Rhino Merrick, camp director of Camp Sloane YMCA in Lakeville, Connecticut, told CNN that “This year, camp directors are carefully planning all aspects of camp with COVID-19 in mind.” As we get closer to the summer, camp leaders like yourself need to gear up for camper recruitment, staff training, and figuring out the best way to prepare for an unpredictable season. 

In particular, managers of day camps need to prepare diligently and outline proper safety and health guidelines. While sleepaway campers can quarantine together in an isolated place, day campers and staff come in and out day-to-day. This makes it hard to track outbreaks and keep COVID-19 infections contained.

We at CommunityPass are experts in recreation management software and work closely with organizations that offer camp programming. In the past year, we’ve seen how these organizations have responded to common challenges and now know how to best overcome them. 

If you’re planning on opening day camps this season, educating yourself with the current best practices is not just recommended, but essential. We’ve put together this guide to help camps like yours maintain (and grow!) their revenue goals and open day camps safely. Let’s begin!

How Day Camp Programs Responded to COVID-19 in 2020

Now that we’re a year into the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 on camps in 2020 is coming into clear focus. For starters, as soon as outbreaks last year became more prevalent, camps had to pivot operations. We saw these challenges also affect school-based programs early on. It resulted in many of them quickly adapting to new guidelines—most schools even had to close temporarily and turn to virtual programming and learning. 

Camps were in a similar boat, especially in the beginning months of the pandemic. Many states banned large gatherings and did not allow camps to open until the beginning of the summer. During this time, some camps decided to only offer virtual programming or even close their doors altogether for the season. 

As the warmer months approached last year, camp leaders had to make a critical decision on whether to open in-person or not. Here are some examples of how different camps reacted in response to COVID-19 in 2020:

• In New York City, many of the programs and day camps funded by the Department of Youth and Community Development stayed closed, changing the typical summers of more than 100,000 kids. (source)

• The Main School of Science and Mathematics decided to pivot their typical annual summer camp that serves 140 kids a week to take place virtually. In fact, a survey by Campminder found that 27% of 885 camps surveyed planned to offer some type of virtual programming for campers. (source)

• The Pennsylvania YMCA opened when allowed to, but with added safety and health procedures. For instance, they made sure that day campers got their temperatures taken daily and parents filled out a health questionnaire. They also grouped campers and staff into “pods” to avoid shared activities. (source)

According to the American Camp Association (ACA), about 80% of day camps nationwide planned to open last summer. However, many of the ones that did open operated at reduced capacity due to social distancing requirements and fewer kids enrolled. Using these experiences, camps can better prepare for this season and be more confident with opening. 

What The Camp Landscape Looks Like Now

Most camps and other similar program-based organizations are planning to fully open operations for 2021—just with added safety and health protocols.

Additionally, it seems like life is on track to “becoming normal.” Though infection rates are still oscillating, kids are slowly going back to school and vaccine distribution is underway. The CDC even recently declared that camp staff members are considered essential workers and eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

However, a big concern with day camps is the fact that campers and staff leave and come back on a daily basis. This leaves a lot of time for them to see other people, interact with parents, and otherwise go outside of their camp quarantine bubble. 

As we now know, these risks can be mitigated with the right safety and health precautions. In fact, research has actually found that with the appropriate measures, day camps that open can do so safely. 

Duke University recently released a study on 6,000 children and staffers at YMCA day camps. All staff had training in COVID-19 mitigation strategies and made sure to conduct symptom screenings for children and staff, as well as require masking, hand washing/sanitizing, daily disinfecting, and minimizing group sizes to no more than 10 children. In the end, only 19 cases of COVID-19 were found.

Keeping Your Day Camp Safe and Other Considerations for 2021

If your camp failed to operate last year, you’re likely nervous about opening your doors this season. Even though this camp season isn’t typical, we’ve learned from the experiences of last year, leaving us with a better handle on COVID-19 and how to quickly respond to changes.

No matter the type of programming you’re offering, taking the right safety measures can protect your campers and staff and still provide an engaging experience.

Using guidance from ACA’s Field Guide for Camps and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s recommendations for youth and summer camps, here are the essential steps you’ll need to take:

• Encourage contactless engagement and registrations by primarily utilizing digital tools. 

• Require pre-camp testing and quarantining. You might even require testing every week if you have access to it. 

• Provide online waivers for campers and parents to sign to acknowledge risks and confirm that they have not been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19 or have any symptoms themselves. 

• Conduct daily temperature checks with an infrared thermometer for social distancing purposes. 

• Keep campers and staff in specific groups and don’t mingle.

• Provide ample documentation and signage of how campers and staff can reduce the spread of COVID-19.

• Get a list of all campers (depending on the age range) and staff who are vaccinated. It is recommended that those who are vaccinated still take the proper precautions like masking and maintaining 6 feet of physical distance. 

• Gather enough PPE equipment such as masks, hand sanitizers, wipes, and other supplies for the number of campers and staff you expect. 

• Clean and disinfect all areas and supplies after they’ve been used by different camper and staff groups.

• Compile a list of campers and staff who are higher-risk with underlying medical conditions. Make sure that you have primary care providers on-call or on-site to tend to these individuals if they do get sick. 

No matter how much preparation you go through, it’s imperative that you still have a comprehensive backup plan, also known as your camp’s communicable disease plan (CDP).

First, make sure that the camper or staff does not need further clinical help. If they do, you must make the necessary arrangements. If not, then you should immediately isolate them until they can go home. Besides cleaning any relevant spaces or tools, it’s also crucial to carry out contact tracing.

Use your camp registration software as a contact tracing tool to figure out exactly who the sick camper or staff member has interacted with. The ACA even says that implementing data management and technology tools for contact tracing and contact follow-up and monitoring is now a best practice. Once you know who they’ve been in contact with, use your communication tool to immediately send pre-drafted emails or text alerts to the necessary recipients.

Conclusion

You already know that this camp season should be treated with more consideration than previous ones, especially if you had to temporarily pause operations last year. With about 5,600 day camps in the US serving millions of individuals, figuring out a standard for how to respond to the current pandemic and future infection outbreaks is critical.

Ensure that not only your staff is on the same page, but your campers and their families as well. If someone is sick, they should know to stay home to reduce spreading the virus. Use our tips in this guide and explore these additional resources to plan a safe and exciting summer:

• American Camp Association’s Field Guide for Camps

• Centers for Disease Control and Protection’s Suggestions for Youth and Summer Camps

Author

Joseph Oriente is the President and Founder of Capturepoint, creator of CommunityPass. Joe established Capturepoint in 1999 and launched CommunityPass in 2003, which was initially created to provide online registration and payment for a local town sports council that was overwhelmed with an increasing number of paper registrations. Since then Joe has been responsible for expanding CommunityPass nationally to become one of America’s most well-respected and complete online management solutions with registration, membership and facilities software serving the recreation and school markets.