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East Texas summer camp operators adjust to safety guidelines, explain plans for keeping campers safe

Smaller class sizes, sanitation supplies, and access to COVID-19 tests allow camps to provide a sense of normalcy for children

TYLER, Texas — A big part of life returning to normal was for kids to have a place to go and be kids. With in-person classes canceled for schools across Texas after Spring Break, summer camp became the first outlet available to them.

With the new guidelines imposed by the governor’s office and CDC, camps would not be the same in 2020, and many parents chose not to enroll their children in the first session, but rather to wait at least a week and see how the new procedures would be implemented.

“Honestly, day one, we were terrified,” Suzette Farr said Tuesday. “We were, like, ‘Oh, what is this gonna look like? Is this gonna be fun? Is it going to be a dud?’”

Farr, the VP of Community Engagement for The Mentoring Alliance, which runs Rose City Summer Camps, said it did not take long for the camp to find its new normal. “Day Three,” she recalled, “we were like, ‘You know, it’s fine! This is not as bad as we thought it was!’”

Farr said planning began several weeks ago, led by the organization’s medical director. But despite the long buildup, she said two main challenges popped up. First, getting the necessary gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer to keep thousands of children and staff members safe. The second challenge was the new drop-off procedure, which requires each camper’s temperature to be checked when they board the bus or get dropped off at the site. Farr said the line was long on the first day because the staff was learning the most efficient ways to do the checks and because parents did not fully understand what was happening.

“And I don’t think it was a hard message to sell, honestly,” she said. “Probably the easiest one to sell this summer—of all the summers—is safety! And health, because they, I mean, they get it. They’ve been shut in and they understand the importance of, like, we don’t want to go back to that.”

Rose City Summer Camps are spread out over four locations. Farr said campers are separated into “cabins” of eight and cohorts of 16 so that children associate with a smaller number of fellow campers. “It’s a little different,” she explained. “Where, if they’ve been to camp before, they get to all be there together in these big group things that, now, they still get to have those moments, but it’s much smaller groups.”

Limiting group sizes also makes it easier for staff members to track a potential coronavirus infection. Farr said nobody has gotten sick or shown any symptoms of illness during these two weeks, but if a camper were to show symptoms, Rose City can test them for COVID-19, send them home, and get results within three days. If the test is negative, the child may return to camp. If it comes back positive, staff members can test everyone else who was in that same group.

J-STAR Ministries was already small, but its camp is even smaller this summer. Patrick Johnson, its founder and organizer, said having eight campers compared to 25 in a normal year makes it much easier to keep them spaced out and clean.

“We have a 15-passenger van,” he mentioned. “I have hand sanitizer in the van, I have about 20-25 masks inside the van, and other things like that. I take their temperature and everything, to make sure, you know, everyone’s, doesn’t have a temperature. So, just good, safe, personal hygiene, and things like that we really should be doing anyway!”

Johnson said his camp was originally slated to begin June 1, but he delayed for a week to finish his preparations. “So far, so good,” he said. “It’s really, it’s gone better than I anticipated, being honest.”

Johnson has activities for his campers in Longview and takes them on field trips around East Texas. His mission is to build campers’ life skills, so he introduces them to a variety of business and community leaders and has them share their lessons of success. “Learning about life, discipline, just how to treat one another, being kind, or whatever,” he mentioned. “Respectful. Interacting with parents and everything, so, it’s been really good.”

He said parents have had few questions for him about the cleanliness and safety of his camp.

“I want to thank the parents that believe in us and in our ministry,” he added, “and allow us to work with their students. You know, I don’t take that for granted. I’m very humbled by it. And their kids are like my own. I guard them with my life, and everything. And, just, we want them to have a great experience in here that they can remember when they get older.”

Johnson said, despite the challenges imposed by coronavirus, he and the eight children in his care are happy to have camp. “It feels really great,” he said. “They’re excited and they’ve been having a good time, and I just think, with everybody, you know, at home and indoors for so long, that they couldn’t wait to get out. So, it’s been great.”

Farr believes pent up energy and a need for joy quickly overcame the unusual nature of this summer and made camp a joyous experience.

“I think because everyone, the kids have been in the house for so long, our counselors have been in the house for so long, there’s just this sense of energy, of, like, people,” she exclaimed. “Real people, not on a screen!

“They came back, and they are, like, so excited. They are loving being on those massive water slides, and archery, and octoball. They’re loving it. And I will tell you, we are loving seeing it, because I think it was very, very much needed. If never before, this summer, those kids needed summer camp.”

Farr said more than 900 campers are enrolled this week, but there is room for more. She added that donations from local businesses have provided more scholarship money than at any time in the camp's history, so parents who are struggling financially due to coronavirus can still send their children to camp.

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