Rye YMCA's New Camp Director Embraces the Child WIthin

Embrace the cheesiness!

That's what new Rye YMCA Discovery Camp Director Scott Umbel sees as his role –embrace what adults see as the "cheesiness" of camp, the singing of camp songs like "Boom-Chica-Boom," "Eee_aye-e-aye-ohing" with that ageless farmer "Old MacDonald" and chanting almost everything from "Mary Poppins" while dancing up a storm and behaving like, well, kids.

And Umbel, 28, is already a YMCA camp veteran who knows how to stay in touch with the child within.

He has seven years of previous camp directing experience stretching from Maryland to Rhode Island prior to becoming the Rye YMCA's new senior program director.

Umbel told Rye Patch that he wants to sell his "cheesiness" expertise to everyone interested in the Y camp programs, and he welcomes the opportunity to discuss those  programs with any and all interested parties.

Especially the parents of would-be campers as well as current enrollees. He welcomes "ice breaking" opportunities to sell himself and the Y programs, he said as he tries to share his extensive experience in creating what he calls "new and unique programs that both embrace camp traditions and challenge the camper's own mind and body."

In fact, when Umbel meets with parents for the first time, he cajoles them into singing, dancing, doing campy things, trying to make them remember what it was like to be as young as he was as a kid growing up in a YMCA environment that  builds "strong kids, strong families and strong communities," as the organization's mission statement says.

Umbel knows what that was like. He describes himself as a "Y brat, a Y lifer," in the military sense  of someone who comes of age relocating around the country because that is where duty calls, and in his case, that is where his family's respective YMCA career has taken them.

His mother, Mary, for example, is a YMCA national resource director in Philadelphia. His brother, John, is an assistant camp director in Delaware. And his two sisters, Marqi and Jori, are YMCA lifeguards in Wisconsin.

So Scott and his siblings grew up in and around YMCA camps.

Scott, for example, virtually started to come of age in the YMCA near Kennet Square, Pa., and spent 12 summers as a camper, counselor and finally as an instructor at a sailing school in Maryland. He took that love of sailing with him to Pennsylvania State University where he was a member of the sailing team who worked his way up to coach the Penn State team while earning his degree in Recreation Management.

And after graduation he went to work for various YMCAs in Maryland and Rhode Island, most recently as a camp director at the Westerly-Pawcatuck YMCA.

Along the way, he indulged in his passion for the outdoors, hiking, camping, kayaking, sailing, even outboard motor repair while earning various YMCA degrees in lifesaving, safety, camp and teen supervision, athletics, CPR,  administration and management.

He spent his down time reading science fiction, majored in Y Camp Directing and minored in what he calls "learning the rivers of Rhode Island." He spent three years-plus honing his expertise at the Westerly-Pawcatuck YMCA, and then he heard through the YMCA grapevine that the Rye YMCA's popular Tom Swanciger, Senior Director of Membership and Programs, was leaving.

"When you grow up in Ys around the country, you keep hearing about the wonderful things the Rye Y does as one of the top Ys in America when it comes to customer satisfaction, so you know they must be doing something right," Umbel told Patch.

He wanted to become part of that Rye YMCA "something," a " something" that, the YMCA mission statement says, includes helping young people develop positive values, an ethic of civic responsibility and educational skills.

Umbel got the job, a job that involves developing a holistic, systematic approach to improving young peoples' lives that involves the entire community. Umbel said Rye is the kind of community that encourages that type of approach.

What Umbel brings to the job, he said, is a determination to bring concrete, common sense, positive experiences and qualities essential to raising successful young people, whether it be through swimming lessons or team-building, skill developing exercises.

He brings his skills to the Discovery Camp program at the Osborn School, emphasizing traditional outdoor activities for the more than 300 enrollees from Explorers (starting at age four) to Pathfinders (age 11). He also provides leadership to the YMCA's Teen and Athletic Departments.

And he loves to "embrace the cheesiness" of camp athleticism as well as the song-and-dance routines, because Umbel has learned to stay in touch with the child within while encouraging youngsters to become all they can be on their way to maturity.

Umbel would love to tell you more about his ideas for "new and unique" YMCA programs. Just be prepared to hum a few bars at least of "Boom-Chica-Boom" or "Ee-aye-ee-aye-oh"

Camp Discovery runs Mon-Fri, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Further information: 967-6363.