Deerkill is located on a beautiful wooded 15 acre site in Rockland County. We are in Suffern on the border of northern New Jersey, just 30 minutes north of NYC (Exit 11 off the Palisades Parkway), 45 minutes from Hoboken and Montclair, and convenient to Rockland, Bergen and Orange counties.
We believe that children thrive when provided with a safe and nurturing environment coupled with modern, well-maintained facilities. Our grounds are never crowded and our layout lends itself to campers of all ages (see map). We have over 7,000 square feet of beautiful heated pools with diving boards and water slides, including a shallow pool for our beginning swimmers. Our fields for team sports range in size to accommodate our younger and older campers alike. We have outdoor and indoor basketball courts, shady ropes and archery courses, and large pavilions for dance and karate. We also have three tennis courts and four handball courts for our tennis enthusiasts. Our local riding stable has a large indoor rink providing flexibility in all weather conditions.
Deerkill has a 75 foot gymnastics pavilion with a real spring floor and all of the equipment one might expect in a program designed for both younger and older children. Our theater studio, which provides seating for as many as 200 children, is a real theater with spots, floods, sound equipment and a stage. Our woodworking shop is stocked with all the tools necessary to provide happy carpentry challenges for children of all ages. In our ceramics studio we teach hand building and have four potters’ wheels for children 8 and older. We have two large electric kilns, a large drying closet, and a wide variety of glazes. Our digital photography studio has both digital cameras and computers with Photoshop Elements so that children can learn how to take, manipulate, and print their pictures.
We are one of the very few camps that have enough indoor space to offer a real camp program in the rain. In addition to ten large specialty buildings, we have a remarkable 85 foot basketball pavilion, three mini-gyms, and a 110 foot play deck. These allow us to offer an active and varied program even in wet weather. And, of course, we provide lunch in our large pavilion. Kids enjoy the change of pace and program that is provided in the rain.