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The evolution of the 60-acre Liberty Lake, from 1970s picnic-grove hot spot to its current existence as a destination of summer fun and life-altering learning, is an interesting one. For over a half century, Liberty Lake has been a hub for corporate parties, family reunions, charitable events, community days, and the first 10 seasons of the NJ Renaissance Faire! Due to its generous acreage and parking, Liberty Lake Picnics continues to be the venue of choice, with multiple events on most non-camp days from May through September.
When owner Andy Pritikin founded Liberty Lake Day Camp in 2002, he was leasing the property. But within a few years, the camp’s potential was obvious. Liberty Lake was quickly on its way to becoming the most popular private day camp in its part of the universe (also known as South/Central Jersey).
For over two decades, Liberty Lake has been entrusted with guiding and caring for over 1,000 campers each summer. That’s a lot of celebratory slushies (for our campers with summer birthdays)! Children and teens travel each summer day to Liberty Lake from five New Jersey counties (Burlington, Camden, Mercer, Monmouth, and Ocean), plus Center City Philadelphia and Lower Bucks, PA. The journey is an easy one, because Exit 52A of 295 and the PA/NJ Turnpike double as the unofficial driveways.
And speaking of journeys, here’s another one we invite you to take with us: Andy Pritikin’s progression from wannabe rock star to camp owner/director (and president of the American Camp Association, NY/NJ). Andy enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame on Star Search back in 1991. While Andy’s band met with some success after college, his first real-world job fell through, and he was disillusioned with his career path.
Influenced by his high-school band director and mentor, Andy went back to college for his master’s in education to become a teacher. He subsequently became the coolest band teacher on the planet, teaching by day and playing late-night music gigs by night. When the band broke up, Andy cut off his dreadlocks (literally) and considered becoming the ultimate authority: a school principal.
But fate intervened once again. The camp owner he was working for inquired if he had any interest in becoming a different kind of youth development professional- a summer camp professional. Intrigued by the entrepreneurial opportunity to impact children’s minds and talents through experiential education, Andy retired from teaching at the ripe old age of 27 to pursue a career in an industry he hardy understood. Fortunately for all of us, his (at the time) pregnant wife, Jill, signed off on the permission slip…
Thus, Andy Pritikin learned a lot about running a camp while working at some of the finest private day camps in northern New Jersey and New York. After five years as director of a camp on Long Island’s North Shore, Andy completed his “doctorate” in day camp, with a minor in resident (sleepaway) camp- spending many weekends up in the mountains learning from prolific mentors. He then found the opportunity to create Liberty Lake Day Camp in January of 2002. Andy placed all his experience and energy into creating a unique, high quality camp experience in a geographic area lacking this type of destination for children and teens.
The years that followed found Andy overseeing the largest camp conference in the world, becoming the President of the American Camp Association’s largest section, and starting the largest Renaissance Faire in NJ, and a day camp in the Boston suburbs. In 2020, Liberty Lake became and even bigger household name by being one of the only day camps in the Greater Philadelphia area to run a successful program in the midst of the pandemic, serving 700+ campers each day with 200+ staff! Here’s our video yearbook from 2020.
Now nearing a quarter century of day camp legacy, more than half the LLDC staff are former campers, with current campers whose parents were campers. Now you know the basics of the Liberty Lake Day Camp story!