ferndale, N.Y. Price: From $2,000 for three weeks to $4,200 for nine weeks. Director: [David Ettenberg], 134 Teatown Rd., Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10520. Phone: [phone]; in summer, [phone]. Description: Coed, ages 6 to 17. Rural setting with cabins and bunk beds, swimming pool, woodworking shops. Sports include everything from horseback riding to drag racing. Accredited by the American Camp Association. NEW IMAGE CAMPS Where: Two campuses, at Teikyo Post University in Middlebury, Conn., and at Villanova Prep School in Ojai, Calif. Price: From $1,450 for two weeks to $4,190 for seven weeks. Director: [Tony Sparber] and Dale Sparber, 24 W. Railroad Ave., Suite 107, Tenafly, N.J. 07670. Phone: [phone] or [phone]. Description: Coed, ages 8-18. Campus settings with real beds in double rooms and school classrooms and facilities.

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