Northland Summer Camps Prepare for Uncertain Season

Camp Amnicon and Camp Nebagamon discuss planning for summer camps during pandemic

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Wis. – Going to camp is a summer tradition for many families but, with so much uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, nobody knows if kids will have the chance to attend Northland camps this year.

“What we provide is the opportunity to get outdoors and to learn in the outdoors and we really feel that families, kids are going to be in need of that,” explained Jesse Weiss, executive director at Camp Amnicon, a wilderness adventure camp in South Range. “We have pretty much accepted the reality that it’s not going to be a normal summer.”

Weiss doesn’t know if the camp will be able to provide its usual programs to 300 kids this year.

“We’re bringing them up to our site, we’re taking them on week-long canoe trips, what if our site isn’t able to be open? So, does that mean that we can load up our canoes and our gear into our vans and go to them?” he asked.

Weiss says if Amnicon has to close summer programs completely, the camp will be without 50 percent of its revenue. That will be devastating for the camp, but Weiss is more concerned for the kids who will no longer have an important summer opportunity.

“We really feel that we prepare kids to succeed, to grow in really important ways in their lives,” he said.

Meanwhile, 20 miles away, Camp Nebagamon in Lake Nebagamon is facing many of the same questions.

“Really the hard part right now is that camp is two months away and, as we all know, two months in the life of this thing we’re all experiencing is an actual lifetime,” said Camp Nebagamon director Adam Kaplan.

The all-boys camp has been open every summer since 1929.

Kaplan tells us he will follow the recommendations of the national, state, and local health departments about if it’s safe to open this summer and, if so, what safety measures need to be followed.

“That’s everything from increased awareness about personal hygiene and hand-washing to camps having to keep their facilities clean in a different way than they have before,” explained Kaplan.

Neither camp knows when they will make a final decision about this year.

They both agree that, after quarantine, it’s even more important to give campers an outdoor release.

“There’s kids sitting at home that need this opportunity,” said Weiss.

According to industry estimates, 14 million kids and adults attended camps in the U.S. every year. 1.5 million people are employed at those camps.