No refunds for STEM camp families as non-profit group faces possibility of demise
A St. Catharines woman is irritated that she won’t be getting a refund for the $2,600 she and her husband spent to put their two children into a camp for six weeks this summer.
STEM, a non-profit organization that offers dozens of camps across the country, started registration in January. Holly Sneath thought the summer program at Grantham United Church down the road from her home would be a perfect fit as parents who both have fulltime jobs.
When she signed up her kids, aged six and 10, the COVID-19 pandemic had not started — but she did see a full-refund policy that made her feel comfortable. But a lot has changed since then.
Now, STEM is telling people they have two options — donate what they already spent or enrol their children in a virtual camp.
“That does not fulfil my needs. It’s not what I signed up for,” Sneath said, adding she has no interest in forfeiting her money in the form of a donation.
“A lot of us use it for daycare while we go to work,” she said.
She said the original registration forms said a refund would be given if a cancellation was made 30 days ahead of the camp start date. Her children were supposed to attend their first week in early July.
“I’m still within my rights to cancel for any reason,” she said.
Kevin Cougler, chief executive officer and founder of STEM, said his organization is on the brink of demise and the roughly $500,000 from registrations that was brought in January to mid-March was spent a long time ago.
Operational costs including salaries of eight full-time staff, insurance, advertising, costs to run online registration, deposits for sites that have not been returned, and materials for programs consumed that money right away, he said.
“It’s not like we sit on those dollars until July,” he said Tuesday.
He said more than 4,000 students are still going ahead with the virtual camps across Canada.
He said his organization not providing refunds is no different than similar situations with airlines and theatre groups not giving people their money back.
“We’ve been absolutely decimated by this issue,” said Cougler, admitting he has about $40,000 left in the coffers and that more than 200 summer students will hopefully continue to be employed in 2020 though government assistance that STEM receives as a nonprofit.
He said the route chosen was to keep students employed for the summer, rather than to fold and cease operations immediately.
“We’ve got maybe two weeks, maybe four weeks and we’re going to be going bankrupt if something doesn’t happen,” he said, adding he was on pace in the winter to having the “best year” in STEM’s history since it was founded in 2013. He had predicted 10,000 names would have been on lists across the country if there was no pandemic.
He said 90 per cent of families who registered months ago are supportive of the two options given to them.
But he sympathizes with the concerned families.
“We’d love to cut them all cheques and say see you next year, but it’s not there,” he said.
Cougler said he looked into whether assistance being offered to entrepreneurs through Business Development Bank of Canada could provide relief to STEM’s situation — but he’s out of luck it seems.
“They won’t even look at us.” In Niagara, STEM has held camps in St. Catharines, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Falls and Welland.
Cost to register a child for one week depends on what region of the country they are in, but the average is $250, Cougler said.