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= Camp Poyntelle =

Camp Poyntelle is a Jewish co-ed overnight summer camp for children entering grades 1-11. The camp runs a seven-week program on its facilities as well as a retreat center, and draws most of its campers from the greater New York area. Camp Poyntelle was founded in 1947, spearheaded by its first director, Ethel Abrams, originally on 250 acres on one side of Lake Poyntelle. Camp Poyntelle is a member of the Wayne County Camps Alliance, a group of 32 camps located within 30 miles of each other.

Poyntelle is located in the Pocono Mountains region of Wayne County in northeast Pennsylvania. The main camp entrance is located on Cribbs Road in the village of Poyntelle, located in Preston Township, 4.1 miles south of Lakewood, Pennsylvania and 20.6 miles north of Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Facilities & Program
Camp Poyntelle is located on 460 acres (1.86 km2) of land (owned by UJA-Federation of New York) surrounding Lake Poyntelle. The land consists of fields, forest, and the 71-acre private lake. The two campuses that comprise the camp are referred to as "Poyntelle" and "Lewis Village". Each campus has its own set of facilities on which programs are operated.

Athletics
The Poyntelle campus comprises a soccer/football field, 4 tennis courts, a baseball field, 2 outdoor basketball courts, a volleyball court, and indoor gym that houses both gymnastics and indoor basketball. The Lewis Village campus has its own soccer field, volleyball court, hockey rink, baseball field, 5 tennis courts, 2 outdoor basketball courts, and indoor basketball gym. The Athletics program consists in rotating groups of campers through the activities as well as leagues at nights. As a member of the Wayne County Camps Alliance, Poyntelle competes in inter-camp sports tournaments.

Aquatics
Camp Poyntelle utilizes Lake Poyntelle, a 71-acre private lake encompassed almost entirely by its property, for its aquatics programs. The program utilizes a small fleet of powerboats for waterskiing, wake-boarding, tubing, and banana boating. A boating program includes canoes, kayaks, paddle-boats, rowboats, and sailboats. In addition to the boating programs, there is a waterpark using inflatables as part of the swimming areas. Located at the Poyntelle waterfront is a 65,000 gallon pool to supplement the swimming program in the lake.

History
Camp Poyntelle was established in 1947-48 under the guidance of its first director, Ethel Abrams, by the Infant Welfare League to serve lower income families from the lower east side of Manhattan and other parts of New York City. The original 250 acres of land served campers between the ages of seven and fourteen that was heavily supported by fundraising of its Board of Directors. By the early late 1950's the camp's finances were struggling and Abrams began to look for sustainable funding from the Federation for Jewish Philanthropies. With a camp called Camp Ray Hill in Mt. Kisco, New York looking to relocate, the proposed solution was a merger. The resulting merger was thereafter Camp Poyntelle - Ray Hill.

In 1963, the owner of the adjacent property with rights to the remainder of shore access to Lake Poyntelle decided to sell. Abrams, continuing on as director, pursued purchase of the land to expand the camp facility. The resulting acquisition expanded the size of the camp lands from 250 acres to approximately 400. With the new land, a camp was designed and built in large part of "camper-workers" throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The new campus was soon named Camp Lewis, on the Max and Hattie Lewis Campgrounds, and was specifically designated for teenage campers with an additional $700,000 in funding. In 1976, under the direction of Abrams still acting as Executive Director of the camp, Poyntelle hosted a day care camp for local children and staffed by counselors-in-training and social workers.

In the late 1990s, Camp Poyntelle - Ray Hill and Lewis Village underwent major facilities updates. Modern bunks were constructed on both campuses with indoor bathrooms. The pool at the Poyntelle waterfront was constructed in 1996, prior to the 1997 summer season. Additional updates were made in the succeeding years, and coincided with the 1997 acquisition of operations by the Samuel Field YM&YWHA. At the same time, the name was changed to Camp Poyntelle Lewis Village. No major changes were made to camp operations since this acquisition until it was announced that beginning with the 2019 season, all camper programs will be consolidated on the Poyntelle campus.