This local camp’s family weekends were a pandemic hit. Here’s their plan for the summer
The 10-year-old Camp Corral program at YMCA Camp Seymour gives children of fallen, injured, or disabled U.S. military members a chance to go to summer camp.
It’s a free camp for children ages 8-15.
For the summer of 2020, the program evolved in response to the pandemic. They only offered family camps, dedicating the whole summer to these weekend-long family retreats.
“We couldn’t run our normal summer programs. So, we were able to do family retreats instead where one family would come and stay in their own cabin at camp for a weekend,” said Scott Jackson, executive director of YMCA Camp Seymour.
Families got to go through camp, participating in activities and spending time with one another.
“We had this wonderful outdoor space and COVID-19 guidelines were all about sleeping quarters, so one family stayed in their own cabin and were on a private schedule. Families were moving around camp barely seeing each other and all meals were done for takeout,” Jackson said.
This year Camp Corral is July 17-22 and the program structure will change back to allow kids back at camp on their own for a week without parents for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Registration for the July camp is full, but there’s a waitlist at https://www.campcorral.org/camps/ if spots open up. 105 kids are signed up for camp.
Family retreats won’t completely go away, though. Camp Corral already hosted a family retreat weekend May 13-15. They will host an additional weekend retreat October 28-30.
Registration is not yet open for the fall. The date will be announced at a later time.
“We try to just let kids be kids. We want them to make friendships and the one advantage of having all the Camp Corral kids from the specific demographic is that they don’t have to have those difficult conversations with each other,” Jackson told The Gateway. “They don’t have to talk about what it’s like to deal with a deployment or running the household because mom or dad is gone. Instead they can focus on playing sports, zip lining, climbing towers, dance parties or whatever they want to be doing at camp.”
A lot of the campers have life experiences that lead them to grow up faster than others, Jackson said.
Camp Corral, which splits up campers by age group, gives them the opportunity to connect with kids their own age.
“After the pandemic this will be more important than ever, getting kids resocialized,” Jackson said.
This summer Camp Corral kids will get back to campfires, skits and games together.
The nonprofit relies on donations to fund its camp program and operational costs.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
