Eighteen Western Massachusetts summer camps are benefiting from nearly $700,000 provided to them in the fiscal year 2020 COVID-19 supplemental budget, including two in Franklin County.
Red Gate Farm Education Center in Ashfield received $10,000, while The Rowe Center in Rowe received $44,072.48, according to a press release from Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield.
“Summer camps play a vital role for child care, mental health and education during the summer months for families,” Sen. Hinds said in the release. “Camps faced significant challenges over the past year due to restrictions from the pandemic. These funds are critical moving forward as camps reopen and welcome children back.”
Ben Werner, executive director of The Rowe Center, said this funding has tremendously aided the center’s camps this summer, which recently resumed in-person programming. Werner believes that with this funding, staff can provide an enhanced experience to campers.
Not only has the money created an opportunity to hire more staff to keep the camp ratios lower, but to bring in experts to help young campers with trauma and to purchase more equipment so campers can have a safe experience.
“A lot of this has let us enhance the things we’ve wanted to do,” Werner said. “It’s taken (care of) a lot of the things like (personal protective equipment) and cleaning supplies and COVID tests. That was an enormous financial burden we were going to have to absorb, and this grant has helped us offset a lot of those costs.”
Likewise, Red Gate Farm Assistant Director Jake Crain said the money has been tremendously helpful when it comes to taking the necessary pandemic-related precautions.
“We were able to use these funds for camp to be safer in the time of COVID,” he explained.
“It allowed us to get more materials so that we can space campers out, using that 6 feet, and it also helped us get staff,” he continued. “That was really key for us, because we were able to have that supervision needed so that we could have smaller cohorts at the farm.”
Crain said Red Gate Farm couldn’t be happier to have kids back on the grounds after a hiatus due to the pandemic, and is appreciative of Sen. Hinds for the work he does for his community.
“It’s been fantastic. The kids are so happy to be back, being able to be around their peers, be outside,” Crain said. “You can tell how essential it is for kids to have this experience, (and) it means so much more this summer after what families have been through this past year and a half.”