Camp dates for campers will be June 26 – August 14.  We plan to create a modified bubble for Summer 2021 utilizing a robust testing platform, supported by thorough hygiene / sanitizing protocols and limiting the amount of people coming in and out of camp.

All decisions will be made utilizing the guidance provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Camp Association and by camp medical professionals.

The plan will continue to be a “work in progress” right up to Opening Day as well as into the summer.  We will use the most up to date information available to make decisions and not rush into any premature decisions.

To a very large extent, all campers and staff will remain on camp throughout the summer.  In the event that we are able to have some off campus experiences, they will certainly take place in a controlled and supervised manner, ensuring that the health and safety of our campers is not compromised in any way.

Staying Safe Promise

The ability to mitigate COVID-19 as best possible begins with our Staying Safe Promise. This starts in the two weeks leading up to your child’s arrival day at camp and continues through the camp season, evolving as we get closer to everyone’s arrival at camp and taking on different attributes within these overall dates.

For these two weeks, you will be asked to login to the MyMedBot app on each of the two Fridays (June 18 and June 25) and complete daily symptom check questions for that week. We ask that everyone adhere as strictly as possible to all CDC guidelines during this period. On this form you will be able to indicate if your child has tested positive for COVID-19 anytime within that week.

In addition, there will be another survey to fill out on the app if your child has had COVID-19 within the ninety-day period prior to the start of camp. We will also be collecting vaccine status on the app, should your child be either partially or fully vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the start of camp.  Further information regarding the MyMedBot app will be forthcoming well in advance of when you will need to access it.

Starting five days prior to arrival at camp (June 21), we are asking families for a commitment to have campers to remain home with only the other members of their household when not attending school, and to refrain from higher risk activities such as socializing with anyone beyond their immediate household, indoor dining at restaurants, playing group-oriented youth sports, working out at gyms, etc. Please also consider any other actions you as a family can take to help keep your household COVID-free during this time period leading up to camp.

Upon arriving at camp, everyone will need to adhere to COVID-19 related policies, procedures, and protocols based on the guidelines and rules provided by the CDC, ACA, and PA Department of Health. At various times during the summer these will include practicing physical distancing, being grouped into cohorts, wearing masks, practicing appropriate personal hygiene, daily symptom checks, and being tested in accordance with the first eight days of camp testing schedule and other times, if needed, based on COVID-19 protocols.

Last update: 4/30/21

Many group activities during the pandemic have required testing as an effective way to mitigate risk and allow for people arriving from different locations to more safely interact. The relatively low cost you pay for testing is a small price relative to the ability to travel, attend an event or participate in a group activity.  Using guidance from outside agencies as well as our own professionals, we have developed a robust testing plan for camp. With our CLIA Certificate of Waiver status for our Health Center, we have contracts in place with Abbott Laboratories and Lucira Health for rapid testing.  We have contracts in place with PM Pediatrics and Liberty Urgent Care for lab-based PCR testing.  Together, we have updated our testing plans for this summer in a meaningful way.

For unvaccinated campers, the dates and types of tests are as follows:

Three to five days prior to the first day of camp, you will have a choice of using your own physician, pharmacy, or urgent care to obtain a PCR test, or you can set up a convenient appointment reserved for Camp Canadensis campers with your local PM Pediatrics office.  The exact directions on registering with PM Pediatrics will be sent out in a future email.  Once you receive your test results, you will then upload them to the MyMedBot app.

Upon camper arrival on June 26 each camper will have an Abbott rapid antigen shallow nasal swab test by the Camp Canadensis Health Center (results in 15 minutes) and a shallow nasal swab lab-based PCR test by Liberty Urgent Care (results in 24-36 hours once the lab receives the test).

On June 30, which is day five of camp, each camper will receive a Lucira Health rapid molecular shallow nasal swab test by the Camp Canadensis Health Center (results in 30 minutes).

On July 3, which is day eight of camp, each camper will receive an Abbott rapid antigen shallow nasal swab test by the Camp Canadensis Health Center (results in 15 minutes).

Your cost per child for testing on the first day of camp, day five and day eight is $165. In addition to identifying and managing any potential positive cases, our goal with testing is to reduce and ultimately remove the cohort restrictions so that campers will be able to enjoy camp in a more traditional manner.

Vaccinated campers and campers who have had a positive COVID-19 test within ninety days prior to camp, and have since recovered, will have a modified testing program as follows:

Three to five days prior to the first day of camp, you will have a choice of using your own physician, pharmacy, or urgent care to obtain a PCR test, or you can set up a convenient appointment reserved for Camp Canadensis campers with your local PM Pediatrics office.  Once you receive you test results you will upload them to MyMedBot.  Again, the exact directions on registering with PM Pediatrics will be sent out in a future email.

Upon camper arrival on the first day of camp on June 26, each camper will have an Abbott rapid antigen shallow nasal swab test by the Camp Canadensis Health Center (results in 15 minutes).

On July 3, which is day eight of camp, each camper will receive an Abbott rapid antigen shallow nasal swab test by the Camp Canadensis Health Center (results in 15 minutes).

Your cost per child for testing for these two tests is $30.

The cost of the first week testing will be payable through ACH on July 1.

Camp has been certified as a CLIA waived laboratory, allowing us to do rapid onsite testing.  We will have additional rapid and PCR tests available as needed.

