UPDATE: 5/6/2020
Greetings! We hope everyone is well. We’ve enjoyed communicating with our CJDA community via social media. We all miss human interaction, but being able to interact electronically has been helpful and therapeutic. Camp spirit lives, even on Instagram.
Coping with this pandemic has been a struggle for all of us, and summer camp is the ray of hope we all need. While we remain optimistic, we’re still awaiting guidance from the State of New York on critical health requirements and approvals for camp this summer. We’ve been told by Governor Cuomo that we’ll have this information by the end of May (hopefully sooner). It’s hard to wait, but we completely understand the need for patience.
Meanwhile we’re moving forward in our preparations for camp, considering various scenarios and solutions for hosting a successful, healthy camp experience. Although we don’t have all of the answers at this point, we want to share three important pieces of information. And of course, as we learn more, we’ll share this information.
1. CHANGES AT CAMP – these are CJDA guidelines; we expect to incorporate additional guidelines from the State and Local Health Departments.
- Arrival Day – Parents, or an authorized representative, will be required to drop-off campers IN-PERSON on arrival day. There will be no bus service, nor airport shuttles provided to camp. Parents will wait as a health screening will be completed for their camper. If a camper has a fever or shows other virus related symptoms, unfortunately, they will not be permitted to attend camp and must return home immediately.
- Closed Camp – To limit outside exposure, we will eliminate all trips away from camp (Motor Trips, Golf, etc.*). Unfortunately, that also means parents will not be allowed on camp for Arrival Day or Visiting Day.
*If you’ve already paid for transportation or off-camp trips, you will receive a refund or credit.
2. CAMP DATES: JULY 18TH TO AUGUST 15TH – Shorter session lengths within the 4 weeks are under consideration. We will be as flexible as possible to accommodate as many campers as we can.
3. SOMETHING TO CONSIDER WHEN DECIDING ABOUT CAMP THIS SUMMER – Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of all at camp, and we’ll do our absolute best to keep camp virus free. That said, there are no guarantees; especially since COVID-19 in most kids, youth and young adults (which represent most of camp) are asymptomatic and largely unaffected. If your camper has pre-existing conditions, or if you have loved ones at home with pre-existing conditions that could be potentially impacted when your camper returns home, we would advise you to sit this summer out.
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Or, if these changes will impact your daughter’s attendance at camp. We’re here to help!
Best regards,
Sandy and Randy Abbott
Owners & Directors, Camp Jeanne d’Arc
Cell: 704-936-7459 (Sandy) Cell: 704.960.3949 (Randy)