Directors see solid registration for summer
Last spring, as the pandemic took hold and the end of the school year approached, a big question on the minds of Jewish parents (and children) was: What will happen to summer camp? The answer quickly came as camp after camp cancelled in-person sessions.
Many unanswered questions remain about what the pandemic will look like in the coming months, but the directors of several area camps are planning to hold camp again this summer and are confident that they will be able to provide a fun, if different, experience for campers.
“There is a much bigger contrast between what you are coming from and what you are going to this year,” said Terri Grossman, director of Camp Sabra, the St. Louis Jewish Community Center’s camp at Lake of the Ozarks, which had to cancel last summer. “So I think, for all of us, the level of gratitude will be much higher for that opportunity.”
The camp directors point to the availability of COVID-19 test kits as one of the most important factors for the summer. They do not expect the campers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“We have to have an eye to cost for the families, for our staff, the efficacy of the test,” Grossman said. “Is this an at-home test that we can administer? (Do we need) to get a mobile lab to come in? Those are the biggest variables of all.”
The Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI), the Union for Reform Judaism’s camp in Zionsville, Indiana, is asking campers to submit to a PCR test — the type considered the most accurate but which takes longer to get results — a few days before heading to camp, director Jeremy Klotz said.
During the initial stages of camp, the directors anticipate that one or two cabins will exist as bubbles or pods. In order for that to work, campers will all need to arrive on the same day, rather than in normal years when the camp could more easily accommodate people who arrived late, said Klotz, who had to cancel camp last summer.
The directors hope they can relax some of the restrictions and allow the bubbles to meld within 10 to 14 days, once they are confident that the coronavirus has not found its way into camp.
If campers are separated into bubbles, what happens to one of the core camp experiences, meals together, after which there is often cheering? Klotz anticipated that campers and staff will eat in two shifts.
“I don’t think it’s going to diminish the experience,” he said. “We sing a lot at our camp, and we jump up and down and run around a ton.” Projecting and screaming is not a good idea because of potential exposure, he noted. “But we still plan to do song sessions and cheering. It just might happen at different places or look a little different.”
Directors are projecting a slight dip in enrollment. In 2019, Sabra had 741 campers. This year, it is budgeting for 650 to 700, Grossman said.
“We are probably 6% to 8% lower than we normally are right now, which is actually pretty good,” said Klotz, who is budgeting for 400 to 420 campers rather than the usual 480 to 500.
Locally, enrollment for The J – Jewish Community Center’s J Camp is where it was at this time last year before the pandemic hit, with more than 500 campers already enrolled. Some of the specialty offerings, such as arts camp and kosher culinary camp, filled up the week enrollment opened in mid-February.
Those now have waiting lists and several others are almost full, said DD Gass, director of camps and school-aged services.
Last year, J Camp was held in person, but health department guidelines meant it had to halve the total number of campers. This year, Gass anticipated being able to “fully serve all the kids we have enrolled.”
Gass anticipated that campers and staff will still need to wear masks, and there will be a focus on clean hands and disinfected surfaces. And even though the campers won’t be vaccinated, she’s hoping most of the staff will be.
The financial future
During a recent virtual panel discussion on the state of camp, hosted by Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the biggest topic of discussion was the financial ramifications the pandemic has had.
According to Julie Platt, chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC), camps lost a combined $150 million due to the cancellation of in-person camp last summer. These losses were mitigated by reducing costs by $25 million, borrowing $60 million, and raising another $65 million, she said.
Platt said camps still face financial hurdles this year. Among them:
increased operating costs for covering medical and staffing requirements
significant potential demand for camper scholarships
the possibility of constrained occupancy, reducing enrollment and tuition revenue
These hurdles bring a potential financial risk of approximately $75 million. Platt said FJC appreciated the financial support from JFNA and various foundations, camp donors and camp parents in 2020, but that more support is still needed.
“We certainly will need to come together again to help close the financial gap to help sustain this vital field,” she said.
During the panel discussion, Sarah Eisinger, director of JCAMP 180, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, talked about the All Together Now grant. This matching grant will provide $10.4 million to support more than 110 Jewish overnight camps in the U.S. and Canada across all movements, as well as independent camps.
“Our goal is to leverage the success of last year’s All Together Now grant, which netted the camps $26 million, including our grant allocation, and build on that success,” she said.
Here in Kansas City, the Rabbi Gershon Hadas Guardian Society for Jewish Children provides scholarships for overnight Jewish camp and long-term Israel programs.
The Guardian Society committee will meet in a couple weeks to discuss what kind of assistance it can provide to families for summer camp, said Andi Milens, senior director of community building for the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. The Guardian Society is a Federation program.
So far, Milens said, the society has received about 45 requests for scholarships.
When in-person camps were cancelled last year, the Guardian Society redirected scholarship funds to camps as unrestricted donations — helping to leverage the match from the Grinspoon Foundation.
“We wanted to help provide the camps with as much financial relief as possible so they could survive to have another summer,” Milens said.
The St. Louis Jewish Light contributed to this report.
