Like most Americans, Camp W Long Island’s premiere day camp is working remotely from home as we take every step to protect employee’s health and safety. We are keeping a close eye on developing news to determine how we will run camp for the upcoming summer. Parents are concerned about their children’s safety and what Camp W’s position is on being operational for the summer of 2020. Our response to this important question is we adhere to the advice of public health experts who are making informed decisions in the best interest of the campers, staff and everyone involved. Camp W will also abide by the federal and state mandates as well as the American Camping Association guidelines. We not compromise the health and well-being of our camp community. This virus is dangerous and we will do our part to help blunt the spread.
Fortunately, staff is set up to currently communicate through Zoom, phone and email. We might find out even without a lot of “drop by’ visiting from colleagues, we are actually more productive working remotely. We have seen lots of creativity on how to get things done in this new environment. Necessity is the mother of invention. While Camp W office staff is not working, Evan the Owner is in the office working from 8:00 am until 5: oo pm as Camp W is taking reservations for camp every day. During this time we are still available to all our camp families. Parents’ emails and phone are always answered within 24 hours of being received. A big thank you goes out to Ultracamp our camp software program for all the extra effort they have put in servicing our account and to make sure our switch to remote working has gone smoothly. The transition has gone absolutely seamless. The camp staff should also be commended for their wholehearted commitment to spending countless hours on the phone planning and discussing possible scenarios for the upcoming summer.
A few parents have contacted Evan concerning the tuition due date and we are happy to extend the payment date to June 15. If we could gaze into a crystal ball, it looks like the economy will be very slow if not stop until social distancing ceases and people can go back to work. Our guess is June or July thigs moderately improve. We could be right or wrong but this is just our guess.
In terms of how we can protect our campers and practice good hygiene, we have several new ideas for the upcoming summer. The flowing are a list of ideas:
1. Wash the gymnastic/karate matts every day when camp concludes
2. Water stations will have plastic cups only with no water bottle fill ups
3. Lunch will be broken up to three sections so not as many campers are eating together.
4. Morning and Closing Ceremonies will be done by division instead of entire camp being together.
5. Lunch tables will be cleaned as usual but change the soup and water after every four tables.
6. Outdoor handwashing stations will be outside by the lunch area.
7. Hand sanitizers will be given and placed on every lunch table along with napkins.
As we continue to discuss solutions and ideas we will continue to evaluate all aspects of our we can keep things at Camp W as clean as possible. The spread of COVID-19 is on our minds and in the news. We want to reassure our camp families that we continue to monitor the situation closely and will contact our families of any changes in our program.
We are consistently coming up with ideas on how to practice proper hygiene throughout the summer. We will discuss our ideas later in this blog.