Camp Horizons Off To a Magical Start

There really is something for everyone at Camp Horizons, a day camp for kindergarten-aged children to ninth graders, located on the Newark Academy campus in Livingston.

After a successful 27-year run, owner/director, Neil Rothstein, a Livingston resident, has created a well-oiled machine, chock full of more than 100 activities and events to meet even the most novel of interests. Just two days into the start of camp, Nutley resident, Magician Joe Fischer, “WOW’ed,” the kindergarten through 4th grade campers, with magic tricks.

Kindergarten camper Aidan Osowski of Cedar Grove was the first “assistant” called to the stage. With great humor, the magician asked Aidan to rip up a black and silver piece of paper, over and over again. Once done, Joe took what was left of the torn paper, and with a magical flourish, turned it into a perfect “magic hat,” straight out of the halls of Hogwarts.

The look of pure delight on Aidan’s face was priceless. In fact, he proudly donned the hat throughout the day, and was bursting with enthusiasm to go home and tell his parents how great his day was 
-- especially the part where he was the “magician’s assistant.”  The hat also made for a great icebreaker with new faces.

"At Camp Horizons, we strive to make every day as special as possible for each camper by weaving special events, like this one, into their days,” said Livingston resident Holly Newler, director of the kindergarten-1st grade program at Camp Horizons.

The magician continued to amuse and entertain the audience by pulling silver coins out of the ears, top of head, and armpit of Helen Sohos, a 1st grader from Millburn. Just when Helen thought Joe was done, he asked her to tilt her head down over a bucket and say, “Achoo.”  To everyone's surprise, even more coins dropped into the bucket. Helen went home with a large silver coin, as a memento and fantastic memory of her second day at camp.

Antione Hinton, a 1st grader from Irvington participated in the silliest trick of the day in which he tried to balance a pair of zany glasses made of slinkies, while wearing a small hat and searching for sea monsters. Once he put his head straight and looked forward, the slinkied-eyballs bounced forward and up and down. When he put his head back to balance the eyeballs, his hat fell off the back of his head.

Joe, played the audience perfectly and said, “That hat must be too small.”

He then had Antione turn around, while he placed a larger hat on Antione’s head. When Antione turned back around, the children were giggling and smiling from ear to ear -- the hat had become a mask featuring a green monster face.

The magician announced,  “Antione, you have been the sea monster all along.”

Antione took home a special coloring book full of magic tricks to try with his family.

Next, Joe teased the youths with a trick in which he showed them a few colorful animals on cards, including a cat, dog, parrot and snake. He engaged the kids by having them make all of the animal sounds and then said he was putting the snake into his “pet shop book,” to keep them safe.

Hilarity ensued as the “snake," now off the card, kept poking his head out of the sides and top of the book, unbeknownst to Joe. The kids could barely sit in their seats as they kept pointing to the snake’s head and yelling and laughing as they told him where it was located.

The final trick was funny, too. Michael Tokuda, who is entering kindergarten this fall in Livingston, and Alyson Phillips, a 1st grader from South Orange assisted Joe.  He gave them orange and blue balloons, respectively, and asked them to have a race to see who could blow them up the fastest.

They tried “really hard.” But, they just couldn’t get any air at all into the “trick” balloons. There were giggles all over the room. Next, Joe gave them a “pump.” He asked Michael to open it up, and surprisingly to all – springy orange snakes popped out of the can.

Joe said, “oops, wrong pump.”

He then used the real pump to blow up the balloons and make Michael a balloon doggy and Alyson a pretty flower to take home.

Each week, Camp Horizons brings in age-appropriate, professional shows to enhance thedaily activities. This year's activities include: Family Rocket Launches, Family Movie Nights, Newark Bears Family Day, puppet shows, frisbee dogs, BMX Bike Show, inflatables, pony rides, camp plays, and talent shows. During the eighth week of camp, campers enjoy age-appropriate day trips to Wild West City, Tomahawk Lake, Velocity-17, Kidnetic, Rock Gym, Monster Golf, Crayola Factory, Mountain Creek Water Park, and Ripley's Believe It or Not.
  
For more information, and/or a tour, call (973) 992-7767, or see the camp's website @http://www.camphorizons.com