COVID Guidelines – Summer 2023

All campers and staff must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend summer camp. You can learn more about vaccination on the CDC website.

Please upload your camper’s COVID Vaccination Card to their CampDoc Profile.

Medical exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis and will require documentation by a licensed physician. We are unable to accept any other exemptions from this policy.

Your partnership is critical to keeping the camp community healthy and safe this summer. The success of this summer relies on everyone doing their part before arriving at camp.

If your camper is flying to camp, we strongly recommend that they wear a mask while in crowded public spaces.

Pre-Camp Milestones

• 2-Weeks Before Camp: You will receive a reminder about minimizing exposure and risk of contracting COVID by avoiding large gatherings and crowded public spaces. Though not required, we strongly recommend that you test your camper for COVID at this time to give yourself a 10-day window before camp for fulfilling isolation/quarantine requirements in the event of a positive test.

• 3-5 Days Before Camp: Please check with your camper about whether they are experiencing any signs or symptoms. If so, please test your camper for COVID immediately. If your camper tests positive, please notify the Camp Office immediately at 603-352-0447 or info@takodahymca.org.

• 24-Hours Before Camp: We strongly encourage you to take a COVID test 24 hours before camp. That way, you can know before camp if your camper tests positive. If you test positive, please notify the Camp Office immediately at 603-239-4781 or info@takodahymca.org. We will be COVID testing at camp upon arrival — and if you test positive when you arrive, your camper will be sent home.

Based on your positive feedback regarding staggered check-in times, we will email you an assigned arrival time shortly before camp. 

Please share the responsibility of keeping camp COVID-free by minimizing the number of family members attending check-in day. 

Everyone will take a rapid antigen COVID test upon entry to camp. Anyone testing positive will be required to depart camp immediately.

You can count on us to continue our heightened cleaning protocols, which include sanitizing high-traffic and high-touched areas of camp multiple times a day, in addition to requiring thorough hand washing, particularly around meal times. In typical camp fashion, we will continue to conduct camp activities outside whenever possible. 

While we are not currently planning to require masking in camp, we reserve the right to institute a masking policy in response to changing COVID conditions.

The Health Center Team will test only symptomatic campers and staff for COVID.

Anyone who tests positive will be required to leave camp immediately. 

During the past three years, Camp Takodah provided an exception to our standard Refund Policy for COVID-related cancellations. Even when most camps removed that exception last summer, we kept it to support you during a hard time.

And now that COVID has become a regular part of our daily lives, we are joining most other camps in returning to our former refund policy, which states that refunds are not available starting on June 1 for any reason, even for campers who arrive late, depart early, cancel, or are dismissed from our program. As such, refunds will no longer be available to campers who miss their session because of testing positive for COVID.

However, to be clear, Camp Takodah will provide refunds in case of a camp-wide closure related to COVID.

Some have shared that our refund policy does not feel “friendly to all.” And so, we want to provide context so you understand why Camp Takodah and most summer camps have the same refund policy. Camp Takodah is a nonprofit organization that receives no state or federal funding. We rely solely on tuition and donations to bring our mission to life. And with our mission in mind, we strive to keep tuition as affordable as possible while providing financial assistance to families in need.

Even when summer camp is at full capacity, we generate just enough income to operate our facilities and program.

In addition, you might not realize that when a camper misses their session, our expenses do not decrease in any way. We still pay the same number of staff, cook the same amount of food, provide the same program supplies, pay the same utility bills, and so on.

All that is to say that it is impossible to expand our refund policy and keep our doors open for future generations of campers. And as people who love Takodah, we all get to share the responsibility of keeping our camp alive — and making sure it marks ever the place we can take for our home.

We are so grateful for your continued partnership with us, and we cannot wait to see you back at camp this summer!