by OREGONIA, Ohio (AP) – At the end of their week-long sleepaway camp, the talented kids at Camp Kern YMCA get ready for a treasured annual tradition: after songs and skits around a bonfire, they write down the memories they prefer. on slips of paper. Most years, they throw them into the flames, and the ashes that rise and fall over their heads are meant to symbolize the joy they shared.
But this year, it was too hot for a bonfire.
Even as the sun beat down, on a day when the high temperature hit 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius) with oppressive humidity, the children wiped sweat from their faces, reached for water coolers to refill bottles and hugged them himself to try to remove the wind. At the end of the night, they burned their memory notes in a small bucket.
It’s just one way America’s summer camps have had to adapt as climate change spurs extreme heat events that can start earlier in the season and keep the heat well into the night. Camp administrators, counselors and experts say such camps are a great way for kids to develop social skills, learn outside the classroom and connect with nature. But they are becoming more difficult and expensive to run as camps look for ways to provide better access to water and cooling and better prepare staff to care for young people.
“Heat is very serious. We really need to focus on carefully and thoughtfully planning the program to adapt to these situations,” it said. Tom Rosenberg, president and CEO of the American Camp Association, a nonprofit that provides research and resources to improve camps. He said the ACA has had climate change on its radar for years as an issue affecting camp programs.
In 2011, for example, a dozen Girl Scouts were treated for heat-related illnesses at a camp in Connecticut. In 2015, two children were hospitalized with heat exhaustion at a summer camp in Florida. And a 15-year-old Boy Scout died in Texas in 2017 after collapsing from heatstroke during a group hike while pursuing a camping merit badge.
The US has over 20,000 unique camp operations serving 26 million campers, according to a study funded by the ACA and conducted in partnership with the University of Michigan’s Institute for Economic Growth.
It’s even more important for camps to be on guard because children are more vulnerable to heat than adults, said Grace Robiou, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Child Health Protection. “General good health includes being outside,” she said, but children’s growing bodies can heat up faster than adults’ bodies. They are also less aware, and often need an adult to tell them to stay hydrated and cool.
“If you’re overheating, you can guarantee that the kids you’re watching or playing with or supervising are also overheating,” said Dr. Alison Tothy, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at University Children’s Hospital Chicago spends its summers. working as a camp doctor in upstate New York. “It’s just something we’ve now put on our list of reasons why someone might be sick. And I don’t think we were doing that much, even a few years ago.”
The physical activities that children do in the camp may involve a lot of exertion. After climbing obstacles or a rock wall, some of the kids at Camp Kern said they were ready to go in — even Alex Reiff, 12, thought it was the best thing he’d done that week. “When you climb, you feel like you’re getting active,” he said, and then added, “I was sweating.”
Trying to snuggle up, Reiff and his bunkmates are cranking up the air conditioning in their cabin while inside, something kids at other camps in more rustic settings across the US don’t have the option of doing. Many children at Camp Kern have taken to carrying handmade paper, folded fabric or electric fans. Some campers simply pour water on their heads. And almost everyone happily proceeded to offer brightly colored popsicles on a day reporters visited.
Todd Brinkman, Camp Kern’s executive director, said his strategy in general is to add breaks and indoor sessions, incorporate as many water-based activities as possible and give kids options. In the past the camp had set hours, but they added more lifeguards and swim instructors to keep the pool open all day. They also improved some of the water features aimed at small children. But water cannot solve all heating problems. Rosenberg said it is more expensive to provide water activities at camps because of the shortage of national lifeguards and the rising cost of insurance against bad weather. And Robiou said poor air quality and extreme heat are often linked, exacerbating problems like childhood asthma, and being in a pool or lake doesn’t change that.
The heat does not necessarily reject just being near the water. Kids at Camp Kern who went on a raft trip said it was one of the warmest experiences they had that week.
“We sat in the sun in a big canoe, basically,” Madelynn Medve, 11, said.
The young adults who help staff the camp are not immune to the blistering temperatures either. Lizzy Johnson, 24, is now a counselor at Camp Kern after going there as a camper growing up. When she looks back, her memories are of social connections and fun activities. However, she has also watched and participated in the camp’s evolution, helping organizers trade outdoor experiences like cookouts for indoor or water-based ones like arts and crafts or pool parties.
“I certainly don’t remember any of the heat, I remember everything we did,” she said of her own childhood in the camp, “But I don’t remember ever being uncomfortable.”
___
Associated Press visual journalist Joshua A. Bickel from Oregonia, Ohio. News researcher Rhonda Shafner of New York contributed.
___
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage is financially supported by multiple private foundations. AP is responsible for each and every subject. Find AP standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and covered areas of funding at AP.org.
