Board of Directors
The Shire Village Camp Board of Directors comprises parents, staff, and other members of the Shire Village Community.
Heather Burchyns
Heather Burchyns is a parent of a Shire Village camper and an educator. She started as a preschool teacher in Washington D.C. After many years she headed to NYC to attend Bank Street College and taught elementary special education. She held positions as a Lower School Coordinator and Admissions Director in a school for children with learning disabilities. She is currently a director at an early childhood program in lower Manhattan.
Trevor Fraser
Trevor Frazer was a camper at Shire Village for five years from 1987 to 1991. He started as an Evergreen and ended as a CW. He worked as a staff member for 16 years in various positions including Maintenance assistant in 1993, and Group Counselor, CW Supervisor and Assistant Director from 1999 to 2015. This is his second time serving on the Shire Village board. He is currently an assistant teacher at the Mary McDowell Friends School.
David Levinson Wilk
Currently the parent of a Shire Village camper, David writes for television and lives in Brooklyn, New York. As a Shire Village camper in the 1980s, David wore tube socks, ate Hydrox cookies and, one summer, folded dozens of the many thousands of origami peace cranes that were sent in a box to the White House during the Reagan Administration … so, typical '80s stuff.
Bryan Makower
Bryan has been involved with Shire Village Camp on many levels over the years. As the son of the first Camp Director, Carl, he was privileged to be a camper during the first Summer of Shire Village. From there he continued to camper-worker, counselor, specialist, and maintenance worker. Bryan's three children have spent their summers as campers, and his middle daughter, Gabriel worked the summer of 2022 as a counselor. Bryan enjoys the outdoors, and credits Shire Village with giving him the opportunity to learn camping and other outdoor skills he would likely not have had the opportunity to experience. Bryan and his family run Berkshire Village Creative Center, the owner and curator of the property in Cummington, Massachusetts that Shire Village calls home. Bryan and his wife Marian live in Park Slope Brooklyn along with their three daughters Ariel, Gabriel and Mikhael. Bryan is a Private practice physician with 'Downstate Foot and Ankle' in Brooklyn.
Claire Mcdonnell
Claire first became involved with Shire Village Camp as a staff and board member for three summers in the early 1980s. Following this she returned two decades later as a parent of two campers, as well as a staff and board member again. In addition, she served on the boards of block association and community organizations in her town of Somers, NY. She is a special education teacher for the Bedford Central School District, a union representative to the Bedford Teachers Association, and an active participant in the Bedford Autism Support Group. Her favorite activities are hiking, camping, and kayaking during the summers in Western Mass. Claire is most proud of her children, who after being campers and then staff members at Shire Village, have gone off to create independent lives in which they are following their own passions.
Maya Miller
Shire Village has been the constant in Maya’s life since 1986. After six summers as a camper, followed by the obligatory two summers elsewhere, she returned in 1994 as assistant riding instructor, then ran the riding program for several summers, took it easy as camp driver for even more summers, and eventually slid into the office to sit at the back desk behind the scenes. Her own children didn’t know (and maybe still don’t!) that summers exist anywhere but Mellor Road. Maya spends the rest of the year as an administrative assistant at a small public school in rural Vermont.
Louis Minsky
Louis first came to Shire Village as a camper in 1999. He returned on staff in 2010 and has worked as a Kitchen Prep, Bunk Counselor, Group Counselor, CW Supervisor, Assistant Director, and now Associate Director. He is currently a teacher at the Packer Collegiate Institute.
Beth Schneider
Beth Schneider began her Shire Village life as a camper with her two brothers. She returned as a staff member and camp director for many years and now acts at the camp registrar and president of the board. She began her teaching career at the Woodward Park School in Brooklyn. She is currently the Associate Head of School at the Mary McDowell Friends School.
Jim Signorelli
Jim has been involved with camp since 2006. He watched his two kids grow up at Shire Village and cherishes every moment he spends on the property. He is currently the head chef, and with his team, prepares fresh, delicious and nutritious meals to campers and staff each summer. When not at Shire Village, he is the middle school dean of students at the Mary McDowell Friends School.
Patti Smith
Patti Smith began her Shire Village journey in 2006 as arts & crafts specialist, and has also served as specialist supervisor and assistant director. Both of her children attended camp from the ages of 4 and 6 through their CW years. In 2016 she took on the role of director. During the school year Patti teaches visual art at Poly Prep Lower School in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Maggie Uschakow
Maggie Uschakow started at Shire Village in August of 2001. At the end of the session, on departure day the first thing she said to her mom was, “Next year i’m coming for 7 weeks.” Since that day she was a camper for four summers, kitchen staff for one summer, CW Supervisor for five summers and Assistant Director for four summers. While not at Shire Village, Maggie teaches pre-school in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