For 14 days prior to arrival, all campers and staff will be asked to complete a daily wellness log.

Last update: 4/30/21

Our goal is to get as close to the Camp Canadensis experience that we all know and love!  In addition to our testing strategy, Week 1 of camp will have cohorts by division for outdoor activities and by bunk when indoors.  It will also include mask wearing and social distancing in situations when cohorts are in potential close contact with each other (i.e. siblings that would like to see each other).

After Day 8 and if all PCR, Lucira Molecular, and Abbott Rapid Antigen tests show we are 100% free of any positive tests, our plan is to opening things up to a larger camp wide scale without cohorts.

Our intention is to keep as many activities as possible outdoors this summer.  All activity areas will also have thorough cleaning protocols in place.

All indoor and common spaces will be disinfected throughout the day.

Campers and staff will adhere to several hand-washing times scheduled throughout the day.  Hand sanitizing stations will be located all throughout camp.

The Dining Hall will still be used for food service and while some groups might eat there as well, most meals will be eaten outside in tented seating locations.

Cohorts

Campers and staff will be grouped into cohorts by division for outdoor activities during the first 8-10 days of camp.  Over these days, multiple rounds of testing will occur. Cohorts will be reduced in size to individual bunks while indoors and during meals.

Campers and staff must wear masks when mixing with people outside of their cohorts. Masks must also be worn when in the Dining Hall and other dining areas except when seated at the table, inside the Health Center, in any indoor common areas of camp, and when multiple cohorts are together while outdoors in close proximity.

Cohorts simplifies contract tracing in the event of a potential positive test result during this transition period, which is anticipated to end after the 8-10 day period. If during this time or at other times during the camp season any positive cases are identified, cohorting will be implemented until cases are isolated, contact tracing has occurred, and any necessary quarantine actions have been taken, along with follow-up testing.

Last update: 4/30/21

As of now, we are still considering these for the campers, ultimately making final decisions in the late spring.  The first factor to for consideration will be the type of trip and the exposure it has with the general population.  For instance, a nature-based trip (i.e. rafting or hiking trip) with no interaction with the general public could be looked at differently than a trip to an amusement park.  If we feel a trip can be done safely, we would like to do it.

While inter-camp sports are a fun part of the athletics experience, they are unlikely to occur.  Instead, we plan on ramping up our Super Leagues intramural athletics, which will give campers more competitive play opportunities if they want it.

Since it is anticipated that staff will be required to stay on camp during their time off, we will be creating opportunities and locations on our facility to give them space and time to recharge and relax with their peers.

Payment of any additional fees, such as Program Fees (for Horseback Riding Lessons and Golf Trips), Camper Bank or Trip Fees, will be deferred to June 1, 2021 to provide us with additional time for decisions about trips. Further information will be shared in May as decisions are made.

Last update: 4/28/21

If a camper or staff member tests positive prior to camp, they will need to isolate for a 10 day period.  They would need to be cleared by their home doctor.

If a camper or staff member tests positive while in camp, they will be isolated and when possible, asked to be picked up and brought home.  The remainder of the division would then be a quarantined pod and we will contact trace anyone that was exposed to the person with the positive case, providing follow up testing as needed.

Last update: 4/8/21

This will be decided in late spring.  At this point in time, we do not see Visiting Day in the traditional sense.  If there is an in-person Visiting Day, it would be on a smaller scale and require a testing platform for any visitors.  If an in-person Visiting Day does not occur, we will make plans for a Virtual Visiting Day.

Last update: 4/28/21

While this event has been traditionally available to all Canadensis families, we will need to limit the number of families in 2021.  This year, the Open House event will be available to families with a new camper in Summer 2021 as well as families with campers in the following age groups:  Lower Juniors (Grades 1-2), Upper Juniors (Grade 3) and Lower Inters (Grade 4), CITs (Grade 10) and CIT20s (Grade 11).  All family members are permitted to attend if one of your campers falls within these age groups.

This will be a masked event and predominantly be outdoors.  More information will be provided in the future.  We ask for the cooperation of families with campers in all other age groups to refrain from attending the Open House on June 6.

Last update: 4/28/21

While we had been considering the idea of buses to camp, we feel that a camper drop-off by car better coincides with our Week 1 cohort strategy. It also will help to facilitate the Opening Day testing plans.

We are asking families that live in PA, NY, NJ, CT, MD, MA and DE to drive their own campers to camp.  For families that fly from FL on our chaperoned flight, transportation to camp is also provided.  For families that fly from AZ, CO, UT and CA, we will assist in providing transportation from Newark Airport if needed.

A future correspondence will provide all families with their specific arrival times, and we ask that you only drive your own camper(s) to camp and not carpool with other families.

As a reminder, camper trunks / bags still need to be sent to camp in advance using Camp Baggage, FedEx, UPS, or dropped off on one of the already determined trunk drop off days (Open House on Sunday, June 6; Sunday, June 13 between 2-5 PM; Monday, June 14 between 2-8 PM; Tuesday June 15 between 3-6 PM).

We plan on having bus service home on August 14.

Last update: 4/28/21

We are encouraging our staff to get vaccinated as soon as they are available to them, but under current circumstances, it will not be a requirement.

Last update: 2/28/21