Steve & Kate's Camp - Chicago Lakeview
Audubon Elementary, 3500 N Hoyne Ave, Chicago, IL 60618
About
Steve & Kate's Camp - Chicago Lakeview offers activities such as coding, robotics, sewing, baking, and making. Campers can also spend time filming, creating stop-motion animation, using 3D pens, exploring 3D worlds with an interactive virtual reality experience, and using interactive art apps. Additional options include sports and recreation, tabletop games, building marble mazes and forts, lounging, and long-standing traditions like Find Chuckie and Friday Pie-Day, along with weekly specials such as inflatable slip n’ slides, a giant sprinkler, karaoke day, water tag, musical performances, movement workshops, and popup petting zoos.
• Ages: 4–12 years old
• Schedule: Jun 8–Aug 7, 8:00am–6:00pm, closed July 3
• Price: Mentorship Day Pass Rate: $98; Mentorship Day Pass (15+) Rate: $84; Mentorship Summer Pass Rate: $2,520; Returning Mentees: $0
The camp’s mission states that during summer, Steve & Kate’s gives kids freedom to expand and evolve by allowing campers to choose which activities they do, whom they do them with, and for how long, as a way to be empowered, independent, resilient, and responsible for their own decisions. All-inclusive rates at this camp include all camp hours from 8:00am to 6:00pm, snacks and lunch, and any activities that interest the child. Families can buy any number of days and send their child to camp on any day they choose, drop off and pick up at any time during camp hours, and receive automatic full refunds for unused purchased Day Passes and partial refunds for underused Summer Passes at summer’s end.
Steve & Kate’s Camp began in 1980, when Steve and Kate Susskind created a summer camp in response to seeing kids’ independence slipping away. The Chicago Lakeview camp lists Carly as the Director. The program also offers a Mentorship Program intended exclusively for children ages 14–15 at this camp location for Summer 2026, where mentees help facilitate camp activities, engage with campers, encourage camper connection and participation, and use self-directed learning.
Community partners at this camp include Brainchild Collective, which runs a movement-based ballet session at 10:00am, and Chicago’s own Red Clay Dance Company, which offers a 10:00am session where campers can learn base-level dance skills. As summer approaches, registered families receive an email with a link to a virtual camp orientation that covers local camp drop-off and pick-up procedures, how to check in and out each day, what to bring and not bring, and other camp details. For Slip N Slide activities, campers are asked to bring a labeled swimsuit, towel, and water shoes or sandals.
Testimonials about Steve & Kate’s Camp include comments from Andrew Stanton, Director of WALL-E, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory, who says that children at the camp blossom and discover a freedom of identity and that kids find their thumbprint there. Apple’s Hot News states that if kids ruled the world, it might look something like Steve & Kate’s Camp. Variety magazine notes that many children of people at Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic attend, and The Washington Post describes the camp as a blend of traditional camp with a modern, tech-savvy touch and a laid-back aura with innovative approaches to programming and payment. The Chicago Tribune states that working parents’ worries dissipate as they contemplate Steve & Kate’s model.
Last updated April 30, 2026.
• Ages: 4–12 years old
• Schedule: Jun 8–Aug 7, 8:00am–6:00pm, closed July 3
• Price: Mentorship Day Pass Rate: $98; Mentorship Day Pass (15+) Rate: $84; Mentorship Summer Pass Rate: $2,520; Returning Mentees: $0
The camp’s mission states that during summer, Steve & Kate’s gives kids freedom to expand and evolve by allowing campers to choose which activities they do, whom they do them with, and for how long, as a way to be empowered, independent, resilient, and responsible for their own decisions. All-inclusive rates at this camp include all camp hours from 8:00am to 6:00pm, snacks and lunch, and any activities that interest the child. Families can buy any number of days and send their child to camp on any day they choose, drop off and pick up at any time during camp hours, and receive automatic full refunds for unused purchased Day Passes and partial refunds for underused Summer Passes at summer’s end.
Steve & Kate’s Camp began in 1980, when Steve and Kate Susskind created a summer camp in response to seeing kids’ independence slipping away. The Chicago Lakeview camp lists Carly as the Director. The program also offers a Mentorship Program intended exclusively for children ages 14–15 at this camp location for Summer 2026, where mentees help facilitate camp activities, engage with campers, encourage camper connection and participation, and use self-directed learning.
Community partners at this camp include Brainchild Collective, which runs a movement-based ballet session at 10:00am, and Chicago’s own Red Clay Dance Company, which offers a 10:00am session where campers can learn base-level dance skills. As summer approaches, registered families receive an email with a link to a virtual camp orientation that covers local camp drop-off and pick-up procedures, how to check in and out each day, what to bring and not bring, and other camp details. For Slip N Slide activities, campers are asked to bring a labeled swimsuit, towel, and water shoes or sandals.
Testimonials about Steve & Kate’s Camp include comments from Andrew Stanton, Director of WALL-E, Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory, who says that children at the camp blossom and discover a freedom of identity and that kids find their thumbprint there. Apple’s Hot News states that if kids ruled the world, it might look something like Steve & Kate’s Camp. Variety magazine notes that many children of people at Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic attend, and The Washington Post describes the camp as a blend of traditional camp with a modern, tech-savvy touch and a laid-back aura with innovative approaches to programming and payment. The Chicago Tribune states that working parents’ worries dissipate as they contemplate Steve & Kate’s model.
Last updated April 30, 2026.