CUMBERLAND — The day-by-day shifting scenarios caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the resultant state restrictions on social gatherings have made planning this summer’s programming one of the greatest challenges of Pete Bingham’s career.
The virus “had no time frame or rules,” said the director of the Cumberland/North Yarmouth Community Recreation Department.
Bingham said he and his staff have worked hard to offer the June-August activities that are likely only able to draw half the number of children and bring in roughly half the revenue. But there will still be offerings like the day camp, “which is crucial for working parents who have been unable to return due to lack of care,” Bingham said. “It’s quality daycare for local families.”
State guidelines that limit gatherings to no more than 50 participants and staff were a major part of Bingham’s process for evaluating the scope of programming, he said. The three summer camp sites are each capped at 42 participants – 126 altogether – down from about 200-210 children per week.
Bingham expects the camps to bring in $120,000 if they run close to capacity, compared to $210,000 last year. All programming, the camps included, has brought in about $270,000, of which $120,000-$150,000 could be lost this year.
“At this time the only way our enrollment caps would rise would be an easing of restrictions from the governor’s office,” which Bingham doesn’t anticipate happening, he said. “We may revisit this should rules change for August or earlier, especially if demand far exceeds capacity.”
Looking into what it could and could not offer, Bingham said, “we can’t run a six-hour soccer camp; kids can’t dribble through cones for six hours. But we’re able to offer an hour soccer clinic, where they’ll practice social distancing but be able to work on conditioning, footwork and those kinds of things.”
There will be “significant social distancing expectations,” Bingham said. “We’re going back to basics; how summer playground programs and day camps used to be. We’re not going to Funtown, we’re not going to Water Country. We’re going on nature walks, we’re going (more locally) to Broad Cove Reserve, we’re going to Twin Brook, we’re going to Knight’s Pond.”
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