LEADING THE FIELD

By: Rabbi Paysach Krohn
For the last two decades, my wife and I have had the wonderful opportunity to spend Shabbosim of the summer months in different camps in the Catskills where I speak. Sometimes it's a boys camp other times it's a girls camp; each camp has its own personality and is special in its own way. But as wonderful as these camps are, there is no camp as unique and distinctive as Camp HASC in Parksville, New York.

I remember vividly years ago, the first time I walked into Camp HASC on a Friday afternoon. I was stunned! Nothing I had ever experienced in any camp prepared me for what was before me. I had never seen a swing set that had a wheelchair type of seat swinging back and forth. In that especially made swing set chair was a child with a smile from ear to ear and a counselor pushing the chair gently into the air. A howl of glee emanated from the child as his face was swept upward into rarified air. Nearby was a little girl, bent over, on crutches, with a counselor's arm around her. She was speaking in a loud voice but I could not make out the words. No difference. The counselor somehow understood her and answered her with an animated smile...

Beloved Veteran HASC Counselor Miriam Rosenbaum Named A Rhodes Scholar 2012

By: VIN News
Riverdale, NY - In what may be a first, a 22 year old Orthodox girl from the Bronx was named as one of thirty two American students chosen as Rhodes Scholars for the year 2012. Miriam Rosenbaum, a graduate of Elizabeth, New Jersey's Bruriah High School and Jerusalem's Michlalah College for Women is currently enrolled at Princeton University. She told VIN News that she was shocked to receive a phone call after Shabbos informing her that she had been awarded the prestigious honor and said that she hoped to inspire other Orthodox young women to strive for great academic achievements. Miss Rosenbaum is currently pursuing a degree in Public Policy at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and hopes to embark on a career in health policy,specifically as an advocate for the elderly and disabled and is no stranger to working with the disabled, having spent several summers working at Camp HASC...

Exciting Day at HASC Center’s Yeshivah Day Hab

By: Yochonon Donn
This past Thursday, Harav Mattisyahu Salomon, shlita, Mashgiach in Bais Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, found the opportunity to fulfill a wish he had expressed last summer: to see HASC Center’s Yeshivah Day Hab in Boro Park and visit with the special men and boys who spend each day learning and growing there. The Mashgiach also affixed a mezuzah on the front door of the Day Hab building, located at 16th Avenue and 63rd Street.
As the Mashgiach was accompanied into the building, I met Abe Eisner, president of the Board of Directors of HASC Center and the person responsible for introducing Rav Mattisyahu to HASC Center...

Therapeutic room is memorial to teen
New Jersey Jewish Standard

By: Abigail Klein Leichman
Steven Newman was just 17 1/2 when he died unexpectedly in his sleep last summer at Camp HASC, the Catskill Mountains summer program of the Hebrew Academy for Special Children. The disabled Teaneck resident had been a HASC camper for nine years
His parents, Susan and Danny, and brother D.J., 16, went to the camp July 5 to dedicate the Steven Newman Musical & Sensory Program
Susan Newman said they had visited Steven the morning before his death. "He went to an Uncle Moishy concert at camp that night and had a great time, and then he went to sleep and didn’t wake up," she added...

A Special Summer
Advance for Nurses- February 09

By: Avital Rosenbaum RN, Nisa Davidovics RN and Ricky Lieberman RN
As their first job out of school, nurses get a sweet taste of the profession at Camp HASC, Parksville, NY
Most students assume their first RN job after graduation will be in a hospital, probably on a med/surg floor, working three 12-hour marathons a week, and of course, on the night shift. Towards the end of our last semester in nursing school, we were offered our first job as nurses for 300 campers with special needs in a summer program called Camp HASC in Parksville NY...

A World Called HASC
Pillars of the Jewish World- Mishpacha Elul 5768 Supplement

By: Malky Lowinger
Yechiel was born normal and healthy, and matured beautifully. When he was eighteen months old, something began nagging at Yechiel’s mother. His speech was slightly delayed, and he was a bit restless. It was not a major concern, but it bothered her enough to get her son evaluated.
Yechiel’s evaluation indicated that he would benefit from Early Intervention. If therapists would work with him a few times a week, chances were good that he would progress well and eventually catch up with his peers. Therapists began working with him in his home several times a week. When Yechiel turned three and was no longer eligible for Early Intervention services...

Letter from the Rosh HaYeshiva, HaRav Aharon Bina, Shlit"a

Menachem Av 5768
Recently, I received a call from one of the alumni. He said, "Rav Bina, I want to thank you for spending a week with us at Camp HASC." Surprised by the phone call, I asked why my presence was so important to him. He explained that "while we work very hard here, literally 24/7, the campers, for the most part, are unable to thank us. Your words of appreciation gave us tremendous chizuk, not to mention the great amount of time you spent speaking with so many of us...

Camp HASC: A World of Chesed
Shining Rays of Light- Mispacha Elul 5767 Supplement

By: Rochel Weinstein
When Mountaindale, in upstate New York, was my home for more than a decade, the summer tourist explosion usually meant waiting a bit longer in lines and searching harder for parking spaces. I remember the general feeling of appreciation towards the entrepreneurs who establish restaurants and other conveniences that don’t normally exist in the area during the rest of the year.
But beyond the annual hustle and bustle, however, there is an entirely different dimension of purpose in the area in the form of summer camps. These oases of fun and friendship offer children (and adults) the opportunity to spend July and August...

Connecting Home & School to Maximize Success
Spirit Magazine- Fall 2008

By: Marcy Glicksman
Every once in a while, you might be shopping with your child, when another child whom you have never met comes over and says, “Hi.”
It is at these moments that you are reminded that your child has a whole life outside of your home that you are simply not a part of. Playgroup, summer camp, Shabbos groups, and school are all places that children experience a certain degree of independence, an opportunity to socialize with peers, and a chance to explore the world on their own terms, outside of the family structure...

A Special Camp for Special Kids
With Dovid and Nati

By: Seffie- Binah Magazine
“Mitzvah gedolah lihiyos besimchah, lihiyos besimchah …
Hi, Nati! I hope this won’t take too long. I don’t like depressing places.”
“Hi, Dovid! Camp HASC is one of the happiest places I know, and the staff psychologist, Dr. Pollak, is always cheerful. I know, ‘cause she’s Aunt Shaina’s friend. Why did you think it would be depressing?”
“Um, well, you know … All those kids in wheelchairs and with other disabilities. How could anyone be happy? Everyone there probably cries all day.”
“I’m really glad you’re coming, Dovid. You’re in for a surprise – and a happy surprise, at that!”
Hi, Dr. Pollak. Wow, everyone looks so cheerful! How many campers and counselors do you have here?
Hi, boys. We have three hundred campers and almost four hundred people on the staff...

Giving Special Needs Children a Summer of their own
Spirit Magazine

By: Yakov Kornreich
Anyone who has done it knows that caring for a special needs child is more than a full time job. Whether you are that child’s parent or care-giver, a volunteer, family member or professional, tending to that child’s wants and needs is a responsibility like no other, both demanding and rewarding in ways that are often difficult to fully describe to someone who has never attempted it.