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Camps Continued from Page 1
campers 12 and over were
above 90% at most camps, and
at the start of the summer,
COVID cases, hospitalizations
and deaths were relatively low
across the U.S.

So, camps throughout the
Philadelphia region hosted full
seasons. Kids smiled, laughed
and just hung out. Counselors
motivated them to participate
in the various activities. Head
staffers oversaw the operation.

It was exactly what the kids
needed after a summer away
and a year of virtual schooling.

“Utopia,” said Rabbi Joel
Seltzer, director of Camp
Ramah in the Poconos.

Sideman’s JCC Medford
team started planning 2021
in March 2020. Most area day
and overnight camps began
preparing their summer
sessions around the same time.

Day camps built plans
around checking people for
COVID symptoms at the start
of each day. That way, if direc-
tors spotted even minor signs,
they could send kids home to
quarantine. Overnight camps built a
“controlled environment,” as
they called it. They mandated
tests before the summer
started, on the first day and
within the first week. They
eliminated out-of-camp trips
from the schedule. They even
required counselors to stay in
camp on off days.

Southampton Summer
Day Camp in Bucks County
canceled 2020 after 47 consecu-
tive summers. It reopened this
year with only 350 campers,
instead of the normal roster
of 500. The goal, according
to owner Rick Blum, was to
keep bus loads small and bunk/
activity cohorts at 12-15 kids
each. Southampton parents had
to answer a COVID question-
naire, via text, every day at
6 a.m. Then counselors took
kids’ temperatures before they
allowed them onto buses.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Camp Nock-A-Mixon in Kintnersville, summer 2021
Courtesy of Camp Nock-A-Mixon
Only one camper got
COVID all summer, and it
came from his sister’s day care
center, not Southampton.

“It was amazing to see all
the smiling faces out there,”
Blum said of the 2021 season.

Camps Saginaw, Green Lane
and Nock-A-Mixon, overnight
camps in the suburbs, canceled
2020 because directors didn’t
know enough about the virus
and wanted to maintain trust
with families after almost
a century of continuous
operations. In 2021, though, all three
camps hosted full loads of
between 300 and 500 campers.

Once they got through their
final testing period early in the
summer, directors let every-
body take their masks off.

Saginaw campers and staff
members gathered on the upper
field and threw their masks in
the air. The owners, Mike and
Jessica Petkov, recorded the
moment with a drone.

“We’ve made it this far,”
Mike Petkov said. “Let’s keep
going.” All three camps finished the
summer with no COVID cases.

Gary Glaser, the director of
Nock-A-Mixon, said fighting
and homesickness were down
this summer, and that campers
seemed happy just to be out of
their houses and together.

But Glaser and the Petkovs
called their counselors the
heroes of the summer.

Nock-A-Mixon allowed
12-hour off days, where
counselors could only go
home, not out and about. They
also had to be accessible via
FaceTime. Saginaw, like other
overnight operations, required
counselors to stay in camp on
off days.

Counselors knew this situa-
tion going into the summer
and accepted it.

“They had to make sure the
kids were having a good time,
and they excelled,” Petkov said.

Some day camps, like
Achdus in
Northeast Philadelphia and the JCC of
Medford, were open in 2020.

But Achdus cut its camper
quota from about 90 to 60. JCC
Medford dropped its total from
roughly 1,300 to 200.

This year, both places
opened in full and finished
their seasons. Achdus staffers
just kept their eyes open for
symptoms, according to
Director Moshe Segelman. JCC
counselors kept kids in cohorts
and enforced masking when
different groups interacted.

“Families were so ready to
come back,” Sideman said.

Camps lost money last year,
but in 2021, they learned that
their families remained loyal.

So going into 2022, they
are confident. They aren’t too
worried about the new delta
variant, either, nor the recent
increase in cases and restric-
tions. Even if the COVID era
continues, directors now have
systems in place to handle it.

Blum turned Southampton’s
approach into a 20-page
handbook. The Bucks County
Health Department recently
asked for it to use as a guide-
book for local recreation
programs. “These are things we’re
going to continue to do,” Blum
said. “I don’t see that we’ll
eliminate that until COVID is
out of here.” l
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JEWISH EXPONENT
AUGUST 26, 2021
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