San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
AFTER STRUGGLING, SUMMER CAMPS SEE INTEREST REBOUND
Some see it as antidote to school year of isolation
The pandemic wreaked havoc on summer camps last year, as they struggled to navigate conflicting guidance on how to keep campers safe. In many cases, it didn’t matter what the camps did: Most parents concluded that the only way to keep their children safe was to keep them at home.
But summer camp has taken on a different meaning this year, as many parents see it as an antidote to a school year when their children have been socially isolated and glued to a computer screen for much of the day.
And some, including Mona Patel, a corporate consultant and author, say they now look at summer camp in a different light, compared with before the pandemic.
“I was looking for something to just entertain my kids prior to 2019 — soccer camp, music camp, regular camp,” said Patel, who lives in Manhattan with her husband and sons, now 10 and 7. “Camp was a place to park my kids before COVID. I hate to say it, but it’s true.”
This summer, she said, her focus is on educational camps. Last year, her older son explored museums virtually through an online camp while her younger one built a virtual city.
“I was focused on their mental health,” Patel said. “I wanted something light and interesting to them where they would learn but not with a lot of rule following.”
Camps generally have an advantage over schools in coming up with ways to keep children healthy.
They have far more space and programs geared toward being outdoors, naturally spreading out campers. Overnight camps can create bubbles with groups of campers and counselors.
“The best way to demonstrate the value of summertime learning like camp was to not have it for a summer,” said Tom Rosenberg, president and CEO of the American Camp Association, an accrediting body and research organization on camps. Camp, he said, is “more kinetic and experiential,” adding that “kids have more time to be with their friends.”
There are more than 15,000 day and overnight camps in the United States, according to the association. Last summer, 40 percent of day camps and 82 percent of overnight camps were closed.
“COVID really happened so suddenly at this time last year that states and the Centers for Disease Control didn’t issue guidance to operate quickly,” Rosenberg said. “A large proportion of camp parents intended to send their kids but didn’t because they weren’t comfortable.”
Nearly all camps made it through the past year with a combination of federal assistance, donations and bank loans.
This year, many have reported that demand is back up to pre-pandemic levels, Rosenberg said, but are limiting spaces to make sure they comply with health protocols.
Jon Deren, co-owner and director of Camp Manitou, a sleep-away camp in Maine for boys, said he was able to operate last summer on a reduced schedule with fewer campers.
He will continue to operate this summer with 90 percent of the campers but 100 percent of the staff to maintain COVID safeguards. Spots for most age groups have been full since the fall, he said.
“PRE-COVID, camp was a lot about fun and getting outside and playing and all the activity,” Deren said. “As we’ve all worked through technology this past year, the importance of camp has been highlighted as being a tech-free place where kids can be happy. Parents want their kids to have fun, given the lack of fun and isolation their kids have had.”
The price for summer camps varies widely. The average for an independent nonprofit day camp is $413 a week, according to the camp association’s data.
It’s $805 at a for-profit camp and roughly $300 for a national nonprofit camp, such as the ones run by the YMCA. An overnight camp averages $1,962 a week for an independent nonprofit group, $1,468 for the for-profit version and $680 for those run by organizations such as the YMCA.
Most camps, though, offer discounts for multiple weeks. Camp Manitou costs $14,350 for the full seven weeks — about $2,000 a week — but $8,650, or about $2,500 a week, for a half-session.
Tiffany Sorya, CEO of Novel Education Group, a tutoring company she founded in 2014, had resisted opening summer camps until last year. But after online school disappointed so many parents, requests for summer educational camps spiked.
She devised camps tailored to the interests of individual children or small groups, all online. She created a space-focused camp for a 6-year-old, a mystery science program for another child and the virtual city camp for Patel’s younger son.
“The camps are divided half and half between fundamental educational skills and passions,” Sorya said.
Patel said she planned to send her younger son to Novel Education’s online camp again this summer. It allows her family to leave the city and continue to work remotely.