February Update on Kayitz 2022!
Shalom!
This email is to update our Camp Ramah New England overnight camp families on health and safety protocols and program plans for summer 2022. If you are also a day camp family, you will be receiving an update in the spring.
We are proceeding full steam ahead with our plans for the summer. Our enrollment is very strong, and we are extremely pleased with the quality and pacing of staff hiring.
Our success last summer was based on our tremendous partnership with our camp families, and we believe that if we duplicate that effort, kayitz 2022 will be a masterpiece.
This is an update on our approach to our health and safety protocols and our program for the upcoming summer. We know that conditions will likely be very different in June than they are today, and we will be nimble in adapting. Our incredible Ramah New England Medical Committee, led by Dr. Michael Agus, continues to advise us on how to run camp as safely as possible.
Vaccinations and Boosters: all eligible campers and staff must be up to date on their vaccinations, which now includes both the two initial doses and the booster prior to the summer. Please see this link to the CDC website for guidance on when one is considered “ Up to Date” on their vaccines and boosters.
Testing and Masks: We believe that both testing and masking are tools we can use to mitigate the possibility that COVID impacts our operations. As was the case last summer, we will follow the advice of our medical committee to create protocols around masking and testing that will keep our campers safe while also keeping camp feeling as normal as possible. Given the favorable trajectory of COVID at this moment, we expect less masking at camp this summer. As the summer gets closer and the COVID situation is clearer, we will update our families on what adjustments we’ll be making to our protocols for 2022.
Camp Program: We expect our in-camp summer program to run normally. We don’t expect COVID to impact what we can offer or how we staff camp. Programs that require leaving camp may be limited. It’s likely we won’t be able to make final decisions on out-of-camp programs until camp is in session and we know what the COVID situation looks like. In making our decisions, we will prioritize the out-of-camp programs that we deem most important to our campers, while also those that are in the most safe and controllable environments. For example, we are hopeful that we will be able to run our “Yom Roo” intercamp with Ramah Berkshires.
Visitors to Camp: In general, we expect to strictly limit visitors to camp. However, we will prioritize trying to find a safe way to run Visiting Day this summer. We will update these plans in the late spring.
Opening Day and Luggage: In order to reduce the chances of bringing COVID into camp at the start of each session, our opening day and luggage policies will be similar to 2021. This means that parents driving their children to camp will drop them off, like last year, at the A-Side field and will not go up to the bunks. A-Side campers (up to entering 7th grade) will have their bags unpacked and bunks set up prior to arrival. Luggage and travel instructions will be sent out around March 1st.
We are looking forward to an awesome summer where our campers and staff can enjoy being carefree, have fun with friends, and fill their souls with the Ramah experience.
Todah Rabbah,
Rabbi Ed Gelb, CEO
Ramah New England