Dear Overnight Parents,
At our townhall meeting I said I’d wait for mid July to decide on overnight retreat. I truly held onto a shred of hope that since we only take up a small number of campers and since we aren’t really an overnight camp, we’d find some creative way to make it happen in some shape or form. We toyed with the idea of a shorter trip, less kids, lots of restrictions. We spoke to family camps that opened and then it hit us.
Overnight is just not meant to be.
I don’t want an overnight where I have to worry about who could hand a kid an oar at boating.I didn’t see ourselves limiting who is allowed to attend based on diagnoses or the status of their respiratory system. I can’t imagine serving meals in 4 shifts and spreading everyone far across the dining hall.
The KCC Overnight is magic and honestly, I don’t even think you, the parents, understand what a loss this is for our year as an organization. But I want an overnight where kids can smush together around a campfire with marshmallow covered faces. Our overnight works because I can turn on the music in the dining hall and everyone erupts in a spontaneous dance party. Overnight is arm in arm, kids on shoulders, red-faced chanting of our favourite camp songs. Overnight is snuggles in bed with friends and staff and showers that turn into water fights. Overnight is about kids getting dirty and togetherness and (almost) no rules.
Overnight is everything a pandemic is not.
We could offer distanced learning when school closed. Personal support workers at your homes when LHIN stopped funding. Full Day camp amidst long lists of restrictions and road blocks. But we just can’t win with overnight, and believe me, we would have moved mountains to make it happen.
I’ve sat with this announcement for a while, I just couldn’t bring myself to sent the email. But then day camp started, and for the last 2 days I decided that instead of being down about overnight I will rejoice in the fact that our building is once again filled with sunshine, laughter and music. It’s been a long four months…
– Yaffi Scheinberg, Executive Director and Head of School
