Dear Change Summer Family,
I hope you are doing well, staying safe, and continuing to navigate the challenges related to COVID-19. I appreciate your patience and understanding while we have worked through several options for camp this summer. The decision whether to operate our camps has been driven by finding a clear and realistic path to safety for our camp communities.
Despite relentless efforts, we do not see a pathway to operating in-person camps that ensures the health and safety of our camp communities. We are deeply saddened that we will not come together at the University of Rhode Island as planned.
So what is our plan for summer 2020?
Camp Uncommon
Given the history of Camp Uncommon (this is our 5th summer), the strength of the Camp Uncommon community, and the experience of our Senior Staff, we believe we can develop and deliver a high-quality, engaging virtual camp experience that will be very well-received by our campers and families. As a result, in conjunction with Uncommon Schools, we decided to move forward with virtual camp for summer 2020. The following is a brief overview of our current thinking for virtual camp:
We will develop daily synchronous live activities taught by our Senior Staff (all of whom are experienced teachers). We will do some of the following: Arts and Crafts, Dance, Adventure, Fitness, Yoga, Mindfulness, Music, Puppetry, an SEL block, etc.
We will provide each camper with a Camp Uncommon branded "Treasure Trunk" that includes activity materials (see below for details).
We are partnering with Happy Camper Live and will use their platform to facilitate virtual camp. In addition to the synchronous activities taught by our staff, campers will have access to the asynchronous activities created by Happy Camper Live.
AF Camp
For AF Camp, in conjunction with Achievement First, we made the difficult decision not to move forward with virtual camp in summer 2020. In short, we did not want the inaugural summer of AF Camp to be virtual. It was going to be extremely challenging to build a strong AF Camp community with all new campers and staff in a virtual setting. By waiting until summer 2021 to officially launch AF Camp, we can start our camp the way we should - as one community, in one place.
So how can you help?
As noted above, all Camp Uncommon campers will receive a “Treasure Trunk” containing activity essentials that allow them to fully engage with all program offerings (arts & crafts items, deck of cards, camp t-shirt, journal, stickers, items for puppetry, juggling set, exercise resistance bands, a few novels, Spanish/English dictionary, chess/checkers set, dice, inflatable ball, popcorn for movie night, coloring book, etc.). We ask you to consider making a donation to directly fund Treasure Trunks for our campers:
$100 | 1 Treasure Trunk
$200 | 2 Treasure Trunks
$500 | 5 Treasure Trunks
$1,000 | 10 Treasure Trunks
$2,00 | 20 Treasure Trunks$5,000 | 50 Treasure Trunks
$10,000 | 100 Treasure Trunks
Every dollar that we raise for our "Treasure Trunks" will be matched by an anonymous donor up to $75,000. Please consider helping us provide Treasure Trunks to all 750 of our campers today!
So here we go! We are deeply invested in creating a mission-driven, inspirational, virtual summer experience that our campers need and deserve. Your ongoing generosity has made Change Summer’s camp experiences possible. That same support is needed now as we embark on a new endeavor - one that we believe will increase our campers’ independence, curiosity, confidence, and responsibility.
We are extremely grateful for your continued support and understanding. Together we can continue to change summer, even in a time of uncertainty.
Sincerely,