Here’s how to contact them:
ANDREW GAUSE MARTIAL ARTS
rvtkd.com/summer-camps Baroody Camps
baroodycamps.com Barrie Camp
barrie.org/barrie-camp Congressional Camp
congocamp.org INCOURAGE MARTIAL ARTS
incouragemartialarts.com/ summercamp
Kidcreate Studio
kidcreate.com Overtime Athletics
otathletics.com Play to Grow
playtogrowmd.com Sidwell Summer
sidwellsummer.org 20 Washington FAMILY JANUARY 2021
Neighborhood or Home Camps
Kristen Garman of Annandale, Virginia,
typically sends her twin boys to full-day
camp through Fairfax County nearly every
week in the summer. Last year, due to the
pandemic, she scaled it back to six weeks.

The boys, then 8, spent two of those
weeks at a neighborhood camp offered by
Baroody Camps.

Baroody, which canceled all of its regular
in-person camps at three locations in
Alexandria and Arlington, instead offered
both half-day and full-day camps for groups
of five to nine kids at families’ homes and
neighborhood parks. Campers enjoyed art,
science, cooking, building and various sports.

COVID-19 safety measures included daily
temperature checks, mask wearing and using
hand sanitizer.

The Garmans teamed up with three other
families the first week and two families the
second week in a neighbor’s backyard.

“It helped the kids get some fresh air and
exercise with their friends,” Garman says.

“Of course we were worried about the virus,
but we felt the benefits of camp outweighed
the risks for the boys.”
Overtime Athletics, a sports-themed
camp operating at various locations
throughout the country (including Maryland
and Virginia), also offered full-day and half-
day camps at people’s homes.

And Play to Grow in Gaithersburg,
Maryland, shipped the camp experience—
but not the counselors—straight to families’
homes with Camp@Home crates. The crates
contained art supplies and materials, along
with instructions and videos to help campers
complete 10 to 15 activities per week.

Virtual Camps
About 100 children attended one of
Congressional Camp’s virtual summer camps
via Zoom in 2020. The virtual camps focused
on activities such as arcade building, fashion
design, engineering and more.

“Parents who weren’t comfortable sending
their kids to in-person camp, who didn’t
want to commit to a full six weeks, or who
just needed to fill part of the day chose the
virtual option,” says O’Neil.

In addition to its neighborhood camps,
Baroody Camps also offered both half-day
and full-day virtual camps via Zoom. Camp
activities included art, science, cooking,
fitness, building, dance, theater and more.

And Sidwell Friends School, which
has locations in Washington, D.C. and in
Bethesda, Maryland, took their Sidwell
Summer programs for grades K through 8
online. Sidwell offered three-hour camps
with themes like LEGO, robotics and fashion.

Looking Ahead to 2021
As for the upcoming summer, camp directors
say it’s still too early to determine exactly
what they’ll be able to offer. It will all depend
on where we are with the pandemic and what
state and CDC guidelines will be.

“It’s tough to say right now because so
much can change so quickly,” says Hayden of
Barrie Camp. “But right now we’re planning
for a relatively normal summer program with
social distancing in place.”
O’Neil of Congressional Camp says he
believes the camp will continue to run at a
limited capacity, but not quite as limited as
last summer. And Greenbaum of Kidcreate
says she is planning for the same restrictions
as last summer.

“I really hope things are fairly back to
normal next summer,” she says. “But like
everything else, we’ll have to wait and see. n
SKYNESHER / E+
Interested in any of
the summer camps
mentioned in the article?
did not allow for social distancing, such
as horseback riding, music, pizza days and
travel programs.

“It went even better than we expected,”
says Dan Hayden, director of Barrie Camp.

“The kids adapted very quickly to the new
rules and to keeping their masks on.”
Congressional Camp in Falls Church,
Virginia, offered one six-week on-campus
program, Zippy’s Mini Camp, instead of
its usual 11 weeks of summer camp. Rather
than allowing families to pick and choose
weeks as usual, campers had to enroll for all
six weeks.

