What Will Summer 2021 Be Like at Summer Camp?

One of the most pressing questions for campers and parents coming into summer 2021: “What will summer camp look like this year with COVID-19?”

There’s no simple answer, it changes on a per-camp basis based on the specific needs of their camp community. Smaller camps will likely offer different plans than larger camps, sports centric camps will likely offer different solutions than traditional camps. All of our camps are diligently preparing for Summer 2021 and taking advice from medical teams as well as guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Camp Associations, and local Departments of Health.

That being said, there are consistent goals that every camp will be shooting for this summer. The highest priorities of these is a total commitment to health and safety for all of our wonderful campers and staff. Camps that were open in 2020, whether in a family camp format or in an altered regular season showed that they could successfully mitigate COVID-19 spread among campers and staff using a combination of masks, cohorts or “pods”, social distancing, commitment to sanitization, and frequent handwashing).

The summer of 2021 will likely see these strategies return in an effort to reduce risk of campers and staff becoming sick while still providing the hallmarks that make camp special. Part of that mitigation of risk will fall to families before camp starts, as many camps will be asking families to quarantine before sending children to camp to ensure that this summer can live up to what makes camp special. In addition, it is likely that camps themselves will become large cohorts in and of themselves, limiting the people that come onto camp to essentials and keeping campers on camp through the summer.

But at the same time, while it may be formatted differently, campers favorite things about camp will still be present in 2021. Campers bunks and bunk mates will still be their family and home away from home. Daily activates and special events will still happen. And all of our camps have been and are continuing to work hard to ensure that they can provide the summer home their campers and staff are used to.