South Shore camps sizzled this summer in East Rockaway

It was a summer of fun and learning at the 34th annual South Shore Camps in East Rockaway, where hundreds of children and teenagers participated in a month’s worth of sports and activities under the summer sun.

“In all, 110 neighborhood kids took advantage of a month-long program of fun and games,” Camp Director Joe Lores said.

The camp was open to children and teens ages 4 to 16 and serves East Rockaway and its surrounding areas. Lores founded the camp more than three decades ago to get children into sports and to provide them with activities to participate in while they are on summer vacation from school. Each individual camp was divided into weeklong sessions throughout June and July. The camps included baseball, softball, soccer, basketball and a summer playgroup.

Activities in the playgroup included a talent show, arts and crafts and sports, while those who participated in the baseball and softball camps learned the fundamentals of the game, including hitting, fielding and sliding properly, and played games against one another. The basketball camp also focused on games and drills to help campers hone their skills, as did the soccer group.

Lores is a former boys’ basketball coach at East Rockaway High School, and led the squad  to 222 wins — more than any coach in school history — and five titles,.  including a Long Island championship when his son, Joseph, was on the team. In 2019, he was inducted into the Basketball Coaches Association of New York Hall of Fame.