Limited Number of Sessions Still Available for Summer Place

Through four decades, the University of Hartford’s summer camp, Summer Place, has offered varied sports and enrichment programs for area children from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. It’s a mix of learning and fun that has led to many great stories and memories.

Registration remains open for select sessions this summer. A limited number of spots are still available in weeks one, two, five, and six.

Summer Place, held on UHart’s campus, will celebrate its 41st year this season, featuring six one-week sessions between June 26 and August 4. On board will be between 250 and 300 campers, up to 50 counselors and 30 instructors, and more than 70 courses to choose from. One of the goals is to provide campers with opportunities to explore a wide variety of interests—from flying drones, cooking outdoors, and wilderness studies, to archery, stagecraft, and STEM activities.

The program is designed to let campers decide what hobbies to learn, sports to play, and activities to join. It also encourages counselors to create fun and exciting classes that tap into their own specialties and favorite pastimes.  

The programs and enthusiastic staff members are undoubtedly responsible for Summer Place having so many long-timers—at all levels of camp life.  

The Bruder girls from Avon are one of the best examples of this. Or more precisely, four of the best examples. Elizabeth, Kate, Mary Grace, and Annie were campers who eventually became counselors.

Summer Place was recommended years ago to their mother, Mary Beth, who says she “appreciated how campers have to make all their own choices. That played well into developing self-determination and self-management, which I feel are very important attributes to learn from an early age.”

Looking back, Mary Grace recalls how she has seen so many campers grow up before her eyes. “Now, as a counselor, I get to see even more of them grow up, which I guess is why it feels so much like a family.”

Josh Chleboski was a camper, and then a counselor, and is now a faculty member, sharing, “I particularly enjoyed that it was a balance of sports and enrichment activities. Plus, I met folks from all over the state. There was never a dull moment.” 

Chleboski became a faculty member in 2021 for the enrichment programs, where his classes usually center on rocketry and aerospace. “My background as a middle-school educator helped with this shift in responsibility, allowing me to design daily activities that maintain a fun environment where campers feel confident to take on fresh challenges as they explore new interests.”

Debbie Markowitz, production stage manager and director of stage management theatre UHart’s The Hartt School, has served multiple roles at Summer Place. One of the most popular activities that Markowitz directs at Summer Place is Dungeons and Dragons for fifth- through ninth-graders. “Basically, it’s a role-playing game, complete with building characters and creating our own dungeon maps.” For younger campers, she directs Fairy Footsteps, in which the children make fairy wings, wands, and houses. 

Excitement is what Summer Place Director Jessica Brice Morissette loves about her job. She has been with UHart for five years, and this summer will mark her second season managing and administering Summer Place. “It is so well loved by campers and staff that everyone wants to come back year after year,” she says.