Dear Community,

We have been serving the East Bay community (in the San Francisco Bay Area) for 20 years, and want to for 20 more, and we need to come to you for support at this time.  We decided that holding our usual Summer Camps in 2020 is not feasible, after Governor Newsom's news conference on April 28th, where he announced that likely schools will start back earlier this year.  

Weathering the weeks since the shelter in place began has not been easy.  We had to cancel our Spring Camp, as well as 2 Kids Night Out programs, which left us without usual operating income for this time of year, leading up to summer.  We have been using reserves and working tirelessly to garner loans and grants.  Most of you have heard news of challenges with that.  At this point, it looks like we might get some in the next round, but that only covers two months of payroll, and still uncertain.  Summer planning started back in the fall, so many staff hours have already gone into what are now cancelled plans.  We also need to help maintain our 4 part time staff through the fall, and summer usually pays for this. Some recent great news is that we received a $2,500 grant from the City of Berkeley on Monday, April 27th, and many families who were already enrolled have donated some or all of their tuition or transferring or mixture.

As the Founding Director, with my team, we connected regarding how we might be able to run camps in a different way, as well as speaking to public health officials to get clarity on expectations and limitations.  We found out that we would only be able to run much smaller groups (10), with kids and staff wearing face coverings as often as possible, having to keep the 6’ distance as much as possible, and if there was someone diagnosed with Covid-19 in the group, the potential that everyone in the group would need to quarantine for 14 days.  These things, plus there is still an issue with garnering enough PPE.  As we tried to imagine camp with the loving community vibe we are known for, it just did not seem very feasible, and challenging to keep everyone safe.

We also heard during the press conference that the best option is to stay at home, with close family, for foreseeable future, until more contact tracing and testing becomes available, as well as any other potential developments that are part of the state’s plan for re-opening sectors of society.

Camp plays a vital role in the life of campers and their families and are so sorry that we cannot provide that for our community and look forward to when we will be able to hold camp again. 

We all have been stretched in many ways, to adapt to life in new ways, to grow in patience, courage, and compassion over the past 6 weeks since we were called to Shelter-In-Place in service to our community. And, it seems, we are being asked to do more.  I know that we all can do this.  Service is challenging, but also brings rewards.  We need time to be mad, sad, inspired, to feel all of our feelings.

Any gifts you provide will be received with great love and appreciation and used with care for operating costs.  We know there are many needs right now, and it is not easy to ask for help, and grateful for your support.

We will keep you updated.


Wishing you all wellness, peace, and thanks,

Heather Mitchell

Founding Director

P.S.  The second photo in this series is with myself and the other Founding Director, the amazing Stacy Raye, in one of our first camp years.