Open Or Close?
If only the decision were as black and white
2020 was a summer of difficult decisions. For some, it was a last-minute decision, hoping that something would change, the regulations would ease, or the pandemic would calm to a dull roar. In light of COVID-19, some camps decided to close for the season while others decided to welcome campers in a modified version of camp. Meanwhile, others found alternative programs or ways to utilize their camps in unconventional ways. No matter what your camp decided (or was forced) to do, we salute the industry in making sacrifices, putting in longer hours, making the very best decisions on behalf of campers, their families and staff members. Here is a glimpse of those who shared their stories with us. Thank you to everyone who participated.
Photo: Stuart Friedman
Refusing To Silence The Music
This summer, I designed a virtual camp for The Music Settlement online. It is a piano skills camp that addresses music reading skills, practice skills, technique, music history and listening skills, and theory, with time for practice, online piano lessons and time for discussion and questions. This was the 19th year for our piano camps and we could not allow the pandemic to get in the way of campers’ fun and learning!
Arthur Kane
Camp Director and Head of the Piano Department
The Music Settlement
Cleveland, Ohio
For The Sake Of Special Needs
[The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control] had been carefully monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic and heeding state and federal guidance on ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in communities. After thorough discussion of the potential risks to our camp family and staff members, camp agency leadership made the difficult decision to cancel all Camp Burnt Gin sessions for the summer of 2020. The number-one priority at Camp Burnt Gin is the safety and well-being of campers and staff members.
Each year, over 400 children and young adults with special health care needs are served through seven sessions of camp. The majority of the children who attend are unable to participate in another camping program because of their physical limitations, special needs or inability to pay for camp. Several courses of action for 2020 Camp Burnt Gin Summer were considered, including:
Postpone camp until the summer 2021
Postpone start date and reduce the number of camp sessions
Offer virtual camp activities on Camp Burnt Gin’s webpage
Editor’s Note: The camp offered virtual educational options for fun from home throughout the summer months, including videos and downloadable activity sheets.
Too Many Variables
At Camp Woodhaven in West Boylston, Mass., the decision to close came down to several factors:
The requirement that staff members have to wear masks. It’s 80 degrees, and we sing a lot of songs. Non-verbal facial expressions are a big part of communication. A camp counselor with 10 children ages 7 to 10 years old struggles throughout the day to hold their attention and give direction. To force them to wear a mask—in the heat—would be unbearable.
Children do not social distance. We run a camp with almost 400 children and 100 staff members. We have 120 7- and 8-year-olds, 120 9- and 10-year-olds, 60 5- and 6-year-olds, 70 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds, and 30 14- and 15-year-olds. These children are playing hand games and touching each other and all of the camp games continuously. There is no possible way to control social distancing.
The Mass. state regulations only allowed one child per seat on a bus, with an empty seat in between each child. The children needed to wear masks on the bus and the windows had to remain open. Sounds like a traumatic, psychologically damaging experience for a young child. We run 83-passenger school buses filled with children. Half of our campers come to camp by bus.
I respect the fact that we are in a pandemic. We closed for the health and safety of our campers, staff, and their families.
George DeTellis
Executive Director
Camp Woodhaven
Photo: Lucas Wozniak
A Pivot In Programming
VISIONS has been running international teen service trips with an emphasis on cross-cultural experiences since 1988. We've been working with the same communities for 20 to 30 years, so it was difficult to make the decision to not return this past summer for the first time ever.
We decided to create a new program tailored to the circumstances of the summer, based in the Gallatin Valley of Montana. This program is a pivot from connecting with different cultures to connecting with the land. Teenagers will lived and volunteered on an organic farm, ventured around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and learned about sustainable food production and ecological conservation.
Henry Worobec
Communications Director
VISIONS Service Adventures
Family Camping Highs And Lows
We pivoted to a family camping model for the summer. We essentially turned our camp into a campground. We rented out 14 cabins and installed 11 tent/RV (dry camping) sites. We limited each site to a maximum of eight people. We ran programing that was easy to maintain social distancing—one family at a time at our archery range and we allowed everyone at our waterfront, as we had more than enough space to keep family groups at a social distance. Everyone that attended was good about wearing masks and respecting the social-distancing rules that were in place.
We allowed families to bring and cook their own food or they could purchase meals from the dining hall. We ran the lodge like a restaurant, allowing seating inside at 25-percent capacity (per our state health department guidelines) or families could eat outside at one of several tables we had set up or they could get their food as “take out” and eat it back at their campsite/cabin.
