Add The New York Post on Google For Rachael Braunschweiger Potash, stripping her kids of their digital devices for seven weeks each summer is no cheap feat.
But to be able to gift her children a summer filled with outdoor activities and lifelong friendships the astronomical cost is worth it.
Another priceless benefit — the influential networks of parents and alumni that can open doors for their kids for internships and job opportunities down the road.
After months of planning, packing and spending nearly the equivalent of a year of private school fees, the 46-year-old Potash and her daughters, 13 and 15, will bid farewell to the comforts of their beautiful abode in Boca Raton, Florida, for the Big Apple this week.
Potash will then escort her brood to Westchester, where they’ll join friends aboard a private plane headed to Camp Vega, a girls-only summer oasis on Echo Lake in Fayette, Maine.
It’s a first-class treat — that adds another few thousand dollars to the cost — that Potash, along with a small group of camp parents, decided to gift their girls this year.
And while the extravagant excursion isn’t built into the roughly $20,000 per child camp tuition fee, it is one of the many posh perks afforded to the lucky little ones whose folks can afford to send them to swanky sleepaways — including some with annual dues exceeding $150,000.
“My kids absolutely love going to camp every year. They get to enjoy all these new experiences outdoors, there are no phones, screens or ways to access social media,” Potash, a lifestyle influencer, exclusively told The Post. “There’s no worrying about what to post, their hair, makeup or new TikTok dances, and that’s the No. 1 best thing.”
“Money comes and goes,” said the mom, “but if you’re going to spend your money, summer camp is one of the things you spend it on.”
The parents of a whopping 24.6 million tots, tweens and teens across the US want their kids to experience a screen-free, structured summer through enrichment programs and overnight camps per a May 2026 study.
Unfortunately, 38% of those families cite high costs as a major deterrent, according to the report. You can’t blame them, as some camps cost as much as $4,500 a week, like the AI-powered summer day camp in the Hamptons that teaches “life building skills” and has wild offerings such as omakase classes and a Trojan-horse workshop.
Because of these absurdly high costs, only 13% of low- and middle-income children are actually able to attend camp, compared to 45% of those in high–income homes, according to the study.
But for a first-rate, rustic adventure miles away from home, parents like Potash don’t mind spending big.
“I didn’t grow up going to camp but their father, my late husband, did. He always wanted his girls to go,” Potash explained.
“The kids are actually spending their summer doing things that kids should be doing — waterskiing, kayaking, swimming, gymnastics, dance, art, making s’mores,” she raved. “Plus, they’re learning how to be empowered, independent young women before going off to college.”
Although Camp Vega enforces a firm uniform policy — meaning attendees are expected to wear camp-stamped clothing during their stays — Potash’s girls were adamant about loading their camping trunks with chichi toiletries by Method body wash, and cutesy pajamas from Brandy Melville, Eberjey and Roller Rabbit.
After shopping the hottest brands, and transforming her formal dining room into “camp headquarters,” where they label and pack all their camp gear, Potash pays handsomely for a concierge shipping service to transport the trunks and duffels to the girls’ camp bunks up north.
“But even after the trunks get picked up and they’re gone, we’re still ordering stuff,” she laughed to The Post. “I still have a list of stuff to buy because there’s just never enough time.”
Under major time crunches, newcomers to the upscale sleepaway swing rush to haute camping goods retailer, Denny’s & Lester’s, which sees parents, from New York to Florida, scrambling to secure a one-on-one appointment with in-store experts adept in sleepaway swag.
Replying to @𝔾𝔼𝕄𝕀ℕ𝕀 🧡 part 3 of 7 week sleepaway camp packing prep and tips (kind of) #sleepawaycamp #packwithme #momlife #dayinmylife
“Parents start booking their summer camp appointments in January, and we see folks rushing to get last-minute needs right up until their children leave,“ Spencer Klein, a chain owner, told The Post.
“We try to buddy each kid up with best person that would fit the camper’s criteria,” said Klein. “We offer everything from bedding, pillows and bunk needs to clothing and gear, accessories. We label every item and embroider their trunks with their names.”
And likely one of the most lucrative times, too.
Dani Cohen, a married mom of three sons en route to co-ed sleepaway Camp Walt Whitman in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, annually spends between $1,500 to $3,000 at the store, ensuring her boys — ages 11, 9 and 7 — are good to go once they’re gone for the season.
The pricey shopping spree is merely the cherry on top of the more than $15,000, per child, camp tuition that the 40-something and husband Jason pay for her kiddos to frolic in the greenery for seven weeks.
“I start booking my camp appointments at Denny’s in November,” Cohen, a special education advocate from New Canaan, Connecticut, explained. “They take care of everything and all I have to do is pay for it.”
“It’s minimal sweat until I look at that bill,” she chuckled. “It’s like sticker shock. They put everything into that box, then ring it up and you’re like, ‘How did this happen?’”
And the spending doesn’t end once her boys hop on the bus to camp.
Almost immediately after their departure, Cohen books flights and hotels, or rents an RV, for her and Jason’s mid-season stay during Visiting Day, a highly anticipated time when families reunite with their campers, showering them with luxe baubles and treats.
“We definitely bring food, goodies and trinkets with us. One kid usually asks for pickles, my niece gets sushi,” said Cohen. “They get everything from pickles to hacky sacks to the latest new games.”
But Elizabeth Weprin, 55, whose now-adult daughters, Marlie, 26 and Allie, 23, spent eight years becoming summertime fixtures at Raquette Lake Camp in the Adirondacks — where tuition starts at $17,450 per pup — told The Post that the hefty investment is worth the invaluable payoff.
“The crown jewel of these sleepaway camps is the alumni parent network that you can tap into,” Weprin, a Boca Raton-based content creator married to an attorney, explained of the choice connections her family’s made over nearly a decade.
Relationships with elite captains of industry via Raquette Lake have served as a rich resource to Weprin’s girls as they’ve transitioned from little campers to college graduates to breadwinners in the workforce.
“I’ve always told my kids, ‘Your Rolodex is everything,’” she said, referring to the business contact keeper of yore. “Internships, job opportunities, experiences — it’s all about who you know.”
But beyond the burdens of shelling out a small fortune for enrollment, and the boons of hobnobbing with the upper crust, Weprin said the greatest advantage of camp has been the lifelong friendships her daughters have established.
“These girls have such a strong love for each other. They may not have gone to the same schools or grown up in the same neighborhoods, but they are there for one another no matter what — birthdays, graduations, the loss of a parent, whatever,” said Weprin.
“And that’s the biggest benefit. That love,” the homemaker continued, shrugging off whatever crazy sums of cash she’s ponied up over the years. “They still can’t get enough of each other.”
