Children learning remotely all spring are looking forward to guitar-led singalongs, tug-of-rope tournaments, swimming lessons and all the screen-free idylls that epitomize summer camp.
But the storm clouds of coronavirus may put an end to these beloved summer rites.
No matter what, day or residential camps aren’t going to look the same, says Ken Robbins, who runs Camp Kabeyun in Alton Bay and presides over the N.H. Camp Directors Association.
He says camp directors are awaiting guidelines by May 15 from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to if they will open up and how to do it safely.
Robbins said camps are prepared to step up their screening procedures as well as cleaning and disinfecting protocols.
Still, many families are wondering if summer camps will be yet another casualty of COVID-19.
Bette Bussel, executive director of the American Camp Association, New England, says the majority of camps are in a wait-and-see mode.
The American Camp Association (ACA) and the YMCAs of the United States (Y-USA) are collaborating with a Boston-based consulting firm, Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. (EH&E), to provide a field guide for day and overnight camps, state and local health departments, campers and their families. EH&E is using input from specialists in pediatric medicine, camp medicine and nursing, epidemiology and infectious disease management to produce this resource.
“The country is going to have to be nimble and innovative in how we offer camp in a safe and healthy way,” says Joseph Manzoli, chief operating officer at the YMCA of Greater Nashua. As people go back to work in their offices, they’ll seek care for their kids. “And so camps are critical.”
Manzoli speculates that demand for camps will exceed the capacity. Camp Sargent, which sits on 22 acres in Merrimack, usually houses 400 kids, but Manzoli says this year it will have to limit that number to maintain social distance.
Sybil Green of Keene paid the full tuition to secure slots with the city’s recreational program for her seven- and nine-year-old. “They’re really looking forward to it,” she says. “But it’s also probably the least safe camp for them to go to because it’s pretty much teenage counselors and a lot of kids.”
A registered nurse and her children’s sole caregiver, Green audits medical records remotely for a home health agency. “If I’m still allowed to work from home [this summer], they’re going to be home with me.”
Camp Quinebarge in Moultonborough serves around 200 kids, 30 percent from New Hampshire with the rest from New England and a smattering from other states, including a few from abroad, although this year camp director Nick Hercules doesn’t expect the international campers.
Evening bonfires and lunchtime meals with the entire camp community won’t happen, says Hercules. Field trips such as hiking in the White Mountains are likely off limits as well. The camp’s leadership is currently reviewing policies such as whether to allow counselors to leave the grounds during their days off.
Ultimately, the go-ahead for kids to stuff their backpacks with towels, flashlights and labeled underwear rests with the state of New Hampshire. If the nonprofit Quinebarge is shut down this summer, families will get their money back. But they’ll also be asked to donate to a camp fund to offset the expense of losing tuition for the season.
Robbins of the NH Camp Association says that if camps suspend operations for 2020, they could collectively lose millions of dollars. Organizations will look to their communities, their alumni and existing camp families for financial support.
“I worry there are camps that can’t survive a summer of not operating,” says Robbins.
Hercules says kids need camp more than ever. “They’ve been cooped up in their homes, scared. They need a couple of weeks of relaxation and fun.”
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