We had a total of 11 staff members that lived onsite. Staff temperatures were recorded at the start of every shift and each staff member had to answer screening questions for COVID-19 symptoms. All staff members wore masks when indoors or less than 6 feet from other people. We took Thursday nights off so that we all could have at least one night off.
Bathrooms and port-o-lets were deep cleaned every day. High-touch points were cleaned at least every two hours during the waking parts of the day. Cabins were deep cleaned and disinfected after every use.
Things that went well:
This was my first summer in 19 years that no one got sick. Not one staff member. Usually, we have the camp “crud” come through and make its rounds with all/most of the staff. There was a BIG emphasis on hygiene and wearing masks as well as disinfecting surfaces everywhere in camp.
This summer we served approximately 1,200 people from all over Washington State as well some folks from as far away as Oregon, California, and Wisconsin. As of [August 14], zero COVID-19 cases here at camp. This was no accident. Staff members worked hard to keep camp safe for everyone.
Every single person that attended remarked on how thankful they were to have the opportunity to camp. It was very different from serving 100 kids a week and at times it felt like we were just the folks who fed the masses and cleaned the bathrooms. We had people tell us that the few days they got to spend here (not cooped in their homes) was the highlight of their year. They told us things like they “felt safe to venture out” to “have some vacation time away from Zoom meetings.” One family from Vashon Island visited twice for three nights each. They told us that they had not been off their property since March when schools closed. The mom said that she had the first restful night sleep in months as she was able to unplug from Facebook and just relax. Another mom from another family told us her kids slept in past 9 a.m. each morning and she and her husband had quiet time to just sit by the lake each morning while their kids slept. Her 5-year-old told her that he loved being “lulled to sleep by the waves hitting the beach each night.” One special interaction I had was with a mom that had worked at YMCA Camp Seymour when she was in college. She shared her camp memories which often brought her to (happy) tears. She talked about getting her brown rag and how she had lost it in a move years ago. I went to our program closet and gave her a new brown rag. We broke social-distancing protocol that day and she gave me a hug.
Running the lodge/kitchen like a restaurant went well. We honed in the menu and had it down pretty good. People that ate our meals were appreciative not to have to cook or clean up.
Photo: Courtesy of Wenatchee Valley YMCA
Learning opportunities/challenges:
The work weeks were pretty long. Staff members got pretty tired and we ended up bringing in more staff by mid-August. I remember going into summer thinking this would be easier with no “campers” but we were essentially running seven days a week. Typical work days were 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. If we do this again next summer we would run camp so that staff members had at least one full day off. Weekends in July and August were filled to capacity whereas weekdays were much less (50 percent full to maybe only a few families in camp). An initial analysis suggested that mid-week (Tuesday/Wednesday) might be good days to close camp.
Adult issues—we found serving primarily adults came with some challenges. We did allow alcohol to be consumed at campsites, but also had to deal with marijuana usage as well as finding drug paraphernalia in a few cabins as we were cleaning them. We marketed to the general public and for the most part people played by our rules. We all noted that the kids follow directions much more willingly than adults sometimes.
It was a huge challenge not knowing when we would be allowed to open. When our state opened up camping in June, we went for it. One phrase I said a lot this summer was “we’re building the plane as we are going down the runway.” I had hoped to make the camp kind of like a cruise ship with activities for the guests to choose from. Outside of archery and the waterfront, guests pretty much kept to themselves and had no interest in attending chapel services, Zoom campfires, or socially distance outdoor movie nights. The exception was that current camper families and camp alumni did participate in the more traditional camp offerings. If I had to do this again, we would market more to camper families and alumni.
We are planning to continue cabin rentals with limited food offerings into the fall and winter. We are optimistic that camp will break even. Planning for 2021 will be dependent on what our state allows us to do. If not normal camp we’ll pivot again to a model similar to what we’ve been doing this year.
Tim McElravy
Camping Services Director
Wenatchee Valley YMCA
Lake Wenatchee YMCA Camp
Leavenworth, Wash.
Worth The Anxiety
The hardest decision I ever made was to run camp this year.
In 2020, Camp Centerland was approaching its 65th summer and we had big plans. Enrollment at the beginning of April was at 64 percent. To put that into perspective, we had never been more than 49 percent in the past 8 years of tracking data. Then we all know what happened. The COVID-19 pandemic hit New York like a tornado. Being in Buffalo, N.Y., we were not hit as hard but still, the county was going through some challenges.
