Children’s camps across the country are being cancelled or curtailed this summer amid the fallout from COVID-19, leaving parents and counsellors alike pondering the effects on youth.
It was supposed to be Mason Remigio’s first-ever summer camp experience.
The five-year-old’s parents signed him up for several City of Toronto-run half-day camps recommended by the school he was going to be attending in September. When Toronto’s mayor announced their cancellation last week, Mason’s mom, Kelly Abdelhay, was disappointed but not surprised.
“I totally support it,” she said. “I don’t think there’s really a way to separate five-year-olds or to properly explain to them social distancing.”
Still, she’s saddened that the kindergartner, who’s already been at home for three months, won’t get to experience what was her favourite part of growing up — at least not yet.
“The wacky dancing in the rain and hoping for thunder; those are camp experiences and camp memories,” she said. “When I think of my summertime as a child, those are the things I remember.”
But it looks like many Canadian kids will have to wait before they can make similar memories.
Earlier this week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the cancellation of the province’s overnight camps, a decision a number of other provinces, including British Columbia and Alberta, had already made.
Ford said day camps could be back in July and August, if infection rates continue to go down and the public health authorities give their blessing.
But looking at the stringent health and safety protocol for day camps issued by Alberta, it becomes clear that not all day camps will have the staffing or space needed to continue operating.
The rules say groups must be limited to 10, counting both staff members and children. The groups mustn’t interact with each other, and all playground equipment must be disinfected after use by each group.
Quebec, which just announced its rules for reopening day camps later in June, is looking to quickly hire twice as many counselors as before to comply with the new required ratio of camp staff to children.
‘Families come to depend on it’
Then there are those camps attached to big institutions, such as the perennial favourites at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) or the Ontario Science Centre. Their immediate future is uncertain partially because the buildings that contain them are still shuttered.
Kiron Mukherjee has been working at the ROM since he was a teen camp counsellor. In the last seven years, he’s been the kids’ co-ordinator and camp director there.
The museum recently placed him, along with more than 200 other staff, on temporary leave, but his passion for his “dream job” and the significance of camps in the lives of Canadian families remains.
“I think families come to depend on it, and it’s not just like, ‘Oh I get to get rid of my kids for a day and they go off somewhere.’ But kids have a summer life: you have a life at school, you have a life at home and then you have your life at camp.”
