Kids are running and jumping. So are parents: Camp is back.
In June, Samantha Friedman, mother of boys ages 6 and 11, hosted one of the first camps听staffed by Koa Sports at her house. Her sons and a small group of their friends played baseball, basketball, and street hockey, and battled with water balloons and squirt guns.听
Ms. Friedman says the camp was 鈥渙ne of the greatest ideas ever,鈥� as she could start her interior design work again, and her children were able to socialize and play sports again after not playing for four months.听
鈥淚 think they liked being with their friends again,鈥� says the Gaithersburg, Maryland, parent. 鈥淲e liked that they were sweaty and running around and tired again and not on electronics.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
Summer camp allows young people to form friendships and connect with nature 鈥� and gives parents an often needed break. The coronavirus has complicated the camp experience, but has not done away with it. How is it being adapted?
In the face of public health restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the summer camp experience is changing. Groups are experimenting with alternative formats including backyard camps, 鈥渃amp in a box鈥� (where families are sent supplies), and online camps 鈥� some of which could continue throughout the year. Parents are grateful for the break provided by supervised sports and nature journaling, while organizations 鈥� mostly those involved in non-overnight offerings 鈥� manage engaging activities and the health and legal rules that come with new approaches.
鈥淲e had two options: innovate and pivot, or shut down,鈥� says Tony Korson, founder and CEO of Koa Sports,听based in Bethesda, Maryland. 鈥淭he communities and kids need us. The parents need child care, and the kids need activities with their buddies. We decided that鈥檚 more important, and we鈥檙e going to come up with these hours upon hours of procedures and policies to make this work.鈥澨�
This summer, about 19.5 million of the 26 million children who normally attend a day or overnight summer camp in the United States will not have camp experiences, says Tom Rosenberg, president and CEO of the American Camp Association (ACA). A majority of overnight camps are closed this year, with a few states including Oregon, New York, and Connecticut banning them. Some overnight camps 听recently due to coronavirus outbreaks, and officials are monitoring 听as well.听
Mr. Rosenberg praises the pivot some groups have made to online offerings, which he says 鈥渁re a wonderful way for kids to socially and emotionally connect,鈥� after sheltering in their homes without peer-to-peer connection for weeks. Online camps may continue throughout the year, he says.听
City Kids Wilderness Project canceled its in-person summer camps in Jackson, Wyoming, this year, creating instead a virtual camp for the 130 children it would have hosted from Washington, D.C.
鈥淭his is the first summer in our 24-year history that we can鈥檛 do camp in Wyoming. We didn鈥檛 want kids to miss out or lose their connection with us,鈥� says Monique Dailey, program director for City Kids, which is continuing to offer yoga, environmental films, and journaling prompts to campers.听
But some groups, like Koa, are forging ahead with in-person offerings. Koa opened camps with reduced capacity, and also started its first-ever social distance camps. Parents can pay for Koa to send two counselors to a host family鈥檚 house to run camp for a small group of five to eight children.听In the first week of operation in June, the program ran at 10 houses, then jumped to 25听houses the next week, with enrollment continuing to be strong in July. The social distance camp is insured, and staff wear masks and sanitize equipment.听
Ms. Friedman, the Maryland mother who hosted one of the Koa programs, says she has a large yard that鈥檚 conducive to a backyard camp. For families without that resource, organizations have tried other tactics.
Community Kids, a 海角大神 nonprofit in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ran three weeks of a backyard summer camp locally in June. It brought in activities, a meal, an hour of Bible study, fire pits, and tents for backyard campouts. Midway through the program, the governor lifted closures on parks, and Community Kids moved many activities to local parks after finding the small, urban backyards of their participants were getting too crowded.听
For Neal Waldman, who runs a tour agency for students and who previously owned a summer camp in Maine, pivoting to an at-home camp made sense as demand fell for student tours. In June he launched SummerCamp2u, serving families in New England, and he鈥檚 partnering with Next Level听 2 U camp in New York state and Steam Discovery Academy in Charlottesville, Virginia, to offer at-home backyard camps.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to emulate all that magic from camp. There鈥檚 lots of values and morals from camp that we鈥檙e trying to capture,鈥� says Mr. Waldman.听
Mr.听Waldman and听Mr.听Korson say health and safety are the top priority for their at-home summer camps, noting that staff members are tested for COVID-19, are given temperature checks, and wear masks. All participants stay outside the host family鈥檚 house, except for a designated bathroom. Mask-wearing is left to parental discretion.
Abbe Klein of Needham, Massachusetts, hosted a backyard camp through SummerCamp2u for her 8-year-old twin daughters and two of their friends. Health and safety 鈥渨as a big concern when we were deciding whether to do this,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t felt like they handled things in a way that made us feel comfortable.鈥澨�
Other backyard camps reportedly include teenagers setting up informal camps to watch neighborhood children. Mr. Rosenberg of the ACA warns parents to consider the risks of backyard camps, since without proper protocols, they could effectively be running unlicensed day care centers.
鈥淚f Mom and Dad have to work and they鈥檙e going to hire someone to look after kids, I think of that as babysitting. That鈥檚 not camp,鈥� he says. 鈥淐amp is an immersive, multiday experience that is an organized camp that is professionally run鈥� and follows extensive protocols, such as the 260 standards that ACA-accredited camps meet.听
Angelica Holmes was gearing up for her second summer of directing Camp Founder Girls, a historically Black summer camp for girls, when the coronavirus forced a change in plans.听Camp Founder Girls is owned by Black Outside Inc, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, which aims to expand exposure and relevancy of the outdoors to children of color.听
At first Ms. Holmes thought they would need to cancel camp. But with protests erupting for social justice, and young people isolated for so long, running a program became a priority. So Camp Founder Girls ran for one week in June, and campers alternated between three days of in-person camp in small groups of 10, and two days of virtual camp. While together, the girls participated in socially distanced yoga and hikes, and on virtual days painted self-portraits and had game nights.听
鈥淥ur sense of community is so strong and so needed, not just for our girls, but for our counselors, even for me. It was so important to try and figure something out even if it required a lot,鈥� says Ms. Holmes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really life-giving to be able to be around our girls. ... It makes it so worth it because the girls are just so excited.鈥�
Editor鈥檚 note: This story has been updated to include references to recent coronavirus outbreaks and closures at some camps. As a public service,听all our coronavirus coverage听is free.听No paywall.