The JCC of Greater Buffalo closed its doors for what we thought would be 30 to 60 days. All staff members were sent home and I settled into the regular planning schedule that I have followed for the 30 years I have been working on camping. As time progressed, I began working on “modifications” to the camp program waiting for the governor to give us the green light. Our first scheduled day of camp was June 29. I even sent in my application adding two pre-weeks of camp as schools were closing and I assumed children would need a place to go once this was over. Little did I know?
As time at home and daily briefings started to sink in, so did the stress. In May, I began seeing dear friends closing their camps for the summer. I dove in, making six different shoulda-coulda-woulda plans—a version if X happened, a version if Y happened, a version if nothing happened. As the deadline approached for notification of whether camps would run, it was announced that resident camps could not. The anxiety built and I immediately came up with two more plans. On June 2, it was announced that camps could start in the state on June 24.
We made the following action plans:
All staff members were required to wear masks at all times
Campers were not required to wear masks (except when riding the bus)
Daily temperature checks and about 40 signs were hung with guidelines and reminders.
There would be no swimming
Groups were moved from two staff members and 20 campers to one staff members and 10 campers (adjusted down for younger children)
Groups stayed in a “bubble” and did not mix (6 feet at all times) with any group
Daily enrollment was decreased from 180 to 90 campers
Unit leaders were decreased five to three.
In preparation, we created video after video for families. First, in April there were bi-weekly update videos, even if we did not have an update. Then there was a run-through on a golf cart on how carpool was going to work. We kept the communication going through emails, videos, and phone calls. All parents who wanted to talk with the camp director were accommodated. Zoom became the way we connected, even hosting virtual town open houses with question-and-answer periods.
Staff training was different as well. We engaged with Expert Online Training for the staff members this summer. We assigned 15 to 20, depending on position hours of online work. We had weekly Zoom calls and two full-day face-to-face training sessions. This was different, as in the past we would begin meeting in June every weekend and some nights to get the full 40+ hours of training—all face-to-face.
Once camp started, it seemed like a regular summer. Children were engaged in activities and having fun. We added some new things to the program in preparation for some social challenges that we expected to see and they were very helpful. We added two inclusion counselors and an inclusion coordinator who worked out of our Sukkot Shalom, a Space of Peace, where they engaged with campers and worked on soft skills, including how to express feelings when one is sad or mad. This was very helpful as we noticed some children had a hard time talking about what was going on in terms of their anxiety.
We had a couple of COVID-19 scares—children with fevers that parents kept them home—but none tested positive. Our quarantine procedures worked as we received these notices. Parents were also supportive, working with us to accommodate the quarantine procedures, and we had no pushback. We even started a “wear your mask” campaign to prepare campers to return to school.
Camp Centerland celebrated its last day of camp on Sept. 4 and we look forward to what the future holds. We are planning to run the same model in 2021 with more campers. We feel that this is the model for at least the next one to two years. We look forward to times when we can see the smiles on the faces of staff members and campers. But even with a mask, we know they are there; this was the best summer of my life and I look to capture this lightning in a bottle one more time.
Michael Garcia
Director of Camp Centerland
JCC of Greater Buffalo
Owner of Youth Development Professionals Consulting
Pitching In Wherever Possible
From early March, it became obvious that almost all of our in-person retreats, events, field trips, and camps were going to be cancelled. The idea of our lodges sitting around empty during that time was unpleasant, but one of our alumni who served as a paramedic locally called me one night to describe concerns some of his colleagues had about returning home at night to immune-compromised family members after potential COVID-19 exposure. He asked if they could stay at our camp instead. I quickly polled our staff members living on-site and reached out to our board, and everyone was unanimous in doing anything we could to provide lodging for first responders and medical personnel who needed to self-isolate. I reached out to our local hospital (UPMC Susquehanna) and a few other providers in our area, and our location was added to their surge-planning with emergency management almost immediately. We worked with the head of epidemiology for our local hospital to come up with some common-sense guidelines and sanitation practices, and within a day or so from idea, we launched it. Our plan was to provide full food service as well, but many of our alumni heard about what we were doing, and in a matter of days we had filled freezers with easy-to-reheat homemade meals so that the doctors, nurses, police, first responders, or whoever used our services could just grab the food they liked on their own schedule. It was a great opportunity to create peace-of-mind for a lot of local medical and first responder personnel.
