Dear Aldersgate Families,

 

Planning for summer 2021 has been full of twists and turns. We have been meeting with state and national health officials to understand the best practices to keep campers and staff safe this summer. The state of Rhode Island has decided against providing guidance for summer camps to open. Therefore we are defaulting to the national guidelines. These guidelines are much stricter than expected for overnight camps. These guidelines include:

 

• Restrictions on singing

• Small camper pods with no interaction between groups

• Limited cabin capacity

• Pre-arrival and post-arrival testing

 

These are just a few of the guidelines that made opening overnight camping seem very difficult.

 

After much prayer and discussion, the Aldersgate Board of Directors has suspended overnight programs for one more summer. We will not offer overnight camps this summer. We will only offer day camp programs. 

 

We considered multiple ways of running our program but like many other camps, we could not come up with a model that abided by the guidelines and stayed true to the Aldersgate experience. It is a gut-wrenching decision we continue to struggle with. We hope you understand how difficult this decision is and how it weighs heavily on all of us. 

 

Grace and Love,

John Spelman

Executive Director