Name: How to Reopen: One California summer camp's programs are going virtual
Uploaded: 2020-05-29
Duration: 5 min 37 s
Description: Camp Tawonga's Jamie Simon says the camp's programs will be crucial for kids after quarantine.

Camp Tawonga's Jamie Simon says the camp's programs will be crucial for kids after quarantine.

How to Reopen: One California summer camp's programs are going virtual

Campers paddle a canoe together at Camp Tawonga in California.

Features

Camp is more important than ever for kids' mental health.

Summer camp's programs go virtual during COVID-19 crisis.

We are a residential summer camp near Yosemite National Park. We primarily serve youth and families. We work both in the Bay Area, doing local programs to meet our mission and also on our site. Our mission is to help build self esteem, to create cooperative community, to help kids and families still really connected to nature, and want to give back and take care of the natural world and to help inspire people to have a positive spiritual identity. Summer camp is such an important thing to keep alive as we go through this crisis. You know, it's a $1 billion industry In the United States, there's over 4000 summer camps, according to American Camping Association, and hundreds of thousands of kids look forward to it every year. And I like to say that the front line workers are saving lives and they are so crucial and so important. But what camp does is save your soul campus what kids live for, You know, when you go to camp, it's where you get your community. It's where you get your sense of self and so it's really important we invest in our camps because they are going to help our communities come back. They're going to help parents get essential childcare. They're going to help kids get the social and emotional development are so missing out on right now. I think that summer camp is the antidote to sheltering in place. And so when we're able to no longer shelter in place and it's safe, going to camp is going to be so important for kids development. Normally, Camp Towanda serves 500 kids a session, and we have to pivot. And so this summer we're going to be serving smaller groups of kids on our site if we can do it safely. So we're working in partnership with our public health department, Yosemite National Park, to see how we can take our mission and do it for smaller groups like a backpacking program, and use so many a family camp program on our site or smaller sessions with less kids, fewer kids on our site. We're also thinking about going later into the summer at schools pivot. You know, how can we keep up with the times of the crisis potentially offering programs all year? We've created a health and wellness task force that's working on reopening camp. It has experts like epidemiologists and E. R. And pediatrician doctors. It has camp leaders, people knowledgeable about how to run summer camp, and they're working really hard to reopen. Uh, it's obviously in accordance with the public Health Department and all the guidelines by the state, and we work in tandem with them. It was heartbreaking to come to the decision to cancel camp as we know it. This summer, we knew that thousands of kids were looking forward to being at camp, being a community, being outside again. So we took the decision very seriously, and we took a lot of time to make it. We're trying to implement as much as possible for our community. We're having weekly sing alongs on Fridays. We're going to be doing some parent learning sessions were doing tourist services. We're going to be doing some classes, art classes, cooking classes, music classes and our community has really been showing up, and we know that they really need to be community now. And if we have to do it virtually, we will. So we're really trying to think creatively and innovatively about the best place to serve our community. One thing that's top of mind as equity. The traditionally underserved communities are the biggest loss here, and so how can we look to those communities to prioritize them in the time of need? So we've been really trying to reach out to our queer community use of color, our families who are in financial aid to see what they need so we can make sure that the people that are traditionally underserved are at the forefront of our minds. Mhm, mhm. One of the hardest things that we had to do was tell our 200 summer staff that we didn't have jobs for them this summer. It was devastating, and they were very disappointed. A couple of things we've done to help lessen the blow, although it doesn't, you know, totally lessen. The blow is guaranteed them jobs next summer. So we've saved all their spots if any of them would like to return next summer, and we're going to be doing community building for them over the summer so they can still get to know each other and build that special community that the staff does every summer. So it doesn't, you know, obviously take the place for being a camp for 10 weeks, sort of leading this amazing experience for kids. But we're hoping to build that community, give them some professional development and learning so that they can come back next summer even more ready and more prepared to work. The future for Towanda is strong. I think that we have an incredible community and that I'm really I'm sure that we're going to not just survive this crisis, but we're going to thrive. We're going to come out on the other end with new learning. Is that new ideas and stronger than ever? With that being said, the camping community is really struggling. It's a $1 billion industry that's taking a significant hit and we're going to need investment, both financial investment, emotional investment. I believe camp is so significant to who we are as people, and I hope the world thinks that it sees that it will give to that so that kids who are going to need camp more than ever will get it. Yeah,