Pre-Camp Screening
A Healthy Camp Begins at Home. In an effort to minimize illness at camp we ask that you check on the health of your camper daily beginning 14 days prior to camp start date. Parents and staff will be provided with a pre-camp medical questionnaire to monitor home temperature checks and will be asked to report any symptoms on the form provided in your Camp Coconuts Dashboard. The pre-screening camp form will be required to be filled out and turned in. The forms can be submitted online or turned in upon arrival for your campers day 1. Instructions will be provided with the form on the parent dashboard. We all want to stay safe and daily health screenings are an important part of that process.
What happens outside of camp is just as important as what happens within it. In normal times, how people spend their evenings and weekends really wouldn’t matter. Now it does. Counselors and staff will need to be rigorously safe during their off-hours so that they don’t bring danger in. The same applies to campers’ families. Everyone will be in this together, so everyone will need to be able to trust one another’s actions outside to feel safe inside. Please be mindful of all social distancing guidelines and mandates.
On-Going Screening
Both campers and staff will be screened daily by Camp Coconuts before entering the property. Upon arrival at camp, we will ask parents about symptoms and potential exposures. - If anyone reports anything positive, or if they have a fever of 100.4 or higher, they will not be allowed on the property. As always we adhere to the same rules as school, children need to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to camp. If anyone believes that someone they are living with is ill or has been exposed, please keep your camper home.
Camp Capacity
In an effort to reduce the spread of germs, we are operating at a 50% capacity this summer and we already have waiting lists for certain age groups.
Camper Groups
How can camp operate with social distancing? Minimize the spread of germs! Guidance from the CDC and American Camp Association recommends not to mix camper groups. To comply with best practices, this summer each camper group will be further broken down to “pods”. Each pod will be considered a "household" and will stay together for all 8 weeks. Just as you are close to the people you live with at home, your pod household members will not require social distancing. The Health Department recognizes that campers in a pod can not/will not stay six feet apart at all times. Therefore, each pod household will travel together, take bathroom breaks together, and go to activities together. This pod of campers, along with their counselors, will not social distance from each other. Similar to your personal household, the pod household of 10-12 people will be sharing personal space and germs. Pod household members can hold hands -- they just have to wash with soap and water or sanitize regularly.
On occasion Pods will share activities with other pods in the same group, but each pod must stay socially distanced from the others when possible. We say "when possible" because there are times, such as during a soccer game, when pods will mix due to the nature of the activity. Each Group will be a group of 5 pods. A DL (division Leader) will be assigned to the Group and will be your contact person at the camp. If pods interact with any other pod during the season it will be within their Group Only. All Camp Special Events have been redesigned to accommodate each group. Meaning, every Camper will trick or treat on Halloween but only one group at a time will participate. When pods are participating in a group activity social distancing will be put in place and staff will use masks when necessary. It’s all about minimizing risk. We have created a set schedule for every group.
Stay outdoors as much as possible
Camp Coconuts has a tremendous amount of outdoor programming areas and covered open-air programming spaces which sets us up perfectly. Outdoor activities appear to be much less likely to result in virus transmission than indoor activities. This means that we will spend as much time as possible outdoors. All equipment and indoor space will be cleaned and disinfected between sessions if/when indoor space is used.
Clean and disinfect facilities regularly
While we wait for the final NJ State Health Department guidelines, here are a few of our policies that we are implementing for this summer:
Hot Lunch Program
Lunch Offering- newly included hot lunches and a la carte salad bar will be postponed until 2021.
Lunch and snacks
Campers will continue to bring their lunches as they have done in years past. On-site walk-in refrigeration will be utilized daily. Camper groups will have staggered lunch periods and the ability to utilize several eating areas to allow for greater social distancing, without a common lunch area being required to serve prepared food. Campers must bring snacks so there is no crowding at the snack bar. The snack bar will be closed to campers. If we are able to open the snack shack it will be for a specific session only and we will notify parents of procedures. Any offered snacks on special event days will be dispersed to campers by a team member wearing PPE, including face masks and gloves.
Swimming and Swim Lessons
Sunscreen
We will ask families to apply camper’s first application of sunscreen prior to the arrival to camp. All reapplication of sunscreen will be applied outside the bunks. Campers that require assistance in reapplying will be assisted by their coach with gloves. We ask that you send spray sunscreen for our staff to apply when possible. We ask that parents work with young campers prior to camp starting on the application of sunscreen.
Rainy days
As far as rain days, there are 2 different types as far as camp is concerned. There’s an all-day soaking rain and then there’s the unexpected summer afternoon liquid sunshine. If storms are forecast parents may choose to keep their camper home, if not we ask that campers arrive with a mask labeled clearly with their name and pod name visible printed on the front. When we have liquid sunshine camp activities will go on as normal.
