Summer Camps In WNY Look To Be Back In Full Swing

As we approach the end of the school year and with Summer here officially there appears to be a renewed interest in camps around Western New York.

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"We think that girls need summer camp more than they ever have before," Alison Wilcox, chief executive officer for Girl Scouts of Western New York, said. "Here they can just be themselves and have fun and create memories together," Caitlyn Bailey, camp director of Camp Good Days, said.
"I think we all have very bad cabin fever and we want to just get outside and start socializing again," Scott Kapperman, principal at St. Amelia's School, said.

According to WKBW-TV, Camp leaders say enrollment and interest have increased.

Initially, camp officials thought there might be some reservations from families about children attending.

"Our enrollment cap is about 130 students and we have 130 students enrolled in the camp. We have about a dozen students on our waiting list," Kapperman said.

Some summer camps like St. Amelia's will nearly be completely back to normal.

"Masks are not necessary when outside. We're anticipating that masks hopefully won't be necessary inside," Kapperman said.

Camp Good Days will require masks indoors and outdoors for family camp in addition to a negative COVID test or proof of vaccine to attend because their camp is exclusively for families who have been impacted by cancer.

"All of our families are immunocompromised. We have a ton of brand new families, most of them are inactive treatment so they are still high at risk including the children," Bailey said.

No matter what the safety precautions or CDC restrictions are, camps are excited for what's ahead.

"They get that childhood back that's been taken away from them," Bailey said.

As a child with my Mom being a stay-at-home parent and my Dad working for the school system, I never had the opportunity or urge to attend camps, but my friends always told me that they never had more fun than they did at Summer Camp.

A list of 2021 Summer Camps in the Buffalo area can be found here.