Our Kids Member Report

Glen Herbert
Editor/Writer, Our Kids Media
May, 2020

The first line of this letter has been written dozens of times,” writes Jeff Bradshaw at the top of the Camp Wenonah facebook post this week announcing the closure. The final version is this: “There are simply no good words to tell you that Camp Wenonah will not be able to operate this summer, due to COVID-19.”

He’s right, of course. There are no good words. The challenges that the coming season presents begin with overwhelming disappointment, but they by no means end there. Moreover, there’s a bigger story that needs to be told. Parents know what changes or closures mean for them, but there is also value in letting them know what it means to camps as well. In the coming weeks we’ll be delivering that message, encouraging families to consider how they can support camps through what, for many, could become a devastating year. To that end we launched a Parents' Guide to Camps and COVID-19, which we’ll be updating as provinces continue to announce and adapt distancing policies.

We’ll be promoting available programs in a number of ways, and in early April we created a dedicated search page for Online and Virtual Programs, which ranks as the #1 result in Google for dozens of keyword searches. Parents will be looking for any and all available programs, in-person and online, to help give some shape, life, and respite to the summer months. We want to make sure they find you.

Further, we’ve created a newsfeed listing online events. Medeba instituted a daily challenge. Glen Bernard Camp hosted a Virtual Vista. Camp Wenonah hosted an online campfire, as did many others. Some, like Camp Couchiching, host morning flag raisings from the camp, including callouts, by name, to specific campers who have been writing in. It’s a little thing, in a way, though nevertheless means a lot.

An added benefit is what all those programs and activities say about the culture of the camps, offering a unique window onto their character and reason for being. This is great content, and needs to be shared. To that end:

Be sure to record online events, as they can continue to draw an online audience. In very many cases, the active audience—those that joined live—is quickly eclipsed by the passive audience, or those that watch the stream after the event is finished.
Share it with us! I, for one, am impressed on a daily basis by all the unique programs, and all the talent brought to them. We’ve been posting these to our Virtual programs hub, and will share them through social feeds and mailing lists.
Ask campers and alumni to share their thoughts. We’ve begun promoting a call to action around the #missingcamp campaign. This is an opportunity for campers to engage, and to further communicate the culture of specific camps, and the value of camp generally. We’re asking campers and alumni to submit short videos of them answering questions around what camp means to them, and what they’ll be missing most. (This is something St. Clement’s School did, and the videos they received were very, very good—perhaps better than they were expecting when they made the initial call.) We’ll promote these videos on our site, through our social media channels, and they’ll find a place on our platform going forward. Please send the videos to [email protected]

Ultimately, camp isn’t a place or a building. It’s also not limited to one season or one session. It’s about how we live our lives, and that’s something that continues, COVID or not. It will be a hard year, there’s no doubt. But there’s much that can be done. We’d like to let people know that the busses may have stopped running, but the life of camp continues, and to let them know of the many opportunities available for them to connect and participate within their camp communities.

If you have thoughts or ideas about how we can develop your messaging further, don’t hesitate to let me know by responding to this email or writing me directly at [email protected].