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A30 FEATURE
Friday 26 June 2020
'Grief mode': What the loss of summer camp means for kids

By SOPHIA ROSENBAUM Robyn Spector, doesn't
NEW YORK (AP) — It wasn't know life without camp.
just the leadership oppor- This would have been her
tunities or seeing his best 40th summer there, and
friends or even escaping she has held nearly every
months stuck at home be- role since she started as an
cause of the coronavirus 8-year-old camper. Camp
pandemic that had Rory is where she "learned how
Sederoff thinking 2020 to be good at things. I
would be one of his best learned how to be kinder. I
summers ever. met my husband. I brought
This would have been the my kids at 12 weeks old."
Toronto teenager's 15th Spector does most of the
year at Camp Walden, a hiring at the camp, which
sleepaway camp in up- has about 500 campers
state New York where he and 270 staff each sum-
has spent every summer mer. She finds joy in "being
since he was 3 months old. part of something that is so
He had already started re- special to more than 1,000
hearsing the speech he people each summer."
was going to give at the Rosenberg acknowledged
end-of-summer banquet, that attending sleepaway
and imagined the exact camp is a privilege, one
tree by the waterfront that that many kids can't experi-
he would pick to be named In this June 22, 2020, photo provided by Shaye Spector, Camp Walden Director Robyn Spector ence because of the hefty
in his honor. holds a group photo from one of her first summers at camp. Spector, 48, would have been spend- price tag or because the
ing her 40th summer at Camp Walden, a co-ed sleepaway camp near Lake George in Diamond
For 14-year-old Rory, whose Point, N.Y. tradition of camp may be
parents work at Walden, Associated Press unfamiliar to them. He said
camp is where he feels outreach to those children
most like himself — discon- camp each year, and the which fosters a sense of tional skills. First-year camp- is a focus for him and other
nected from screens and $18 billion industry employs community and contrib- ers would be learning inde- camp directors.
open to new opportunities. over a million seasonal utes to the uniqueness of pendence and some basic Annabelle Bridglall, 10,
"This summer, I would do workers, according to the camp. confidence. Those going would have been spending
many things that I won't re- American Camp Associa- "They're only looking at into their sixth summer, say, her fourth summer this year
ally be able to do again," tion. The association has each other, eye to eye, might have been develop- at Forest Lake Camp in the
he said. "It's a summer filled more than 3,100 camps heart to heart, head to ing leadership and relation- Adirondacks on a scholar-
with opportunities that now accredited or seeking ac- head," said ACA President ship-building skills. ship program started about
won't happen. There's no creditation in its network. Tom Rosenberg. "It literally changes lives," a decade ago and funded
way to get that back. It's Strict policies at most Rosenberg calls camp the Rosenberg said. "You come by the camp's alumni. She
gone." camps limit or ban the use optimal learning environ- home different." is one of about 20 camp-
Camp Walden would have of personal technology, ment for social and emo- Camp Walden's director, ers who received financial
opened this week, but like assistance to attend Forest
most overnight camps Lake this year.
across the country, it is Forest Lake's owners were
closed this year because pushing to keep camp
of virus-related state restric- open until New York state
tions. For millions of kids, los- announced restrictions
ing camp is another in a list June 12 that prevented
of missed childhood mile- that. For Annabelle, who
stones and experiences, lives in the Bronx, the news
big and small, due to the was devastating.
pandemic. "I love camp and I feel like
And while some activities I'm missing something," she
can be pushed online or said.
rescheduled, the camp She says she'll miss stand-
experience has an expira- ing on the tables cheering
tion date. It doesn't trans- after meals. She'll miss Sun-
late digitally since it relies day campfires, and activi-
on kids being together, ties that she says she'd nev-
outside, stepping out of er have done otherwise:
their regular lives and into horseback riding, riflery,
new challenges and fun. woodworking. "You have to
People who have experi- be there to see the magic"
enced summer camp of- of camp, she said.
ten have a "10 for 2" men- Andy Pritikin, owner of Lib-
tality, counting down the erty Lake day camp in
months all year until they southern New Jersey, was
can spend their cherished thinking of kids like Rory
eight weeks at their "home and Annabelle when he
away from home." This June 22, 2020, photo provided by Zack Pine shows the empty main campus of Camp Walden, decided to keep operating
An estimated 20 million U.S. a co-ed sleepaway camp near Lake George in Diamond Point, N.Y. this summer, albeit with ma-
children attend summer Associated Press jor changes.q