What’s New for Staff at Camp Runoia Harmonyville for Covid-19
This important document communicates what we (you and everyone at Runoia) will be doing to help arrive healthy and stay healthy at camp while having fun, allowing campers to interact meaningfully with peers, building life skills and experiencing camp and the outdoors for three weeks this summer.
Training and Management: This year, our medical staff will be trained on COVID-19 management procedures and be equipped with PPE when needed. We have a health cabin to manage the regular needs of camper and staff health issues and an isolation area ready to handle anyone who may get COVID-19.
Health Care Workers: We are committed to running camp in a responsible and health-focused way. To figure this out, we are listening closely to health care professionals and the relevant authorities (for instance, Maine CDC, National CDC, American Camp Association) to ensure we have the most accurate and current information. New guidelines from the CDC came out today. We are “camp experts,” and have brought onto our team medical professionals to guide our process. Our doctors are also camp parents so really ‘get it’ from all angles of camp care.
Hygiene: We have raised our sanitation standards to match and exceed recommendations from health care professionals. We will increase the frequency with which we perform deep cleanings of shared surfaces and indoor facilities, and deploy extra sanitation teams throughout the day. “Teams” means all of us staff/counselors/administrators/kitchen crew and health team. There will be hand washing stations throughout camp, along with hand sanitizer dispensers (all of this is new) and counselors will be prepared to model best hygiene practices. Campers and staff will shower daily.
Monitoring: In order to ensure camper and staff health this summer we will add monitoring elements including daily temperature and symptoms checks first thing in the morning. In a cabin “household” counselors will take and record temperatures and symptoms of everyone in the household.
Guidelines: In keeping with public guidelines, we will modify parts of our camp program to achieve physical distancing standards. For example, our Dining Hall will operate in shifts this summer to prevent overlap between neighborhood groups. We also plan to operate camp activities with smaller household (cabin) groups that will not interact with other households unless there is appropriate social distancing and sometimes face coverings.
Self-Quarantine and Health Screening: Staff will be required to monitor their own health and practice low-risk/low-density distancing 14 days before they arrive. Staff will quarantine on-site before camp and campers will be asked to self-quarantine before and after camp. Counselors will have a health check upon arrival. Campers will have a health check at drop-off on Opening Day and everyone joining the camp community will be tested. We will adjust the way we manage Opening and Closing Day to minimize interaction between camp families.
Camp in a Bubble: Parents will not be allowed on campus on opening and closing day. Counselors will help all their household campers unpack and organize their rooms.There will be no outside visitors during the summer. We will limit entrances and exits to and from camp property to essential services only.
Staff have made the extra commitment not to leave camp in a vehicle or go to any other place except camp property and exercise in the area of camp (including walking/running/biking down the Point Road or Woodland Camp Road) during their time off.
Illness at Camp: In the event that someone does get sick at camp this summer, we have multi-staged quarantine and isolation procedures that will allow us the time to determine the best response, including whether or not the ill camper or staff member will be able to rejoin the camp population after a period of time. We will have a team of RNs to care for anyone being tested for COVID and isolated. If you have COVID-19 symptoms or you contract COVID-19 at camp, we will have a comfortable place on campus for you to live until we can make a plan with you.
Communication: Camp Runoia will communicate with parents and staff in a thorough and transparent manner. We recognize the importance of sharing the best information available as quickly as possible. The information also changes and we are providing updates to families and staff.
This summer, we aspire to be better than ever. Thoughtful and detailed communication is more important than ever in keeping our community well-informed and highly-prepared.