Fortress Club: Keeping Up Our Defenses Until The Threat Is Gone!

At the end of April the CDC released their 2021 guidance for summer camps and youth clubs.  The general theme of the guidance was ‘nothing has changed’.  For those of us who have been operating successfully for nearly a year under COVID restrictions – the take away is keep doing what you are doing and try to encourage everyone to vaccinate.

On the plus side, minus a few exposures over the year, doing what we are doing has served us well.  We only had one whole Club closure and after that managed to keep quarantines to specific grades/cohorts.  We are also committed to transparency and going above and beyond.  We will tell you if there has been an exposure at Club and we expect the same honesty and accountability in return.

So, in following the CDC guidance, here is what we are going to keep doing:

This restriction is without doubt the most difficult to swallow.  We have increased our ratio slightly to 14:1 but are still restricting group sizes to 15 and not mixing with other groups.  This enables us to more easily isolate a group due to an exposure and keep the rest of the Club open; it also reduces the possible spread in our community.  Having 50% fewer kids enrolled than in a normal summer is hard.  We know it means parents are struggling to find care and programs for their children, and we incur the same if not more costs, but with half the revenue.  So hard all round for everyone.   But on the plus side, smaller groups equals even higher quality programs and the staff are really able to get to know the kids well.  The quality of our programs and the bond at the Club has gone from strength to strength this past year.

The CDC stated that only fully vaccinated people could now go without masks.  While our staff are vaccinated, our kids are NOT.  Therefore, until the day that the CDC says that unvaccinated people do not have to wear masks any longer, everyone will continue to wear masks at Club.  There are no exceptions to this rule and parents are still required to sign their agreement to our policies and procedures.  Failure to comply with those policies, or a member’s refusal to adhere to them may result in termination of membership.  This is for the protection of everyone.

Until June 15th we still require a negative test BEFORE you return to Club if you travel outside of the Tahoe/Reno/Sacramento area.  If on June 15th the State of California lifts the State travel restrictions we will revisit this protocol.

We will continue to do daily temperature checks upon arrival at Club.  We ask that any child with an elevated temperature, cough, runny nose, stomach ache, or vomitting be kept at home until they have been symptom free without medical aid for 24 hours.  If you are called to pick your child up because they are ill, we appreciate a prompt response.

We will continue to request that any child who has had an exposure to a COVID positive person to quarantine for 7 days from the date of exposure.  If taking a test, we ask that you take that on day 5 as that is when the result will be the most accurate.

Members will be asked to stay 3ft apart from children in their group and 6ft apart when eating/drinking.  We still won’t be mixing groups this summer but we do plan on using the playground.

Research has indicated that surfaces are not as crucial as though previously, but having clean hands and surfaces helps with all illnesses; not just COVID – so we will be sticking with this regime FOREVER!

The kids have been on their chrome books all year.  Let’s instead have a summer of active play, peer interaction and good old fashioned fun.  Plus iPads, iPhone, tablets etc are expensive and we will not take responsibility if they break.  So leave them at home!  The same goes for toys.  We have tons of fun stuff here at Club, and we wipe it down daily.  So let’s prevent arguments, upsets and spreading germs by keeping home toys at home.

The updated CDC guidance can be read here Guidance for Operating Youth and Summer Camps During COVID-19 (cdc.gov) and if you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ashley or Jude on 530 542 0838.

Thank you for complying with these ongoing safety measures and we look forward to another great summer.