18 Washington FAMILY JANUARY 2021



Camp During
COVID-19 By Jennifer Marino Walters
How some summer camps operated in 2020
— and what they’re hoping for in 2021
W hile many of us
are still recovering from the holiday season, some families
throughout the Washington, D.C. area are already starting to plan ahead for summer.

For many families, those summer plans typically include camp. But due to the COVID-
19 pandemic, the summer camp experience may look different than normal—or not happen at
all—for a lot of kids across the region.

Families got a taste of those summer camp changes in 2020. While some camps closed
entirely, many stayed open with COVID-19 safety measures in place. Some offered virtual
camps, while others brought camps to families’ homes. And some offered a combination of
camp options to meet parents’ concerns and comfort levels.

Take a look at what various summer camp programs did in 2020—and what they hope to
provide in 2021.

JUANMONINO / E+
Day Camps
Many area camps redesigned their programs so that they could operate in-person while
still meeting state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Safety
measures included daily temperature checks and COVID-19 screenings for campers and staff,
frequent handwashing, enhanced cleaning, smaller group sizes and mask requirements for
everyone age 5 and older.

Darla Eisemann of Springfield, Virginia, sent her two boys, then 9 and 7, to their usual summer
camp at Andrew Gause Martial Arts. The camp offered its regular activities with social distancing
measures in place and even took field trips to a local pool before it opened to its members.

“We felt completely safe, and we have no concerns about sending the boys back in 2021,”
Eisemann says.

Vanessa Page, a mom of two from Fairfax, Virginia, typically sends her 9-year-old son to full-
day summer camp at George Mason University. When that camp was canceled for 2020, she sent
him to a half-day camp at InCourage Martial Arts in Burke, Virginia, instead.

“I felt that they took good precautions to keep kids and families safe while still providing a
fun atmosphere,” says Page. “They couldn’t do the usual trips to splash parks and fun zones, but
they did go to local parks and playgrounds twice a week and made use of the grassy area nearby
to get active in a socially distanced way. It provided my son with safe socialization while my
husband and I worked.”
Barrie Camp in Silver Spring, Maryland, offered most of its usual activities such as
swimming, sports, arts and crafts, dance and organized games. But the camp adapted its
schedule to allow for longer transition times between areas, and it canceled activities that
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