Summer camps planning, praying, to reopen
Odds are looking better that overnight camps will resume operations
Touch wood, all you kids tired of being under mom’s thumb or dad’s direction.
After last year’s cancellation of summer camps amid the first wave of COVID-19, the Ontario Camps Association began working with health experts on a new slate of protocols to keep children and counsellors safe. That package has now been submitted to the province for review.
The plan’s proposals include cohorts of kids and counsellors from the same cabins sticking together and avoiding contacts with others, more outdoor dining, and counsellors not being able to leave the camps on their days off. Plus the usual testing, mask wearing, hand washing, physical distancing and frequent cleaning.
“There’s a lot of moving parts to this,” said Jack Goodman, owner of Camp New Moon on Lake of Bays, near Huntsville, who is chairing the camp association’s COVID-19 task force and preparing a “field guide” of practical tips for hundreds of camp operators.
He is well aware a third wave could sink the whole thing, crushing the hopes of housebound, shack-wacky kids and parents after what will be more than a year of online learning and working from home.
“If the pandemic explodes in June, we know what our fate will be,” said Goodman, a professor of cardiac health and exercise at the University of Toronto. “No one wants to operate their summer camps if the situation isn’t appropriate.”
Public health officials are keeping open minds for all the swimming, canoeing, sailing and marshmallow roasting at camps, even though it’s too soon to give the green light while the more contagious variants of COVID-19 remain a wild card.
“Having been a camp doctor for a number of years, I know the value of that and how much it’s a great memory thing for many youth,” said Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer.
The best path to summer camp openings is staying home as much as possible to reduce infection levels and following the standard pandemic protocols while more and more adults get their COVID-19 vaccinations.
“I’m hoping through all our stringent measures — keeping things down, vaccinations being done, and moving forward, new vaccines, more coming in and getting approval for even wider age groups, even in youth and children — this has all great promise,” Williams adds.
“I’m keeping my hopes up, but we have to cover some territory first before we get there. If everybody stays at the task, keeps these numbers down while the vaccines get caught up, we enter the greater possibility of a better summer.”
A vaccination plan released by Premier Doug Ford’s government this week does not provide for vaccinations to the general population below the age of 60 until July or August, although that outlook could change as new vaccines are approved and doses arrive in greater numbers. No vaccines have yet been approved for children under 16.
Goodman says campers and counsellors would likely be asked to isolate as much as possible for a week or two before their arrival, undergo pre-testing and screening, and forget about heading into town for ice cream to limit the chance of potential exposures.
“We’re anticipating that staff will have to take their days off on-site,” he added. “We’re investing heavily in our staff lounge.”
In its submission to the province, the association looked to the experiences and best practices of overnight camps in New Brunswick and parts of the United States last year. As in schools, cohorting could help in the isolation and tracing of cases, for example.
The medical officer for Simcoe-Muskoka, home to the largest concentration of overnight summer camps in the province, acknowledges the “tremendous benefits” for kids but agrees with Williams that it’s too soon provide a clear answer.
“We’ve found that transmission (of COVID-19) is lower in children, but we now have the variants of concern,” noted Dr. Charles Gardner.
Despite the uncertainty, Goodman says the association remains optimistic.
“All of us are planning for camp. We’re hiring and we’re ordering. We’re operating on that basis. The sooner camps have more official notice, the better.”