“One of the wonderful things I hold dear about growing up in Pacific Palisades was the opportunity to spend summer days at the beach,” said Sina Monjazeb, owner and director of Sandy Days Kids Camp at Will Rogers State Beach. He fondly recalls the hours he spent on the beach making sand castles, digging for sand crabs, swimming, surfing, swimming and playing volleyball.
His wife, Jessica Stern, grew up in nearby Brentwood and has similar memories of summer camp at the beach.
Now the father of eight-year-old Anna and nine-year-old Noah, who are students at Canyon Charter School, Monjazeb has created a day camp where his children and other local kids can experience similar memories.
Sandy Days Kids Camp offers beach and water activities for children ages 5 through 14 on the beach just south of the parking lot entrance at Temescal Canyon Road and PCH. The camp starts on June 10 and runs through August 23.
A typical camp day features water activities such as paddling, swimming, skim boarding, boogie boarding and playing at the shore.
To promote outdoor education, campers will go on nature walks and learn about marine biology, recycling and conservation, and fun facts about the ocean.
Other age-appropriate activities include arts and crafts, face/body painting, balloon animals, sand castles, fashion shows, puppet shows, hula-hooping, storytelling, potato sack races and tug-of-war.
Groups of kids from schools throughout the Westside, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills run happily to the cabanas each morning to greet their friends and welcome newcomers.
Camp days are 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (extended care is available, 8:30 to 9 a.m. and 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. or to 5:15 p.m.) and the camper to counselor ratio is 6:1. Counselors encourage campers to try new things, while working to improve existing skills. Sunscreen is re-applied throughout the day, and large cabanas provide shade.
The camp schedule is flexible so that families can arrange schedules to fit in with trips and other summer plans. There is a five-day minimum enrollment for each camper, but days need not be consecutive.
Monjazeb attended Marquez Elementary, Paul Revere and Palisades High, before receiving his bachelor’s degree in physical education and kinesiology from Cal State Long Beach n 1999. He’s now athletic director of New Community Jewish High School in West Hills.
While pursuing his career, Monjazeb kept thinking about those summer days at the beach. Finally, in 2009, he fulfilled a dream by opening the Sandy Days camp. His enthusiasm is contagious. When he talks about the camp, you can hear the pride he takes in his close work with children at play and how much he enjoys supervising their fun in the sand and sea. As he prepares for the camp’s fifth summer, Sina is welcoming the younger brothers and sistersof his first campers.
Call (310) 569-1274 or visit sandydayskidscamp.com.
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