“We thought that it would be safer to
have the same campers come for the
entire session, rather than have different
kids come in and out,” explains Dan
O’Neil, the camp’s director. “And we
redesigned our camp program so that
the campers could participate in almost
all of the same activities.”
Those changes included moving many
of the indoor activities to outdoor tents and
limiting the capacity to 180 campers rather
than the usual 700 or so each week.

Kidcreate Studio, a children’s art studio
in Alexandria, Virginia, rearranged its setup
so that it could open its three-hour summer
camps in June. The studio provided each
camper with his or her own table and art
supplies instead of having a communal
tables with shared supplies. It also required
every staffer and camper to wear a mask
even before mask-wearing was mandatory
in Virginia. Owner Diane Greenbaum
found that almost all of the parents were
appreciative of these safety measures.

“Ninety-nine percent of them said, ‘Thank
you for doing things the way you’re doing
them,’” Greenbaum recalls.




I found my home out in the middle of nowhere
PHOTO COURTESY OF HERZL CAMP
WISCONSIN Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin
Isabella Lefkowitz-Rao,
left, at Herzl Camp in 2
019. By Isabella Lefkowitz-Rao
W hen my mother dropped me off for the first time at
Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin, I was 9 years old
and 1,200 miles from home. What concerned me at that
moment was if my cabin would be good and whether the food would
be edible.

Within three days, not only did I have answers to those questions
(yes and mostly yes), but I had already been asked dozens of times
how I, a not-yet fourth-grader from Washington, D.C., had managed to
make my way all the way up to Webster. Did I have family in the area?
(No.) Did my parents go to camp? (No.) Was I lost? (I didn’t think so.)
I explained that it had started the fall before, when my parents
decided that we would move to Minneapolis for a semester, so my
mother could teach at the University of Minnesota Law School.

There, I attended the Amos and Celia Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish
Day School, where a substantial percentage of the student body went
to Herzl.

Even though I was only there for one semester, something stuck
and six months later, my parents begrudgingly agreed to “ship”
me off to Herzl. By the end of the fortnight at camp, not only had I
perfected my explanation, but I knew I had found a second home.

I will be the first to admit that those first two weeks in a cabin
far away from home were not the easiest. I was not infrequently
homesick and, more importantly, missed my multi-temperature
shower. But I stuck it out, and to the dismay of my parents, I arrived
home happy for a home-cooked meal but wanting to go back for two
more weeks.

Camp and the overall experience of going to camp have changed
me for the better. While everybody changes a good deal from the ages
of 9 to 17, I really believe that Herzl has shaped the direction in which
I’ve grown. For example, as a 9-year-old, being in charge of making
my bed and keeping track of my clothes was impactful as it gave me a
greater sense of responsibility.”
As I grew up, it still tended to be the little things that made the
difference. I started noticing that I was much more open to trying
new things, whether participating in the “pop dance” during color
war or trying the mystery hamburger hot dish.

I gradually started spending less time on my bed alone reading
books or writing to my parents and more time meeting new people and
learning new games. I came to accept and love the social media and
screen detox and always wished it could continue on into the year.

I also learned larger lessons, such as the importance of community
service, as we progressed from picking up trash around camp to
doing service around the local county. These changes were visible
outside of camp as well. I was much less shy in new situations and
increasingly confident in being myself.

While I found my home out in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin,
sleepaway camps in general provide the same basic benefit: the
opportunity to live independently from your family and away from
home while pursuing interests and making new friends.

For younger kids, being away from home forces them to start
doing things for themselves and taking care of their own affairs.

For older kids just getting away, especially from a crazy city like
Washington, D.C. allows for a well-needed mental break and time to
relax while picking up important life and leadership skills needed for
college and beyond. n
Isabella Lefkowitz-Rao, 17,
plans to return for her eighth summer at Herzl Camp in 2021.

WashingtonFAMILY.com 21