After shoveling snow the day before, Michael Rugar of Garfield was glad to turn his thoughts Sunday to more pastoral places, where his 13-year-old daughter Alexis could swim, kayak and ride horses.

GEORGE MCNISH/SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

Michael Munoz of Secaucus has his face painted by Janice Harrison at the annual camp fair.

“We’re here to think about summer,” said Rugar, one of the North Jersey parents who visited a summer camp fair at Landmark Catering in East Rutherford, where representatives showed videos, handed out brochures and, hopefully, got parents to sign their kids up.

Organizer Barbara Rubin, owner of Sensational Summers LLC, based in Piscataway, said meaningful statistics on summer camp enrollment are hard to come by, but anecdotally it’s on the rise after a couple of years of declining demand.

“Camp operators are telling me they’ve had more sign-ups in December compared to the past couple of years,” said Rubin, who will bring the camp fair next weekend to hotel conference rooms in Freehold and East Hanover.

“We have seen a rise in enrollment during the past year or two,” said Teaneck native Gretchen Schulthes, a counselor training coordinator at Camp Awosting for boys and Camp Chinqueka for girls — brother-and-sister sleep-over camps in Litchfield, Conn.

“This year we are up 10 percent over last year at this time,” said Nigel Watson, co-director of the Independent Lake Camp, north of Scranton, Pa., where campers can perform in a rock band with other campgoers, learn to make movies or learn stunts on a flying trapeze.

“A lot of camps have shut down, but there is still a lot of competition,” Watson said. “Everybody is watching very closely their food budgets and their staff budgets. They’re holding off on capital improvements.”

Two organizations, Rustic Pathways and Global Leadership Adventures, were offering opportunities for teens to travel to developing countries such as Ghana, Fiji and Peru to participate in community service projects. Those can range from teaching children to speak English to helping to repair roads to feeding the poor.

Prices for those adventures can range from $1,000 to more than $7,000, airfare not included.

“We had our best year ever last year,” said Emily Harney, South Pacific program manager for Rustic Pathways, which offers trips to 20 countries.

Most of the parents interviewed Sunday were seeking more affordable options.

“People are wondering if they are going to keep their jobs,” said Lisa Golub-Gonzalez of Clifton, who was shopping for a camp for her teenage son David.

“Cost is a big concern,” said Rugar.

“We haven’t looked at the prices yet,” said his wife, Amy. “We’re just collecting brochures.”

Carmen and Rosalind Tomio of Montville were also browsing through brochures as their 7-year-old son, Benjamin, looked on.

The parents were checking the costs closely, and they hadn’t decided if they were looking for a day or sleep-away camp. But maybe their son had.

“Since we got here he’s saying ‘I don’t want to sleep away,’ ” Carmen Tomeio said.

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