Month: May 2020

It is with a heavy heart that we write to you today to announce that Shibley Day Camp will not operate this summer. We know that this is the right decision for our Shibley Day Camp community, and we will be back and better than ever for Summer 2021.

As the country reopens over the next few weeks and months, families and individuals will have to make decisions with which they are comfortable. Camps and businesses must do the same and we appreciate and understand that we will not all come to the same conclusion. We have all assessed the risks and made a variety of choices throughout the last 3 months. We have many more decisions to make as we work together to see this pandemic through.

When schools closed and the state shut down in March we were optimistic that summer would come, and camp would open. We expected to have answers and clarity that we still do not have. There is absolutely nowhere that we would rather be than with your children and our staff at camp. To think of a summer without pitching to the super seniors, dancing with senior camp or climbing through the playgrounds with our junior campers is disheartening.

Thinking of camp while continuously reminding people to keep their distance, virtually the opposite of everything we believe in, was becoming equally as disheartening. A socially distanced environment is contrary to the closeness of the Shibley community.

We also cannot say with high enough certainty that we will have a coronavirus-free camp community, and there are still many questions about the virus. Our community includes our campers and staff. And it includes you, the campers’ grandparents, the parents and siblings of our staff, and additional caretakers, all of who will be in close contact with campers and others outside of camp hours.

Outside of our own families, Shibley is our life. We think about camp every day of the year. We are heartbroken. It seems inconceivable to have to wait 13 more months to return to our summer home together, but when we get there it will be exponentially more special.

Thank you for being part of our community. We miss you all and will continue to provide virtual and in-person programming (when permitted) throughout the year so that we can stay connected until we meet again for summer 2021.

Sincerely,

Heath, Stefanie, Randi & Bob

My favorite quote has been hanging in my classroom or office since the day I started my career in education. You may have seen it posted recently because April 15 was Jackie Robinson Day. He said:

Now more than ever does that ring true. And it’s EASIER THAN EVER to have a positive impact on other lives. If you are not an essential worker (THANK YOU TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE!!!) all you have to do is stay home and wait this out. The more people that do it, the less time we will have to continue living this way.

Besides preparing feverishly for camp, like always at this time of year, I’ve decided to choose a few skills to focus on that I’ve always wanted to improve. Now more than ever is the time to practice something you’ve always wanted to get better at or take up something new that you’ve never had the time for.

I’ve been playing a lot of drums and recording music that my friends and I have been working on for a long time. I’ve practiced more on drums over the last few weeks than throughout most of my life. I’ve always wanted to produce an album of these songs (some we’ve been playing for almost 20 years) and now it’s coming together.

Another skill I’ve tried to improve during these last few weeks is cooking. I’m pretty good on the grill but still not great inside in the kitchen. I’ve found some easy recipes to try and some of them have been quite tasty. Or at least my family is being nice and telling me so! Alexa is still a better chef than I am.

I’ve dusted off my teaching skills and made my way through 2^nd and 7^th grade subject matter I never thought I would see again. We successfully taught Sari how to ride a bike. Now we’ve been riding around the block daily which is great exercise and gives us a greater chance of her going to bed at a reasonable time:)

My wife and I have enjoyed taking online yoga classes. I have always wanted to get into a regular routine and now seems to be a good time to do it. Ohm.

What have you taken up or worked on improving over the last 6 weeks?