Summer day camps moving outdoors under cloud of pandemic restrictions
Day camps in the city may look different this summer due to COVID-19 restrictions.
But after being cooped up for the better part of three months, many parents are eager to sign up their children for a somewhat normal return to activities.
While day camps were included in the Government of Alberta’s Stage 1 of the relaunch in early June, the City of Calgary took its time to create new-look camps that adhere to the public health and safety guidelines.
“Calgary Recreation is super-excited to be offering programs again,” said Darcy Whitaker, the acting superintendent for the South Region of City of Calgary. “Just to get kids outdoors and engaged in some creative activities, some physical activity and bringing back a sense of normalcy for everybody. I know the staff are really excited.”
This summer, the City of Calgary is taking its camps outside, focusing on outdoor adventure camps at five locations throughout the city. They’re also offering an art adventure camp, which will be held at North Mount Pleasant Art Centre. Health screening will take place before participants arrive, and advanced sanitization protocols will also be in place.
The weeklong programs for children aged six to 12 are set to begin July 6, with registration opening June 25.
The purpose of moving day camps outdoors, according to Whitaker, is to reduce the risk of exposure while ensuring participants can keep their distance — perhaps a difficult thing for children to comprehend, especially after being homeschooled for the entire spring.
“When they’re six to 12 years old, for the most part, they’re going to be very excited to be outside again and doing something that resembles normalcy with other children,” Whitaker said.
“Our staff is putting lots of thought around (how to implement physical distancing). We’ll do a lot of education on the first day of camp and let them know what the expectations are and set some guidelines . . . they’re kids and will want to be running around and enjoying themselves.”
We’re committed to having safe experiences for children and families ... but also children have social opportunities.
The YMCA has had a tremendous response already to its newlook day camps, rebranded as YMCA Summer Moments; they also have moved outdoors. More than 300 participants registered on the first day for the programs, which begin July 6 and run twice a week until August.
They’ll take place at four YMCA locations — Shane Homes YMCA, Brookfield Residential YMCA, YMCA Camp Riveredge and Camp Chief Hector YMCA — and will consist of various programs for kids aged three through 15 along with their parents or guardians.
Like the City of Calgary’s programming, there will be daily health screenings, physical distancing encouraged, individualized equipment for each child — which will be sanitized between activities — and increased cleaning protocols.
Steve Elliot, the YMCA general manager who oversaw the YMCA Summer Moments program, said it’s important that children are able to return to recreation, active play and engaging with their peers in a safe environment.
“I remember, like everyone, watching the news early in the spring when they announced the restriction of gatherings for no more than 15 during the summer,” Elliot said. “That was tough to hear. So, we’re always happy to hear we have some type of flexibility. But we’re committed to having safe experiences for children and families … but also children have social opportunities and opportunities to be active.”
The University of Calgary offers summer camps starting in July, reducing programming and offerings to 30 per cent of normal capacity. Online-only registration opened June 17. There are limited spaces available and pickup and drop-off procedures have been redesigned so parents won’t need to get out of their cars, while the U of C is following other guidelines as outlined by the province.
Both SAIT and Mount Royal University have cancelled in-person camps this summer, although SAIT is fine-tuning a series of free online camps.
Mount Royal University is offering a 10-per-cent discount on camp registrations for 2021 to families that registered this summer.
Winsport reopened only its summer mountain-bike camps, running July 6 through Aug. 29.
Dale Oviatt, Winsport’s senior manager of communications, said offerings have been reduced to a quarter of what they normally would be in the summer along with a reduction in participant-to-instructor ratios.
The camps are for children aged six to 11 in Levels 2 and 3, while higher-end Enduro camps are for riders over Level 5 and aged 10 to 16. They have added evening and weekend camps, but will not have before- or after-camp care, mountain bike rentals or camp lunch programs.
“We put a lot of thought into what we could do but still maintain the quality of our camps,” Oviatt said. “Unfortunately, it’s not for everybody, but we’re going to do the best we can to get as many people in as we can.
“We want to make sure we’re following protocol and reduce that risk as much as we can.”