Wellness Center/Nurse Station
We have an additional nurse in our Wellness Center to help keep everyone healthy and happy.
Will we be informed if a camper or staff member tests positive Covid-19?
Our goal is to keep our Camp Coconuts families as informed as possible while remaining in compliance with various privacy laws. While those privacy laws prohibit us from providing detailed information about any specific individual(s), we intend to share generalized communications about any confirmed cases of Covid-19 among our staff or campers.
What about the “Kawasaki-like disease” and “COVID toe” (MIS-C or multisystem inflammatory syndrome) affecting children?
The CDC reported last week that this is a very rare and treatable syndrome. 15 children under age 15 in the U.S. have died of Covid-19 since February compared to about 200 who died of the flu and pneumonia. Children represent 0.02% of those affected.
Transportation
To allow for social distancing amongst campers we moved to family drop-off and family pick-up only for summer 2020. We will provide a refund for all door-to-door extras for the 2020 season or families can use the enrollment extra monies paid towards the remaining 2020 tuition balance and/or rollover credit for 2021.
Excursions
Unfortunately, we have canceled our excursion program for summer 2020. It is uncertain with the phased re-openings if the booked excursion destinations will be open and if so when. In addition, we cannot guarantee their facilities preparedness and or facilities access. We will provide a refund for all excursion enrollment extras for the 2020 season or families can use the enrollment extra monies paid towards remaining 2020 tuition balance and/or rollover credit for 2021.
Family Drop-off and Pick-up
Pick up & Drop off procedure will be provided soon in the Camper Checklist for 2020. We must all work together to keep this process organized and safe. If you are given a window that does not work with your schedule please email your division leader immediately. Please do not show up early for pick up as that will cause confusion on dismissal and cause back up to the entire system. As always, parents are asked to remain in their car. Our staff will greet your children in your car and return them to you in the afternoon. This process moves quickly as long as everyone is patient. We should be able to dismiss each grouping inside of 15 minutes. There is no reason for anyone to get antsy and this year more than ever before we expect everyone to work together. This will allow for the most efficient experience.
Before and After Care
Our staff will perform a temperature check before they sign your child in each morning. The Camp Coconuts staff will also call for your child in the afternoon. This new process will take additional time, so please be patient. We will separate all campers by age to keep them in smaller groups and socially distanced. The hours for Before Care 7:00-8:30 am and After Care are 4:30-6:00 pm. Please reach out to us if you wish to add-on extended care. We will need more staff to maintain social distancing, we will be using more than one area for extended care this year, so these additional requirements will be reflected in the cost of extended care this year. We apologize but it is the only way we can ensure your child’s safety and operate within the guidelines.
Events
All camp events including camp Family Kick-off BBQ, swim team meets, and theater performance have been canceled. We will do our best to record in camp-events and make available for parents to share in the fun.
Splash Week
Due to the postponement of camp start date Splash Week for Summer 2020 has been canceled.
Swim Team
Our swim team has been canceled to reduce the mixing of campers within different groups. In addition, local teams we compete, beach clubs, will not be filling their pools.
Tutoring
Summer tutoring at this time has been cancelled, we are still trying to make it happen so please stay tuned.
Theater Camp
Our drama shows have been canceled to reduce the mixing of campers within different groups. We are working to integrate drama activities into the schedule.
Meet & Greets
Camper and Coach meet & Greets have been modified. Stay tuned for more info!
Orientation
We will schedule two virtual meeting times to choose from, prior to camp to help prepare everyone for the season There will be time designated for a Q & A available during the meeting. Stay tuned.
Camp Apparel Pick-up
We will arrange to drop off backpacks and t-shirts. This will be done as a drive-by. Please fill out your camper profile in the Camper dashboard ASAP so we provide you the right size t-shirt. If you have any questions at all, please email us at coachd@campcoconuts.com as that is the best way to reach us right now
Summer 2020
This summer is unique and we all understand that it will be different. Some of you may not be comfortable sending your child to camp. We get it. This is not for everyone. If you are uncomfortable and prefer your children not attend camp this summer, that's ok. All we ask is that you let us know as soon as possible so we can make your spot available to campers on the wait list.
This is a lot of information and we will have more to share once the final guidelines are released. We anticipate that campers will be swimming and playing outside, having fun, and being kids as usual. There are obviously new requirements, which we outlined. We are trying to keep everyone updated regularly and we will let you know more once we finalize our plans. You should expect weekly updates as camp gets closer.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you and camp will be here before you know it!
Covid-19 FAQs
Version 1- May 29, 2020
Camp Coconuts 205 Harmony Road Middletown, NJ 07748 Telephone: (732) 856-9473 Email:coachd@campcoconuts.com
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Camp Coconuts is the premier summer day camp for kids ages 4-14 in Monmouth County, New Jersey with swim lessons, athletics, arts, and more!
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