Best Denver Summer Camps, Camp Shai

J Perks Pass: January 12 | 2025 Camp Families: January 14 | New Families: January 26
Registration opens at 10 am

As another unforgettable summer at Camp Shai comes to a close, we want to send a HUGE thank you to our campers, families, and staff who have made this season so special. This summer wouldn’t have been the same without you and we are so grateful to this incredible community. We can’t wait to welcome you back next year for even more fun!

A Community Where Everyone Belongs:

At JCC Camp Shai, we aim to create a community that embraces diversity. We welcome all those who wish to participate, including but not limited to; people of any race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity and expression, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, family structure, ability, culture, and spirituality. At Camp Shai, it is our mission to help all campers in our care to spark their imagination and inspire them to celebrate their individuality. After all, one of our most important values at camp is understanding the impact of having a community that embraces you for who you are and what you bring to the table.

Thank you for your interest in Camp Shai Summer Programs!

Camp Shai is the premier Jewish Day Camp serving children entering kindergarten through sixth grade. Individuals of all backgrounds, faiths, and families are welcome. At Camp Shai, we offer a little something for everyone with a variety of engaging and fun activities. It is our mission to create just the right environment for campers to build their confidence, challenge themselves to try new things, and make meaningful connections with peers and staff. At Camp Shai, we frame everything we do through the universal Jewish values (or middot) of kindness (chesed), respect (kavod), community (kehillah), positive attitude (ruach), and courage (ometz lev).

At Camp Shai, there is intention behind every program and activity that we organize – we work to ensure that all campers feel engaged and confident and leave camp each day standing a little taller. Studies by the American Camping Association report day camp campers learn and grow in ways that impact them for the rest of their lives. These areas of growth include:

Demonstrating increased self-esteem and a higher emotional intelligence
Learning new skills and sharpening existing ones
Developing social skills that help campers make friends and lasting connections with others
Becoming more courageous and willing to try new things outside of their comfort zones

Download PDF version of Camp Shai 2026 Dates and Rates Grid

What Sets Us Apart:

We are inclusive – we welcome campers of all faiths, backgrounds, and abilities to join our fun-loving community!
We operate at the highest level of safety and supervision standards. We are a state licensed childcare provider and an accredited camp through the American Camp Association.
We invest in our summer staff by hiring and supporting amazing young professionals who come back summer after summer.
We offer small ratios of campers to staff to ensure that your camper gets the individualized care and attention that they deserve.
We focus on social and emotional growth, and we understand that “play is the work of children” and that positive, fun summer memories stay with us through adulthood.
We are anchored in universal Jewish values (middot) and encourage our campers to embrace these values in their day-to-day lives.

Safety & Supervision

Running a safe, well-supervised camp is our JAM! We hold ourselves to an incredibly high standards around safety, operations, and programming. In addition to being in excellent standing with the State of Colorado Childcare Licensing, Camp Shai has been accredited by the American Camping Association (ACA) since 2019. ACA Accreditation requires that our programs comply with over 300 standards determined by experts from organizations like the American Red Cross and the American Academy of Pediatrics. So, not only is ACA looking at how we operate from a safety standpoint, they also look at the quality of programming we offer, how we engage campers and their families, and how we train our staff to facilitate the experience we want for all campers in our program.

In the off season, we work closely with our licensing partners and peer communities to ensure that we are on the forefront of innovative and engaging approaches to summer programming for school-aged children.

We know that to make the camper experience top-notch, it starts with the counselors and staff. All Camp Shai employees are hired through a multi-tiered screening process and undergo comprehensive background checks before they start on our team. Furthermore, to ensure that our staff are the best of the best, all staff participate in a week-long orientation before the start of camp. While staff orientation is a lot of fun too, we train heavily on facilitation skills, Ages & Stages of Human Development, behavior management, and practice restorative interventions. Staff are provided with group supervision guidelines that ensure that staff members are never to be alone with a single child in a situation where others cannot observe them.