With camps shut, families face summer in the great indoors

Welcome to summer in the great indoors.

Parents around the country are learning their children’s summer camps will be canceled, delayed or moved online as the fallout from the coronavirus seeps into another facet of American life. From New Hampshire to California, camps and parents are scrambling as Zoom campfires and “virtual cabins” in the living room become more likely.

It’s a blow for children — and their parents — who have spent weeks cooped up during school closures and had considered camp a reward for adhering to weeks of social isolation and homeschooling. It also will squeeze nonprofits that rely on the infusion of cash from camp payments and put young counselors out of work.

“When we finally found out that schools were going to be closed for the rest of the year, I was like, ‘Well, there’s always summer camp.’ I was really holding out for that,” said Rasha Habiby of Los Angeles.

Her 10-year-old daughter’s first-ever sleep-away camp has been canceled, and they’re both devastated.

Habiby and her husband have demanding work schedules but kept their kids away from her parents to avoid possibly spreading the virus. Now, she said she may be forced to ask them to baby-sit.

“I panic. I cry. I do all those things. But what other options are there?” Habiby said. “I know we’re not the only ones in this situation. I’m keenly aware of that — but somehow it doesn’t make it any easier.”

An estimated 20 million U.S. children attend summer camp each year, fueling an $18 billion industry that employs over a million seasonal workers, according to the American Camp Association.

The association, which represents more than 3,100 camps, has hired independent health experts to draft recommendations for camps, and many still hope to open, said Tom Rosenberg, group president and CEO. Camps also are awaiting guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and input from state and local health departments, he said.

“Most camps are not asking if they’re going to open but how they’re going to open. It’s essential,” Rosenberg said. “Right now, 20 million kids that would normally be going to camp are cast adrift in a sea of screens.”