These are some of the questions we anticipate you might have looking ahead to summer 2021. Our answers are based on what we know now and current best practices for COVID safety at camp. The American Camp Association and Y-USA have worked with Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. to develop a "Field Guide for Camps on Implementation of CDC Guidance." This document, which helps inform Kabeyun's policies, will continue to evolve. Our plans will likewise evolve alongside best practices and New Hampshire's COVID guidelines.
We expect and hope that by June, some of the measures we are anticipating and planning for will become unnecessary or can be safely relaxed. For now, we are making plans that address conditions as they are, not as we hope they will be.
We are confident we can work within the state guidelines to open at our normal capacity of 114 campers.
Yes, they do. Enrollment for returning campers and siblings opens on Friday, November 20, while new enrollments open on Friday, December 4.
Currently, yes, we plan to create a COVID-free bubble, using a combination of testing and quarantining. Staff members will spend their days off within camp and Kabeyun will not host visitors. With very few exceptions, no one inside the bubble will leave until they depart camp for good. Anyone who does enter camp this summer will follow masking and distancing protocols.
At this time, the state’s COVID guidelines for overnight camps require a pre-arrival quarantine of 14 days, a negative COVID test taken 7-10 days prior to arrival, a second negative COVID test taken on arrival at camp, and a third negative COVID test taken 5-7 days after arriving at camp. We anticipate those timeframes will narrow before the start of the summer, hopefully reducing the pre-camp quarantine to no longer than one week. We’ll keep you updated throughout the winter and spring.
We plan a series of three COVID diagnostic tests for all campers and staff to establish our bubble. The first will be taken at home before departing for camp. The second will be taken immediately upon arrival and before entering Kabeyun's campus to confirm the first test. A third test will be administered a few days later to further confirm the first two. In addition, we plan to administer a fourth test shortly before the end of each session to make sure we are sending campers and staff home as healthy as they came to camp.
Kabeyun will use PCR tests, also known as molecular tests, which detect the virus' presence. At this time, New Hampshire calls for a nasopharyngeal test (deep nasal swab) for the first test and allows for mid-turbinate or shallow nasal swabs for subsequent surveillance tests. We hope that by summer 2021, less invasive tests (such as saliva-based “spit” tests) will be approved for use.
Additional tests would be administered if a camper or staff exhibited COVID symptoms. We expect our healthcare staff will be able to administer tests on-site at Kabeyun’s health center.
Under the current guidelines, the only way to come to camp is by personal transportation, i.e. you drive him to camp. We will update you if the state revises its guidelines.
Campers and staff coming from outside the country will be subject to the same measures as campers and staff who come from any significant distance, which includes quarantine and testing after they arrive in the country but prior to arrival at camp. New Hampshire's guidelines make bringing foreign campers and staff to camp difficult, but not impossible.
We will follow state guidance. Presently, New Hampshire has strict quarantine and testing requirements for out-of-state visitors, and those requirements change based on infection rates in the visitors' points of origin. Campers and staff coming from areas with high infection rates may be subject to restrictions that make it difficult to come to camp, but we do not expect it to be impossible.
For several reasons, each aimed at preserving our bubble and caring for our campers and staff. First, we want everyone to have adequate time between the end of school and the start of camp for a 5- to 7-day quarantine at home. This will ensure their pre-arrival COVID tests are as accurate and reliable as possible.
This summer, we are creating a three-day break between sessions, rather than our usual 24 hour turn-around between Sessions I and II. The break will allow us to thoroughly clean the facility, and gives the staff a mini-vacation to restore their energy before welcoming a new batch of campers. Our staff members will stay inside the Kabeyun bubble for 9 or 10 weeks and will not be able to leave camp on days off, as they normally do. The mid-summer break will give them much-needed time for self-care and to prepare for our Session II guys.
Campers will have their usual thorough check-ins with camp’s healthcare staff once per week. In addition, we will conduct daily screenings to monitor everyone at camp. This will likely include temperature checks and a scan for COVID symptoms.
To minimize our interaction with the outside world, Kabeyun likely will hire someone who never actually comes on the property to drop off and pick up mail and other supplies at the front gate. We also will modify how we interact with the companies that deliver our food and fuel.
That remains to be seen. If support staff are commuting to camp, they will have to follow masking and distancing protocols at all times and have no contact with staff and campers in the bubble. Our preference would be to have support staff live on-site.
