Sebastian Diebel said a parent of one of his campers at Camp Manitou Bay of Islands told him the boy wasn't really bothered about COVID-19 cancelling school and baseball, but hearing summer camp is cancelled was a different matter.
“It really, really hit them hard,” said Diebel, president of the camp's board of directors and co-director of the junior boys camp along with his twin brother, Simon, for the past seven years.
“It was sort of the first thing they were really disappointed about, throughout all this, which is nice to hear. It's like 'Oh, OK, it does mean something.' But it's sad to hear at the same time.”
Youth summer camps are just another aspect of life impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Camp Manitou, a rustic wilderness camp located in the Bay of Islands on the North Shore of Lake Huron — the closest community is Whitefish Falls — runs youth camps during the month of July and family camps during the month of August.
But earlier this month, the camp made the call to cancel all of its summer camp programs for 2020 in response to COVID-19.
The camp said there are too many uncertainties at this point, particularly how long the precautionary measures currently in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 will last.
As well, given Camp Manitou is in an isolated area and requires campers to be in close proximity, the camp's management felt it was unsafe to bring campers together this summer.
Diebel said the camp wasn't sure if it could put enough precautions in place to keep campers safe, and didn't want to be potentially responsible for the spread of COVID-19.
Financially, Camp Manitou is in a better financial position than some camps, Diebel said, as it is volunteer based, and works on a non-profit basis, where revenues offset expenses.
While there won't be large food, gas and propane bills this summer because the camp isn't operating, some expenses continue no matter what, such as insurance.
“The only real costs we'll have this year is the insurance, which we can manage for one off year,” Diebel said, adding the camp has some reserve funds it can dip into if need be.
Camp Manitou is a member of the Ontario Camps Association, and Diebel said many other members are going to hurt financially because of the pandemic, and are looking at fundraising so they don't end up going bankrupt.
“We're not quite in that situation,” he said. “We're still good.”
Rainbow Camp, a summer camp operating out of Echo Bay for 2SLGBTQ+ youth aged 12 to 17, also announced this week it won’t operate this summer due to COVID-19.
“While the spread of COVID-19 is beginning to slow down here in Ontario, these unprecedented times remain uncertain,” camp director Stephanie Voyer said in a social media post.
“After carefully monitoring this situation over the past months, we have made the extremely difficult decision to not run any summer camp programs this summer 2020.
“This decision was not made lightly. Our team has spent countless hours communicating with other Canadian summer camps, not-for-profit organizations, and the Ontario Camps Association to determine the best course of action to keep our camp community healthy.”
This year’s camps were to have run July 5 to July 31 in Echo Bay.
Rainbow Camp is intended to provide a safe place for young people who are two-spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer questioning and allied youth, their siblings and children in queer families.
Helen Francis, president and CEO of YMCA of Northeastern Ontario, said her organization hasn't yet made the call for its John Island Camp or its day camps.
John Island Camp is located on the North Shore of Lake Huron, in its case near the community of Spanish. Day camps are operated out of YMCA’s buildings on Durham Street in Greater Sudbury and Chippewa Street in North Bay.
Francis said the YMCA “would love” to run its camp programs, but at the same time, needs to make sure that for the well-being of participants, staff and the community as a whole, that it does the right thing.
“We have postponed making a final decision,” said Francis. “We are still planning various scenarios — either a shorter season, imagining that maybe we can safely run camp with reduced volumes of participants.
“We are hopeful that we might be able to operate sooner than that. However, all of it is of course driven by Ontario legislation. We would not reopen unless we could make sure that we had the local public health unit approval for our protocols.”
Cancelling would definitely be disappointing for staff and campers alike, Francis said.
“We have a large number of both that return each year and we know they look forward to seeing old friends and acquaintances and making memories at John Island,” she said.
Cancelling YMCA's leadership camp programs would also be a challenge for future summers, as they act as a pipeline to develop camp counsellors, Francis said.
Financially, such a move would have a revenue impact of $250,000 to $650,000, depending on whether it's a full cancellation or running with a shorter season with reduced volumes.
But as is the case with Camp Manitou, the YMCA said revenue largely offsets operating costs.
Sudbury.com also reached out to the City of Greater Sudbury about its camps, including its popular day camp near Moonlight Beach, Camp Sudaca.
“At this time, we haven't made a decision on summer programming,” said an email from city spokesperson Shannon Dowling.
“We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation with direction from our partners at the province and public health.
“We are also consulting with industry association partners like Parks and Recreation Ontario as well as other municipalities. The decision will depend on the timing of the end of the emergency closures and our ability to use park facilities and amenities, host groups, etc.”
