Harbor Camp

For the seventh year, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance has sponsored Harbor Camp, a partnership between MWA and United Neighborhood Houses (UNH). Harbor Camp is a program developed and run by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance to provide a meaningful water-based summer camp experience to hundreds of children in the New York – New Jersey metropolitan area.

Since 2004, Harbor Camp has brought community waterfront education to over 7,000 children. It organizes on average 20 field trips per summer, providing a meaningful water-based summer camp experience to hundreds of children in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. In 2010, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance increased attendance and expanded Harbor Camp participation!

Our passion for Harbor Camp is based on the possibility that every child in the metropolitan area has an opportunity to be on the water that surrounds and defines our region’s economy, geography, ecology, and history.

Harbor Camps aim is to provide ecological, environmental, maritime, and/or historical education alongside fun and entertainment, and to cultivate stewardship in its participants. It aims to elicit from these young students a desire to protect and preserve the environmental integrity of their natural resources and instill a sense of the history of our region.

In 2010, MWA partnered with the New York Harbor School, for the first time. Through the Harbor School partnership, we increased the number of middle school children attending Harbor Camp and raised awareness of the opportunity for college-preparatory education built on New York’s maritime tradition at the New York Harbor School. Camps serving middle schoolers took the ferry to Governors Island for a tour of the new facility and learned about local ecology, marine science, water quality, human impact, the history of the NY Harbor and Governors Island’s significance. After the trip, interested students were entered into the school’s database, which is used in a lottery for awarding seats at the New York Harbor School.

Harbor Camp is a vital part of MWA’s public outreach, and is an invaluable investment in the future of the city’s waterfront. By getting children to the water for education and recreation now, the health and well-being of the city’s waterfront and its citizens may be ensured for the future. As Harbor Camp continues to expand, the program increases New Yorkers’ exposure to and awareness of the opportunities and challenges presented by our waterfront.

For more information about Harbor Camp, contact Cortney Worrall, Director of Programs at cworrall@waterfrontalliance.org.