Builder funds summer program

DINGMANS FERRY - Elijah Collins, 9, of Milford hated his school writing assignments because they were so abstract. He struggled to write two paragraphs. In particular, he remembers an assignment to write a persuasive essay on why a cell phone would be good to have. “But I didn’t have a cell phone, so I had to guess,” he said. Now Elijah is writing up a storm - and doing very well at it - thanks to the Pocono Environmental Education Center’s (PEEC) Ultimate Summer Camp, a three-week summer literacy program for third through sixth graders in the Delaware Valley School District. Instead, he is writing about his daily hands-on nature experiences. Elijah is one of 66 students at the camp, which is now in its third year. The camp session is being funded by LTS Builders’ founder Lawrence T. Simon and his wife, Monica, who recently announced a $50,000 donation to PEEC. The donation allowed this summer’s session, which was threatened due to lack of funding, to take place. Simon matched a $25,000 donation from LTS Builders and Penn Regional Development Company, an LTS affiliate, with a personal check for $25,000 from the Simon family. He was honored on July 10 by camp staff and campers in a ceremony in which he was thanked for his extraordinary generosity.