Princeton Recreation Department Cancels Summer Camps

The Princeton Recreation Department has announced that they're canceling all summer camps for 2020, according to Planet Princeton.

The cancellation includes the day camp, travel camp for teenagers, and their yearly basketball camp. I'm sure this leaves many working families gasping, because of the need for childcare this summer, but, the tough decision was made with everyone's health and safety in mind. Plus, it seems as if it would very hard to pull off logistically.

Ben Stentz, the Princeton Recreation Department Director, told Princeton Planet, “The operational and safety restrictions that are currently in place, as well as additional restrictions expected from Governor Murphy’s office soon, present a remarkably challenging set of logistical, operational and safety concerns. New challenges such as social distancing of campers and staff, restrictions on group size, campers and staff wearing face coverings, and possibly performing daily temperature and health screens on campers and staff are changes that will require a great deal of time to implement, likely call for additional staff, and may in fact significantly change what our summer camp programs look like in the future.”

Princeton's programs would normally have hundreds of campers participating, which presented many possible problems.

For some adults, social distancing has proven difficult, can you imagine children trying to social distance at summer camp while doing camp like activities and playing games? Very hard.

From what I've heard, other local towns are following suit when it comes to camps. Mercer County Community College has announced that their Camp College programs will be virtual this year. At least that's something.

I feel really bad for children. They're missing school, they're missing their friends, now, they're going to miss summer camp. They may also be fearful of this "new normal" we're trying to get used to, although it feels nothing like normal.