Are your kids going to camp? It's up in the air for many Minnesota families

The Girl Scouts have canceled. The Bakken Museum is still on. Scouts BSA are delayed.

As the summer of the pandemic begins, the question of "Will the kids go to camp?" is still up in the air for many Minnesota parents.

Gianna Kordatzky, who maintains a camp list on her Family Fun Twin Cities website, has been noting camp confirmations and cancellations nearly every day. There's no clear pattern of which kinds of camps — overnight, day, indoor, outdoor — are being called off due to COVID-19.

"If they feel like they can make the camp safe, they're going to try to have it," she said. "And if they feel like they can't, they will either adjust for it to be an online camp, or just cancel or postpone until next year."

Kordatzky is still "technically" planning to send her four children to sleep-away camps later this summer, but she's not banking on them.

"We're planning with the kids like it's still on. We're thinking about what they'll need for camp, what they need to pack," she said. "At the same time, we're preparing ourselves that it might be something that's not going to happen."

Camp organizers are considering the shifting guidelines from Centers for Disease Control and the state when they decide whether to open. But parents also have to gauge the safety, benefits and risks of allowing their kids to take part in this summer tradition.

"I'm just kind of putting the message out there that summer isn't canceled. It's going to look different than summers in the past, but it's still going to be special and meaningful," said Kordatzky, who created a "Summer to Remember" weekly activity challenge for families that are trying to foster camp-like fun on their own.

The camps that have decided to go ahead this summer are working to incorporate new practices to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

For its Camp Innovation programs, the Bakken Museum will require campers to wear face masks and museum staff to use personal protective equipment, among other precautions. The YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities is running day camps, summer programs and family camps with modified programming to maintain smaller groups and allow for social distancing. The "Y" canceled its overnight and wilderness camps this summer.

When "Y" day camps like Camp Kici Yapi in Prior Lake and Camp DayCroix in Hudson, Wis., opened for the season on June 8, staffers asked parents a list of required questions that they will repeat every day at drop-off. They include: "Have you been in contact with someone under investigation for, or with a confirmed case of COVID-19?" and "Has your child had a fever of 100.4 or higher in the last 72 hours?"

Virtual campers

McFaul directs the long-running Adventures in Cardboard day camps, where kids create costumes and castles and use them in role-playing games in Twin Cities-area parks.

He considered ways to reduce risk, especially since his camps take place outdoors, but he ultimately decided to cancel all regular camps this summer.

"The sheer size of the camps — we have 120 people out there — in itself is a risk," he said. "It potentially also complicates things because if any of our campers or staff [were to] test positive, I mean, it would be advisable that we completely shut down for a number of weeks."

"I hope I made a mistake. But I'd rather be on this side of a mistake than the other side," he said.

Still, McFaul and his staff created ways for campers to get some Adventures in Cardboard experience this summer. They are hosting smaller group games in area parks (with new rules to aid with social distancing) and they're bringing the fantasy and science fiction worlds that campers create to Minecraft, where they can virtually interact with one another.

"Parents have been overwhelmingly willing to help us out by rolling their tuition into next year. And some parents — I can't believe it — are even making donations of their tuition this year. We've had about 12% donating their tuition and it's over 33% that are rolling tuition into next year," he said. "Living with such stress, and then something good happens — that's when the tears come out."

'Camp Charlie'

With many camps and summer sports activities canceled for kids in his neighborhood, Charlie Sexton saw an opportunity.

The Eden Prairie 13-year-old decided to pass out fliers with a photo of his smiling face. In bold letters, they ask: "Need to get your kids out of the house? Sign up for Camp Charlie." (The flier also lists his rates: $10 an hour for one child, $12 for two and $14 for three or more.)

So far, five kids have signed up.

The teen, who worked as a junior counselor at a Life Time day camp the past two summers, is also planning a lot of hand sanitizing, hand washing and cleaning, he said.

Meanwhile, Charlie is crossing his fingers about his own camp experience. It's set for later this summer, at an all-boys camp in Rhinelander, Wis.

"They have dogs you can play with, two basketball courts, canoeing, kayaking, golfing, tennis courts, baseball, horseback riding, a hockey arena. … We haven't heard back from them yet," he said. "We're hoping that I can still go."