SO: camp hidden meadows Covid outbreak

[Anonymous]

Our DC just back from two good weeks at CHM. We have sent kids there for years. This year was another positive experience. I thought the camp gave us accurate and prompt information on the Covid situation. They treated arrival Covid testing as a serious matter for our crew.

[Anonymous]

It's a secular camp -- period. We would not be interested otherwise. Our experience this year has been great so far (kids are there currently, so we'll see, but judging by pictures and the communications Ive had with the camp. I believe the camp founders are still involved, but have brought on new directors. As a mom of a daughter who prefers skimpy bikinis, I'm glad they have a rule against them so I'm not the bad guy!

[Anonymous]

Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a secular camp -- period. We would not be interested otherwise. Our experience this year has been great so far (kids are there currently, so we'll see, but judging by pictures and the communications Ive had with the camp. I believe the camp founders are still involved, but have brought on new directors. As a mom of a daughter who prefers skimpy bikinis, I'm glad they have a rule against them so I'm not the bad guy!

The dress code for girls was not just about swimwear. No tank tops, no crop tops, no shorts that show any, and I mean ANY of the stomach, so if your daughter has a long torso like ours she will get heavily monitored.

But boys were allowed to be shirtless, etc.

Was ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a secular camp -- period. We would not be interested otherwise. Our experience this year has been great so far (kids are there currently, so we'll see, but judging by pictures and the communications Ive had with the camp. I believe the camp founders are still involved, but have brought on new directors. As a mom of a daughter who prefers skimpy bikinis, I'm glad they have a rule against them so I'm not the bad guy!

The dress code for girls was not just about swimwear. No tank tops, no crop tops, no shirts that show any, and I mean ANY of the stomach, so if your daughter has a long torso like ours she will get heavily monitored.

But boys were allowed to be shirtless, etc.

Was ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

We were first timers this year, so didn’t feel the impact of taking away bunk notes. Our kid wrote a bunch of letters via snail mail- there was a delay of a few days, but we got them all. We packed a bunch of stamps and stationary. There was no change in ownership, but there is a new camp manager this year. They talk about limiting care packages because it got out of control in the past with some parents sending way too much and caused friction between campers. I have no idea about religious undertones. I will ask my camper, but she didn’t mention anything like that besides a gratitude circle they have each evening, but I think that has been going on for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were first timers this year, so didn’t feel the impact of taking away bunk notes. Our kid wrote a bunch of letters via snail mail- there was a delay of a few days, but we got them all. We packed a bunch of stamps and stationary. There was no change in ownership, but there is a new camp manager this year. They talk about limiting care packages because it got out of control in the past with some parents sending way too much and caused friction between campers. I have no idea about religious undertones. I will ask my camper, but she didn’t mention anything like that besides a gratitude circle they have each evening, but I think that has been going on for years.

I've heard stories about various camps where the parents sent tons of Amazon packages to the camp, overwhelming the package room. Some camps have very strict "contraband" rules, which make them sound like prisons. I get trying to break kids of the habit of getting whatever they want from mom and dad, but some of the prohibited items were ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were first timers this year, so didn’t feel the impact of taking away bunk notes. Our kid wrote a bunch of letters via snail mail- there was a delay of a few days, but we got them all. We packed a bunch of stamps and stationary. There was no change in ownership, but there is a new camp manager this year. They talk about limiting care packages because it got out of control in the past with some parents sending way too much and caused friction between campers. I have no idea about religious undertones. I will ask my camper, but she didn’t mention anything like that besides a gratitude circle they have each evening, but I think that has been going on for years.

I've heard stories about various camps where the parents sent tons of Amazon packages to the camp, overwhelming the package room. Some camps have very strict "contraband" rules, which make them sound like prisons. I get trying to break kids of the habit of getting whatever they want from mom and dad, but some of the prohibited items were ridiculous.

I actually like the idea of limiting care packages, and remember it being somewhat competitive when I was a camper elsewhere. Also very curious about the religious undertones. Would they make girls go back and change shirts if they were deemed inappropriate? I didn't pack my camper many extra clothing options!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

It sounds like the PP is describing a school like “dress code” and similar to most summer camp guidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

It sounds like the PP is describing a school like “dress code” and similar to most summer camp guidelines.

Most camps prohibit girls from wearing tank tops in the heat, in the summer, but allow boys to wear them and even for them to go shirtless? Hmmmm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

It sounds like the PP is describing a school like “dress code” and similar to most summer camp guidelines.

Most camps prohibit girls from wearing tank tops in the heat, in the summer, but allow boys to wear them and even for them to go shirtless? Hmmmm

Yeah, banning tank tops does not seem reasonable nor equitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

It sounds like the PP is describing a school like “dress code” and similar to most summer camp guidelines.

Most camps prohibit girls from wearing tank tops in the heat, in the summer, but allow boys to wear them and even for them to go shirtless? Hmmmm

Yeah, banning tank tops does not seem reasonable nor equitable.

But there were a bunch of pictures of girls in tank tops on the website, so IDK?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids were there for the first two weeks of camp this summer. The testing on arrival day was not cursory and seemed to be fine from a clinical perspective, but it was disorganized and took forever.

One of our kids came back with covid. We tested because we got an email from camp about covid positive children our children may have interacted with. We of course told camp that one of our kids was positive, but there was no further community email from them saying something like "We have learned of additional positives in the group that was there last week."

The new bunk note policy was handled poorly. Disappointing and sounded stressful for our kids. Sounds like letters our kids wrote to us were simply discarded.

Are the new directors discouraging counselors from being open about their gender identity and pronouns? Based on what our kids said, I'm afraid that may be the case, but I'm taking what my kids said with a grain of salt.

According to my kid the camp staff was supportive of campers using they/them pronouns. Our kiddo said she didn’t notice any religious overtones and never heard anyone told to change.

But she is in a younger group, so curious if they are applying the “dress code” only to older groups. Also, where did you hear about a dress code? The only thing we ever saw mentioned was no bikinis.

It sounds like the PP is describing a school like “dress code” and similar to most summer camp guidelines.

Most camps prohibit girls from wearing tank tops in the heat, in the summer, but allow boys to wear them and even for them to go shirtless? Hmmmm

Yeah, banning tank tops does not seem reasonable nor equitable.

But there were a bunch of pictures of girls in tank tops on the website, so IDK?

My girls were there at the beginning of July and the directors tried to ban the tank tops and crop tops but for many girls that was most of their clothes. And frankly just ridiculous and sexist. I was told there was major push back from campers, including against the religious stuff, and some just started wearing the clothes anyway because that's all they had clean.

I do not understand what is wrong with tank tops, especially at an outdoor camp. It gets hot, super hot. I too am not very impressed with the new directors.