"Summer Together 2022" Delivered a Great Summer for Port’s Children

Summer Together is a volunteer-run program that funds summer camp scholarships for Port Washington families in need of economic assistance. Founded in 2018 by Long Island Together, Summer Together has enabled hundreds of Port children to share in fun and enriching summer activities with their peers.

In 2022, Summer Together served 170 local children, enabling them to attend local day camps as well as special programs run by the Parent Resource Center and the Port Washington school district.

Summer Together is possible because of tireless unpaid volunteers, a host of generous individual donations, and institutional grants from the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation and the Greentree Foundation Good Neighbor Fund. Summer Together is also grateful for the support of the Ellen and Richard Fox Charitable Fund, the St. Stephen's Church parish community, and Kiwanis Club of Manhasset-Port-Washington.

Here is what that support made possible:

1) We are happy to report that this summer we funded two weeks of camp attendance, not just one, for the vast majority of our scholarship campers. We worked with our community advisors (Parent Resource Center, Our Lady of Fatima, St. Peter's, and the Port Washington Public Library), as well as with elementary school and Weber guidance counselors, to identify and fund 83 boys and girls who attended a cumulative total of 167 weeks of camp. The participating day camps - all in the Port area - were Bach To Rock, Camp Invention, FAST Sports Camp at PAL, Language Anywhere, PYA, Science Museum of Long Island, and Unlimited Sports Action. We are grateful for the participation of these wonderful camps.

2) Working with the Port Washington school district for the third year, we fully funded a math enrichment program, “Building Math Muscles for Middle School,” for rising 6th graders identified as in need of academic intervention services as a result of the challenges of the last two school years. The two-week intensive program was taught in August by district teachers and served 19 students.

3) We fully funded the Parent Resource Center’s Summer Enrichment field trip program for its Outreach families: 68 pre-K children and their family members participated in the trips, which took place one day a week during July and August for six weeks.

4) Last year (2021), as a result of a proposal we submitted to TONH Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte who then championed it to the Town Board, a fee-reduction program was created for income-eligible families at Manorhaven and Whitney Pools. These families were able to obtain a seasonal pass at a 60% reduced price, making the pool much more affordable for many local families. We believe this is the first program of its kind on LI. This year (2022) at Manorhaven Pool, 158 applications were processed for the program. We are so proud of the difference this program made for local families during the hot summer.

Thank you Port Washington community!

The Summer Together Team

Ellen Davidson

Ilise Friedman

Dilia Kamensky

Pamela O’Connell

Marivic Restivo

Drina Scheiber

Analia Quispe

For more information or to donate visit:

https://www.longislandtogether.org/summertogether