Camps in New York State: An Urgent Message

As you may know, the question of summer overnight camp opening is still being debated in Albany. The date of overnight camp is fast approaching, and camps have still not received the green light from Governor Cuomo to open camp. AJCO, a group of camp directors and a medical team (including top infectious disease doctors) have developed a detailed plan that will allow camps to open safely.

Agudath Israel asks all to contact the governor’s office by Sunday night, today, June 7th. We are enclosing the link below to contact the governor’s office. The process takes less than 60 seconds. You will need to give your name and email address. It asks you for a topic and offers a drop-down menu. Please select COVID-19. It also asks for a subject. Please write Summer Overnight Camp. We are also including a sample message to the governor in the next post. You can copy and paste it or use one of your own.

Please see a short message from Rabbi Yeruchim Silber, Director of NY Government Relations, on this crucial issue, below.

 

Please submit by Sunday Night, June 7th. The link is:

https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form

Here is a sample message you can use in your email:

To the Honorable Governor:

We appreciate all that you have been doing to keep the citizens of New York State safe. Under your guidance there were no Covid-related deaths in NYC on June 3 and the infection rates across the state keep dropping.

As a parent of an overnight camper, I am pleading with the Governor to allow overnight camps to open. My children have been home and isolated for so many months. They need camp desperately

We need to return to work soon. We cannot have our children home without structure. Sunshine, fresh air and friendships cannot be replaced by Zoom programming and screen time. Our children NEED the structure of camp. There they learn teamwork, resiliency and connect with nature. Camp provides opportunities for socialization and bolsters emotional health.

Camp directors along with top infectious disease doctors have put protocols in place to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 in camp. Our children will be tested before camp and then quarantined in camp – where they will not infect their grandparents.

The safe and logical thing to do is to green light the opening of summer overnight camps right away. We will certainly show our appreciation to you!

Please let overnight camps open.

Thank you.