Millions of kids look forward
to sleep-away camp every summer,
but now the American right of passage
is being threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We caught up with six families
who are anxiously waiting to hear if camp is canceled.
To run around outside all day with their friends,
it's just priceless, and to not have that
is breaking my heart potentially.
It's not just the kids
who look forward to camp every summer.
Last summer, it was the first summer
for all of them to be away, and it was really nice
for my husband and I.
We got to travel, we got to have some time
to remember what it's like to be just the two of us.
If camps do close down for the entire season,
that means parents are faced with a major dilemma.
How will they fill their children's time
for seven weeks this summer?
We have to come up with some particular structure
to keep our kids busy, and for those of us that work,
which we all do here, it's near impossible
to think of what that routine is going to look like.
Camp expect, Laura Nearpass,
says camps could actually be a safe haven
during the pandemic.
At sleep-away camp, the beauty of that is
it can be this self-contained environment
where you can limit the coming and going.
Hopefully it will prove that it can be
potentially the safest place for kids to be.
But the concern is understandable.
The kids live in close quarters
and eat shoulder to shoulder.
Everyone seems to agree that in terms of happiness
and mental health,
camp is exactly what these kids need right now,
assuming that it's safe.
They need other outlets, and that's what camp is.
(dramatic music)