Steve Kessner and Steve's Camp at Horizon Farms

Steve grew up in a working-class neighborhood in the Bronx. Every summer, Steve and his family would leave the crowded city for a bungalow colony in the Catskill Mountains. When Steve was a teenager, his father, a taxi driver, picked up a Dartmouth College alum. The two hit it off, and eventually, the alum enabled Steve to attend Dartmouth when he was only 16 years old.

Steve credits his summers in the Catskills and the support of the Dartmouth alum for being instrumental to his personal growth and his career success as a real estate professional—founding The R.E. Group of Companies and K5 Equities, LLC. He founded Steve’s Camp to enable young people from similar economic backgrounds to explore and grow in the Catskills.

“I want the campers to take away an educational background—whether it’s horseback riding or being in a canoe for the first time—something which will always stay with them. We’ve had probably 1500 kids come through this camp, and we’ve changed their lives—they tell me so.”