Our camp is in rural Pennsylvania in an area very underserved by internet service providers for broadband. Most people in our region have spotty DSL or rely on cellular modems for internet. Our camp is blessed with a commercial fiber internet connection through an organization called KINBR that, just by God’s good providence, happens to have a major fiber run that goes literally to our driveway. We were able to get connected to this a few years ago, so our internet access is the envy of many organizations, even in larger cities. The service we use is reserved for universities and hospitals, but they've expanded to some nonprofits (including us). Since there is such a disparity in quality internet, and with schools switching to fully-remote learning this spring, we realized that many local families would not be able to take advantage of our district's learning opportunities. So, working with a local internet company called River Valley Internet, we installed wireless antennas around our parking lot, and KINBR agreed to increase our service level to gigabit speeds, and we opened up our drive-in WiFi service to the community. It was well utilized, with cars regularly pulling in, sitting for an hour or so, and then leaving. We placed signage around the area, and limited the hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but it was a great service to our community that we are continuing to offer this fall.
Peter Swift
Executive Director
Camp Susque
Trout Run, Penn.
Photo: Stone Mountain Adventures
One Whacky Summer
The idea of running our overnight summer camp during a global pandemic seemed daunting. In the months leading up to camp, there were so many unanswered questions with so much more unknown than known. Here in Pennsylvania, we received some helpful guidance from Governor Tom Wolf, who put us on a red, yellow, and green opening phase system. Overnight summer camps were able to run following the CDC guidelines in the green phase. That was great news, however, the wording was unfortunate as green certainly does not mean “go” (i.e., restaurants are still at 50-percent capacity).
We worked with a wonderful epidemiologist from Pennsylvania State University named Cara Exten along with a team of healthcare professionals to come up the Stone Mountain Adventures COVID-19 Protocols. Our goal was to create a COVID-19-free bubble. Once everyone arrived at camp and was in the bubble, we were able to live with each other in a relatively “normal” way without masks or social distancing. We were able to run all activities that did not involve other people entering our bubble. The only people who entered our bubble on a daily basis included kitchen staff members and barn help staff members. All of them agreed to social distance from campers, wear masks when in the area of campers, and use sound COVID-19 judgement in their personal lives away from work. The protocols included three main phases: prevention, detection, and response.
The prevention protocol means that we are doing everything in our power to prevent COVID-19 from arriving at camp. We took the following steps:
A two-week personal quarantine for each camper prior to opening day. If it was absolutely necessary for the camper to leave the house, he or she was expected to take proper precautions including: wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, avoiding touching their faces, and washing their hands thoroughly upon return.
Completion of a digital survey a few days before camp asking about the camper’s exposure during those two weeks.
All camper staff members had to get swab tested for COVID-19 within those two weeks prior to camp and provide documentation of a negative test.
A written log of temperatures taken every day during the two week quarantine, all the way through to the morning of opening day. If the camper showed a high temperature at any point within those two weeks, they were required to get swab tested.
The counseling staff members also were required to quarantine for two weeks prior to camp.
Opening and closing days operated very differently.
There were some major changes to the way we were able to run camp that were part pf the prevention phase including:
We ran off-site activities where the group was able to maintain group isolation (meaning there was no interaction with people outside of camp). Off-site activities included:
Canoeing and kayaking
Mountain biking
Wakeboarding and waterskiing
SUP and sailing
Camping overnights
Rock climbing.
Activities that we were unable to run included attending the Amish Market as well as roller skating, bowling and trips to the local ice-cream parlor.
There were six areas around the camp that required extra cleaning on a daily and sometimes hourly basis: cabins, bathrooms, the dining hall, the barn meeting area, meeting area benches, and all door handles.
The following was part of our detection protocol:
Temperatures were taken and logged on the way to breakfast every day
A “Jelly Bean Test” was given on the way to lunch every day (since loss of taste is a major symptom, each camper was given a jelly bean to confirm and document he or she could taste it).
Campers were expected to speak up if they were not feeling well.
If symptoms were detected, response protocols included:
Isolation
Being evaluated by medical experts
Testing as needed
If negative and symptoms go away, then return to camp
If positive, parents must pick the camper up immediately.
So that’s the story of how we were safely able to run camp during the whacky COVID-19 summer of 2020!
Jud Millar
Owner and Director
Stone Mountain Adventures
Huntingdon, Penn.
Do you have a story you would like to share or ideas on how to accommodate social distancing in programming? Share them with us at editor@northstarpubs.com.