Dear Friends,  On behalf of all of us at Camp Pocono Trails we want to thank you for attending our Covid free camp this summer. When we received news on March 14″” regarding the Covid-19 pandemic right then and there we knew we needed to figure out how to open Camp Pocono Trails and most importantly how to do it safely. For the next three months we attended countless seminars, Zoom sessions, met with medical professionals and explored every avenue available so that we could find a path to open C.P. T. Thank you to our staff whose faith never wavered despite all of the uncertainty in the w ..read more

Researchers say keeping campers in their own bubbles was key By Lena H. Sun As school and public health officials look for ways to reopen classrooms safely throughout the country, a potential road map emerges from the experience of four sleep-away camps and the extensive measures they adopted to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus among more than 1,000 campers and staff members. Their experience, described in a federal study published Wednesday, shows the measures necessary to keep the virus at bay. The four camps in Maine conducted virus testing before and after c ..read more

“I expect 10 times the number of positive tests coming into camp this year over last year,” top doctor predicts. By Jennifer Wolff Read my interview with top camp doc Laura Blaisdell, MD in my new Campenings newsletter at https://campenings.substack.com/p/how-camps-can-manage-the-summer-2021?r=b7q81&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy And please subscribe as you can see that I am clearly having difficulty integrating WordPress with Substack ..read more

CAMPS TALCOTT, MCALISTER AND GREENKILL PERMANENTLY SHUTTER Dear Campers, It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that, after a thorough and difficult review, the YMCA has decided to permanently close and sell our sleepaway camp and outdoor education operations at Camps Talcott, McAlister, and Greenkill. This painful decision was not made lightly, and we are heartbroken that circumstances have compelled us to take this action. We know our sleepaway camps have meant so much to generations of campers and staff. The memories and friendships formed at camp are priceless and irreplaceable. Th ..read more

Coronavirus has closed some camps for good. It’s made it harder for the rest of them to survive. BY MORGAN LEE 2020 has been a year unlike any other for Christian summer camps. Here’s how CT captured the situation in a recent report: Like most businesses and ministries across the country, Christian camps felt the economic halt right away. Church retreats and events were called off in March, April, and May due to bans on mass gatherings across the states. Before long, camps were forced to grapple with the unimaginable: no summer camp. By May’s end, more than 100 Christian camps had announ ..read more

By Andy Rosen Globe Staff,Updated February 25, 2021 Massachusetts camp operators, parents, and children hoping for a fresh-air respite this summer got a long-awaited bit of good news on Thursday, as Governor Charlie Baker announced that both overnight and day camp programs will be allowed to open this year. The news, part of a broader reopening plan laid out by the administration, follows a year of uncertainty for camps across the state. Overnight programs were not allowed to operate in 2020, and many day programs were significantly curtailed to comply with regulations put in place to combat t ..read more

Parents, I got up super early this morning with my mind racing with thoughts and emotion, thinking about what we all accomplished together this summer in the face of a worldwide pandemic and against all odds. All those people who called us crazy were wrong. All we did was follow the science and the principle that kids needed this place.  That we all needed this place. That you parents deserved a break. In a world filled with anger and despair, we were able to recreate a game plan that started 93 summers ago by two men in a row boat. We gave our children the opportunity to escape the w ..read more

New York amusement parks, summer camps slated to reopen in April By Bernadette Hogan and Natalie Musumeci February 17, 2021 | New York’s outdoor amusement parks that were shuttered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic can reopen at limited capacity in April — and summer camps across the Empire State should “plan on reopening” in June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. Outdoor amusement parks can reopen on April 9 at 33 percent capacity, with COVID-19 safety protocols in place like mask-wearing and social distancing, the governor announced on a conference c ..read more

By Jeff Bessen Dr. Aaron Glatt, a Woodmere resident who is the chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau in Oceanside, issued a letter to the Five Towns communities noting that the Nassau County health commissioner called him and asked for his help concerning eight cases of “newly diagnosed Covid-19” in the Five Towns from “campers returning from Camp Shoresh in Pennsylvania.” Glatt also wrote: “In addition, many other campers there had symptoms and were not tested for Covid-19. The PA DOH [Department of Health] is already involved as well.” He stated that because of ..read more

Dear Friends,  On behalf of all of us at Camp Pocono Trails we want to thank you for attending our Covid free camp this summer. When we received news on March 14″” regarding the Covid-19 pandemic right then and there we knew we needed to figure out how to open Camp Pocono Trails and most importantly how to do it safely. For the next three months we attended countless seminars, Zoom sessions, met with medical professionals and explored every avenue available so that we could find a path to open C.P. T. Thank you to our staff whose faith never wavered despite all of the uncertainty in the w ..read more