With far smaller instructional swimming groups, we found that the kids could spread out, and the learning was incredible. This past year we had more campers advance their skills than ever before. This can only be attributed to the smaller instructor to camper ratio and the space for practice. It was great to see more kids in the deepwater enjoying our slide jungle gym and trampoline than in previous summers. Our goal for the coming summer is to work on the ratios and spacing once again and allow the kids the same opportunity to advance.
When camp ended, we celebrated that we did not have even one case or worry about COVID throughout all eight weeks of camp. The staff was so proud, and everyone was now thinking about the coming school year. It was late in the summer that Mayor De Blasio announced the plan of shutting down a class if there was one case at the school and if there were two unrelated cases. Everyone at camp talked about how returning to school would be simple. Since we had no cases in camp, most schools would be fine and would have no issues. Those thoughts changed quickly.

MMCC’s planning for how to handle COVID-19 began in March. Halpern and his leadership team kept a diary of the questions and issues they encountered, and how they decided to address them. “Our journal turned into what we now call our operating guidelines,” he says. Directives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, then American Camp Association and the New York State Department of Health also helped shape the camp’s approach, delineating “good,” “better” and “best” practices. In some areas, Halpern says, ���ճԹ�was ahead of the game—for instance, a camp only needs to have an emergency medical technician on hand, but ���ճԹ�planned to have a nurse. They were behind in others. “What we had to do was adapt,” he says. “There were some areas where we had to really work to get to ‘better.’”

The differences between 2020 and a “normal” camp year are plainly visible. Handwashing reminders are all over the place, and there are handwashing sinks in weird places, like the middle of the sports field. There’s a bin for “dirty” balls at a washing station, next to a bin for “clean” ones. Each of the camp’s 50�� staff members is wearing a mask. Signs direct a one-way flow through the dining hall where, according to Halpern, the rush of kids into and out of the structure “used to be more haphazard.”��

Kids are not wearing masks, because they spend all day every day with same group of seven other kids and a single counselor. “The biggest reality is our groups used to be much bigger,” with 16 kids and two or three counselors, Halpern says. And this year, everything is outside: For instance, the massive drama building—site of so many theatrical debuts over the years—sits empty. When it rains, each group can retreat to a building that is reserved solely for its use, although there’s not much to do there, and on a rainy Friday, the camp sent kids home early.

Programming is also different. Every station, from arts & crafts to archery, is active for one activity period, followed by one period off for cleaning. Kids must bring their own lunch; when s’mores day hits, each kid will make her or his own. There are no overnight stays (a traditional treat for older campers) or field trips. The daily “pow wow” is no more, and the late-night cookout that used to occur for each camp session is on hiatus.��

At the archery station, a group of girls took up their bows and began firing shots into the targets. When one had trouble getting the pull right, her instructor stepped back, put on a face shield over his mask, then stepped forward to guide her. Nearby, at the station for Native American culture, kids sat at picnic tables at spots marked by a duct-taped X. Their instructor, Nicole Manning, who has worked at the camp for 15 years, is also a school teacher—and after the tedium of distance learning this spring, she wasn’t sure what camp would be like. “I thought the kids would be really difficult or fearful. But they seem be acclimating to life at camp,” she says. The restrictions and new practices are an inescapable shift, but she says the basics remain in place. “I don’t think it really changed it.”

Where it gets tough is when closeness and contact are essential to the activity—like a swim instructor guiding your elbow to show how it is supposed to come out of the water when doing the crawl. St the waterfront, “we are doing instruction. We’re just staying away from touching the kids. It’s not as high quality,” Halpern acknowledges. “But we have a huge number of non-swimmers. So water familiarity is sometimes more important than technique.”

A moment later, two groups of campers exit the water at the same time, mixing together in close proximity as they walk off the docks and up the sand. Halpern notes the issue. Something new to plan around.