OPERATION BLUE SKIES
Jonathon Gold
Director, Oak Crest Day Camp
Operation Blue Skies is back in season after the program was a resounding
success last summer. Jonathan Gold, owner of several day camps throughout
the state, created the program to help law enforcement officers in distress
send their kids to summer camp, for free.
“Help me, help you,” Gold pleaded with the members. “I have three goals:
to get as many officers’ families participating as possible, to eliminate bureaucracy and long paperwork, and accept no outside money from anyone.”
Operation Blue Skies offers full tuition to any child of an officer that meets
one of the following criteria: an officer is wounded, they are the surviving
family of an officer, and an officer or their spouse is stricken with a serious
illness.
Gold shared a moving story of a family that attended a camp open house
but couldn’t afford to send their 9-year-old child this summer. The mother
conveyed that her husband was a law enforcement officer and he passed
away five years ago from cancer.
“I looked at her and said ‘it’s simple, you don’t pay anything,’” Gold relayed. “The grandparents and the mom burst into tears.”
The camps offer programs for children in Pre-K to seventh grade including
door-to-door transportation and a hot lunch along with physical and creative
activities during the day.
Operation Blue Skies sent 18 children to camp during its inaugural first
summer and Gold hopes to see that number rise to 100.
If you are or know someone in need, please visit www.operationblueskies.
com and fill out an application.
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■ APRIL 2016 45