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On April 29, 2021, New Hampshire released new COVID-19 best practices for overnight camps, which will inform how Kabeyun will operate this summer. We know our camp families have many questions and have done our best to answer them below, using yellow to highlight important information that has changed since the fall.
Kabeyun is fortunate to have two physicians on our Board of Trustees to help synthesize and evaluate recommendations from New Hampshire, the CDC, the American Camp Association, and other resources. The ACA and Y-USA have worked with Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. to develop a "Field Guide for Camps on Implementation of CDC Guidance." This document will continue to evolve, as will Kabeyun’s plan.
By June, some of the measures detailed below may become unnecessary or could be safely relaxed. For now, we are carefully planning for conditions as they are today, not as we hope they will be by the summer.
Thanks for your patience and support as we navigate toward a healthy and safe summer.
Yes, we plan to create a COVID-free bubble, using a combination of testing and quarantining. Kabeyun will not host visitors and staff members likely will spend their days off within camp or designated, low-risk locations. With few exceptions, no one inside the bubble will leave until they depart camp for good. Anyone who does visit camp this summer will follow masking and distancing protocols.
Kabeyun will ask campers and staff members to do everything they reasonably can to arrive at camp COVID-free. Following New Hampshire’s requirements for overnight camps, Kabeyun’s campers and staff members must answer health screening questions and engage only in low-risk behaviors for 10 days before camp (which does not preclude attending school in person), take precautions while traveling to camp, and provide proof of a negative COVID test taken 48-72 hours before arrival.
These guidelines apply to everyone, even those who have been vaccinated or have had COVID.
Later this spring, we will send an email with detailed instructions for travel, testing, and quarantining, including which activities are OK and which are not in the week before camp.
Yes, but the routine will be slightly different than usual. Kabeyun does not plan to provide transportation from airports or train and bus stations in 2021. For campers coming from afar, we recommend that an adult accompany your camper and handle transportation directly to camp.
Everyone coming to camp is required to follow CDC guidelines for safe travel, including masking and distancing, and to create a travel plan that minimizes exposures to others.
Drop-off and pick up procedures will be different to reduce the risk of COVID entering camp. Unfortunately, we cannot welcome families into camp this year; parents and campers will say goodbye on our Upper Ballfield. We hope to stagger arrival times and we suggest families limit the number of people who travel with their camper to Kabeyun. More details to come soon.
Yes. 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. 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.
Kabeyun will cover the costs of all COVID tests except the very first one, which will be administered 2-3 before leaving for camp. Please contact the office if you need help scheduling or paying for this test.
To adhere to current state guidelines, we will consider each cabin group of campers and counselors to be a "household." Boys will be limited to their households when they need to be close to one another and cannot wear masks. 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.
We only anticipate needing masks when cabin groups are mixed, indoors, and cannot maintain safe distance from one another. We suggest campers pack 10 masks, labeled with their full names.
We probably will dine outdoors a lot and expect campers will eat with their cabin groups this summer. We also will have a tent or another structure that allows us to all eat together, but spread out, when needed.
Possibly. Right now, we're considering a variety of strategies, including designating certain facilities for specific cabins or staggering their use. We are installing extra sinks outside each bathhouse this spring.
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.
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 are designing our protocols to prevent COVID coming to camp. However, if a camper or staff member is diagnosed with COVID during the session, he will immediately be isolated and 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 of time has passed and they received negative COVID test results, cabin mates 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 are developing 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.
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 plan to offer trips this summer, with protocols that essentially make them an extension of our camp bubble. We will limit our destinations to less heavily-traveled areas to minimize contact with outsiders. 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!
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 10-day period of only low-risk behaviors. 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 likely will stay inside the Kabeyun bubble for 9 or 10 weeks and will not be able to leave 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.
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.
Yes. We plan to have a professional cleaning crew attending to the bathrooms and other common spaces regularly throughout the summer. 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 anticipate 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.
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.
No, we will not run Family Camp until 2022.We hope you’ll plan to join us then!
Yes, we plan to open at our normal capacity of 114 campers.
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.
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 offering a counseling internship program this summer, as it would 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.
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 guidance makes bringing foreign campers and staff to camp difficult, but not impossible.
We will follow state guidance. 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.