Salt Pump 2020 Summer Camps

Dear SP Kids! Families,

Thank you for registering your child for a Salt Pump Summer Camp program, including our Inside Summer Camp, Inside-Out Camp and/or Overnight Camp. Unfortunately, we will not be running all of our camp programs as initially scheduled.

• We will only be running a significantly modified version of our Inside Summer Camp as described below.

• We will not be running any Inside-Out Camp or Overnight Camps this summer.

We do not make this decision lightly and we sincerely and with utmost regret apologize for the inconvenience these changes must cause to you as a parent and the lost opportunity for your child and Salt Pump. These cancellation and restructuring of our camps this summer is a result of reviewing the Maine DECD day camp protocol checklists, the results of our survey of registered campers, American Camp Association’s “Camp Operations Guide”, and discussions with other local camp organizations.

Inside Summer Camps Restructuring

With respect to the Inside Summer Camps, we are restructuring these camps as two 4-week sessions:

• Each session of camp will run Monday – Friday, 8:30 – 11:30 a.m., for four consecutive weeks.
• The two sessions will run from July 6 – 31st, and August 3 – 28th.
• The price is $1200, due at the time of registration. 50% is nonrefundable.
• The total enrollment will be 20 campers, split between 10 Scramblers (K – 2nd Grade) and 10 Mountaineers (3 – 5th Grade).
• Each age group will be split into pods of five campers and one instructor to minimize group contact.
• Please visit the Summer Camps webpage for a list of other protocols and procedures we will be following.

In addition to this restructuring – which we are implementing to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection – we will have in place new rules and precautions. Other than our staff, there will be no other users in the facility during camp hours. We acknowledge, however, and will require that you also acknowledge that these rules and precautions may or may not be effective in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Among these rules and precautions may include body temperature checking, mask wearing, hand washing, hand sanitizing, and social distancing. We will also be keeping campers in a “pod” of 5 campers and the same instructor for the duration of the session.

We are viewing this restructuring as an opportunity! While never letting our guard down with respect to COVID-19 mitigation measures, we will focus on fun. We will focus on balancing outdoor time and lots of climbing time. We will focus on the well-being of your campers.

If you would like to register your child for one of these four week sessions, please kindly email me at [email protected] with the following information: camper name, age, and which session you would like to register for. If we have interest from more campers than we have spaces, we will make decisions based on the original sign-up date, which is the date we received your payment for the camp you have been registered for prior to the date of this letter. We will require payment in full upon registration, of which $600 is non-refundable. If cancelled two weeks in advance of the session start date, we will refund $600. There will be no refund if cancelled less than two weeks prior to the session start date.

Cancellations and Refunds

Without hesitation, please contact us for any refund due to cancellation of a summer camp program. We are also happy to credit it for future programming. Please email [email protected] and/or [email protected].

We are not happy about the situation. Since our first summer, we have been fortunate to have our facility filled with excited and joyous campers. Many campers have returned year after year, bringing more of their friends with them each summer. We are also sad that we cannot be there for the adventures to be had in the mountains and crags of North Conway and Acadia. We are confident, however, that our other kids programs will return with the usual Salt Pump standard of excellence as soon as health conditions allow.

Thank you,

Brittney Martin