To adhere to current state guidelines, we will consider each cabin group of campers and staff to be a "household." Boys will be limited to their households when they need to be close to one another and cannot wear maks. This should apply only to overnight in the cabin and indoor mealtimes. As long as boys are outdoors, can maintain distance from each other, or wear masks, we anticipate cabin groups will be able to mix throughout camp as usual.
In general, we do not anticipate any limits on boys' movements through camp or their choice of activities. There will be some restrictions in place during the first few days of each session, while we wait to confirm the results of COVID testing. We aim to establish our healthy bubble as quickly as possible so we can transition to our full elective program without delay.
Possibly. Right now, we're considering a variety of strategies. That includes adding outdoor sinks to bath houses and designating certain facilities for specific cabins.
We plan to offer trips this summer, although we will limit our destinations to less heavily-traveled areas. Overnight trips will likely be limited to later in each session, and tent groups will likely be limited to boys from the same cabins. If needed, we’ll get more tents!
Typically, camp employs two nurses; one is on site and on duty at all times. We are exploring the possibility of adding a third nurse or having a physician on site.
We do plan on having a larger-than-usual staff in 2021, including facility and custodial staff for increased cleaning and sanitizing. We also will increase the number of counselors, primarily to allow cabin and activity staff more time off during the 9 or 10 weeks they will live in the Kabeyun bubble.
We probably will dine outdoors a lot this summer – whenever possible. We also will have a tent or another structure that allows us to all eat together, but spread out, when needed.
We only anticipate needing masks if cabin groups are mixed, indoors, and cannot maintain safe distance from one another.
Yes. We plan to have a custodial crew at camp this summer cleaning common spaces daily. Staff will regularly sanitize activity areas and materials, camp vans, etc.
No, there will be no COVID surcharge. Kabeyun will cover the cost of the two COVID tests required of campers and staff at the start of each session, as well as one prior to returning home.
We love having two-session campers, and those boys who enroll in the Full Summer or Extended Stay sessions will be able to stay with us through the three-day break between sessions. While we will not have visitors at camp this summer, we are working out whether or not two-session boys can see their families off-campus if they are careful to stay isolated. All campers who stay past Session I will go through the process of testing and a few days of staying in "households" with their new, Session II cabin groups.
We are developing a Junior Counselor program for boys who would have been interns in 2020. These will be paid counselor positions with enhanced guidance and mentorship from Kabeyun's senior staff. Boys interested in the Junior Counselor role will need to apply and interview for the jobs. We will have more details on that program before the end of the calendar year.
He can be an Owl in 2021! Normally, boys who turn 16 by the time camp starts are eligible to be interns, but they're also welcome to return for another camper year. That's especially the case this summer – if he missed his Owls summer in 2020, he should come back for it this summer. We're not going to offer a counseling internship program this summer, as it woud be difficult to operate given the cohorting requirements, but boys that would have been age-eligible to apply for an internship this summer will still be eligible in 2022.
We are designing our protocols to prevent COVID coming to camp this summer. However, if a camper or staff member is diagnosed with COVID during his session, they will immediately be isolated and, per state guidelines, have to go home. This presents a number of challenges, most notably for campers coming from considerable distance. Kabeyun will have the means to keep him safely at camp for as long as it takes for a parent or legal guardian to arrive.
We will follow New Hampshire and CDC guidelines. The person diagnosed with COVID would be isolated immediately and leave camp as soon as possible. In the meantime, their household/cabin group (including counselors) would be quarantined from the rest of the camp community until COVID tests could be administered to the group. The cabin group could continue doing activities during that time, but would need to stay separate from everyone else. Presumably, once the appropriate period time passed and they received negative COVID test results, they could return to normal activities with the rest of Kabeyun's campers and staff.
Yes. We will immediately notify families by email.
Kabeyun's healthcare staff will handle illness and injury at camp as they always have while taking added precautions against COVID. We will work throughout the winter and spring to develop modified procedures at the health center, but likely it will look and feel much as it always has. To the extent that we can minimize trips to the clinic, we will – telehealth appointments are a possibility, as is adding an on-site physician to the staff. Should a camper or staff require treatment at the local urgent care center or emergency room, they will follow appropriate COVID safety protocol while off-campus and will follow a re-entry procedure upon returning to camp.
Same as what happened in 2020. If Kabeyun cannot open in 2021, you will have the option of rolling deposits or tuitions paid to the following summer or receiving a full refund.
Yes – all of it.
Unfortunately, we do not anticipate being able to offer Family Camp until 2022. Existing state guidelines make it next to impossible for 2021.