New Brunswick summer camp stalled due to rising COVID-19 cases – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca

About a hundred kids in the Saint John area who were eagerly anticipating a trip to overnight camp are disappointed this week, with COVID-19 shutting down Camp Glenburn before it could open for the summer.

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Fifteen of the camp’s 45 staff members tested positive for the virus before finishing a week of training last week, leaving the YMCA-run camp with no choice but to delay its start to the season.

Camp Glenburn director Mark Cruz says it’s the first time there has been a single case at the camp despite staying open the past two summers.

That, he says, prepared him for the day this call needed to be made.

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“Two years ago, if this had happened, I would have been terrified or scared,” says Cruz.

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“But we’re in a very different place overall than we were back then.”

In the summer of 2020, Camp Glenburn was one of, if not the – only overnight camp in New Brunswick to open with some of the strictest pandemic protection guidelines to come from Public Health.

In 2021, the guidance fluctuated before the province fully lifted restrictions in August.

This year, there are no rules coming from public health.

Cruz says he thought eventually one or two cases would come up for consideration.

He says the general rule of thumb has been that anyone sick, COVID or not, goes home.

“It’s hard to improve here,” says Cruz.

“So we send them home with rapid tests and ask them to get tested before they come back.”

Camp Glenburn director Mark Cruz says the extra week has allowed them to prepare a little more.

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Camp Glenburn, which Cruz says is New Brunswick’s oldest sleeper camp, will now open for its 2022 summer season on July 10.

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Cruz says they see more than 700 kids a summer who stay a week or two.

With the pent-up demand to participate in activities, almost all places this season have been filled.

Unfortunately, that means it’s going to be nearly impossible to rebook all the campers displaced by the delayed start of summer.

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Cruz says that most parents have been very understanding.

It seems that moms and dads across New Brunswick are coming to terms with the fact that the more “normal” summer they thought was coming was a mirage.

Jenna Morton, a Moncton-based parenting blogger, says many aren’t ready to send their kids to camp just yet.

“I think it was both the uncertainty about whether things would go according to plan and the real fear of health risks,” says Morton.

“And I think that’s what we’re seeing now.”

She says many families, hers included, seem to continue the COVID-era tradition of taking day trips and staying close to home.

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