March 2023:

COVID-19 is no longer a public emergency, as deemed by the U.S. government & state of Main and therefore, we can no longer mandate the childhood vaccine for COVID-19. 

Our policy going forward will be to strongly encourage the continuation of any available vaccines to keep your child healthy and safe.

We will be testing for COVID-19 upon arrival as part of our health screening process, which includes lice checks, health questionnaire, and a Covid test.

Wekeela’s number one priority is the health and safety of our campers and staff. As one of only sixteen camps in Maine to open in 2020, we are proud that we have continued to operate successfully during the pandemic and believe that we are more than prepared to provide another amazing summer in 2023.

Reflections on 2021:

2 years in a row – Wekeela maintained a safe and effective environment against COVID-19. Learn about our testing, masking, and vaccination procedures below. Thank you to our amazing staff, campers, and parents for taking the pandemic seriously and ensuring the health and safety of our community as a whole.

How we did it (2020):

Camp Wekeela 2020 ran for five weeks. Staff members arrived two weeks ahead of the campers for extensive training and quarantine, while campers were asked to quarantine at home during this time – this is really important to the success of a healthy camp experience.

Upon staff arrival through departure, no one came in or out of camp, other than for food deliveries, and essential business. Any deliveries were handled from a separate area of camp and under serious safety guidelines. We maximized the use of our large campus as if we lived on an island, with only our Wekeela family members coming in contact with each other. We had a team of administrators working hard on programming so that we enjoyed both new and old traditions using safety measures to protect each one of our family members.

We went to great lengths to protect our campers and staff, with many adjustments in order to mitigate risk. We learned all about COVID-19 as we sheltered in place. Much of our Wekeela family was healthy and under the age of 25, which put us at a very low risk, and which is why we decided to open. We also knew that while the world opened up all around us, children would be at malls, pools, friends’ houses, the beach, and would be at a far greater exposure than they would be at camp. We honestly feel that camp is one of the safest communities for all of us. If we did not truly believe this, we would not have opened. As we often say, we are in the business of taking care of children, and safety is our number one priority.

Every summer we are responsible for caring for your children and we are committed to providing safe and loving care for all of our children and staff. We followed CDC procedures and guidelines that we received specifically for overnight camps in Maine. Understand that Wekeela is by no means a medical facility, but we had additional health professionals working with us this past summer and medical facilities in nearby Lewiston/Auburn, ME. 

Why Wekeela Opened While Others Opted Not To?

After many months of meetings with our colleagues, medical professionals, our own leadership, and personal reflection, we believed opening was the best thing for our campers. We have always tried to mitigate risk and follow safety precautions long before this virus came along. This is what camp directors do.

We know that many of our friends in camping, both in Maine and around the country, had already made the difficult choice not to open this past summer. This is a very personal decision for each camp and director, and our hearts went out to them, their campers, and their families as they grieved the loss of camp. There is no right or wrong in the decisions we have all had to make.

Some of our decisions in Spring 2020 were based on these factors: 

• Oxford County, Maine has been very safe since the beginning of the pandemic.
• We have an extremely low population for risk.
• We hired double the amount of health professionals.
• We purchased ample amounts of PPE and cleaning supplies
• We committed to our strategy of quarantining and best practices – which include following CDC and ACA guidelines.
• After four months of being home and being on screens, the mix of sunshine, the outdoors, friendships and fun are what we all needed.
• As the world opened up rapidly, risks of getting sick at malls, pools, beaches, etc are far greater than being at camp.
• Some semblance of good news and something for us all to look forward to was the best thing we could do for our families.

This was not an easy decision for us. It had been months of emotions and soul searching, but as we have continually said, we are not only camp directors in the best of times, we are camp directors always.

Even though we had modifications in order to keep your child safe, our summer camp is still based on the foundations of family and friendship. We emphasize kindness and respect and fun and love. The Wekeela we all love was the Wekeela of 2020.

We had a spectacular summer inside the safety of our bubble. 

Our COVID-19 Response Plan is only available for registered families.

Plans for 2021:

As more information regarding the COVID-19 state and local policies is available, as well as updates to CDC guidelines, Camp Wekeela maintains that operating in a safe and healthy environment for summer 2021 is the most important thing for the well-being of our camp community. Wekeela will operate under the same protocols we had in 2020 and we will update our COVID-19 Response plan accordingly.