We just posted an updated version of the Parent & Volunteer Pack with the latest updates to our COVID protection policies for Camp Vineyard 2021! Download it and distribute it to your group, and please read on for more info.
Gee, That Took Longer Than I Expected!
We know, and thank you for your patience. We are the last link in the chain that starts with advice from national organizations like the CDC and state guidelines issued by the Georgia Department of Public Health. All of that is filtered into policy and advice from Woodland, and then we have to adjust our plans accordingly. The CDC and GDPH issued their guidance in April, and we received Woodland’s update toward the end of last week.
In this area, as in others, it’s important to us that we create a system of policies and practices we can actually follow through on. With that in mind, here are the updates.
Pre-Camp
If you are exposed to COVID-19, experience symptoms, or have a positive COVID test 10 days or less before Camp, you can’t come. You will need to notify us as soon as you can. We will cancel your registration and refund any money paid to Camp Vineyard. By that point we will have ordered your shirt and probably have made your name tag, so we’ll send those to you for free because missing Camp that way is a bummer! (It might be after Camp when we mail them, though.)
We HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE 16+ to be vaccinated before coming to Camp. This means having both doses of a 2-dose sequence or a single dose of a 1-dose vaccine completed at least 2 weeks before Camp.
We also HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE OF ALL AGES to get a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their departure for Camp. Both PCR and Antigen tests are available for free at testing sites across the southeast. If you’re not sure where to find a testing site near you, use this page from the Department of Health and Human Services to locate one. You can submit a screenshot or a picture of your negative test results through a new item in the Forms section of your Camp Vineyard Account, or bring the test results (printed, email, or picture on your phone) to Check-In on the Monday of Camp. To help encourage this, We will be awarding Spirit Points for test results submitted. It might be one of the strangest ways to earn Spirit Points we’ve ever devised.
At Camp
Most of this is the same as the original document posted in February, but here’s a summary:
- Everyone will be screened for symptoms as part of the Check-In process.
- Everyone will be screened daily by our expanded medical staff.
- Masks will be required in the Chapel, meeting rooms, and when you’re not seated in the Dining Hall.
- Meal times will be staggered, and you must abide by the schedule on your name tag. That means we’re reimagining some ways of awarding Spirit Points for cleanup.
- Attendees will be sorted into cohorts by cabin assignments/church groups. These will determine your Neat! Groups schedule for the week. You will sit with this group in the Chapel, eat your meals on the same schedule, and play games together. (More details about this later.)
- Games are going to be a bit different in order to accommodate social distancing and cohorts. But, don’t worry, we’ve got some ideas!
- We will set aside rooms in advance for quarantining any attendee who exhibits symptoms of COVID-19, and will work with them or their parent/guardian to arrange transportation off-site as soon as it is possible.
- We will have extra cleaning supplies on hand for cabins.
- Off-site visitors are not allowed, and any adults providing transportation for your group (but not staying) are asked to stay near their cars on Monday and Friday. Please be sure they are screened for symptoms before driving your group to/from Camp.
- You’re encouraged to do a lot of hanging out outside, keep a little distance between yourself and people not in your cohort (Color Team), and get creative about ways to make friends. You’ve survived Zoom school, you’ve got this.
- It’s going to be different. But it’s going to be a lot of fun!
There’s more in the Parent & Volunteer Pack that includes Woodland’s procedures for mealtimes and their cleaning policies.
After Camp
If you develop symptoms of COVID-19 within 14 days after Camp, we will need to be notified. If that happens, we will notify people in your cohort that were not part of your church group (if any). If we can verify others who came into contact with you, we will notify them, too.
Again, there’s more to be found on the COVID-19 Guidelines pages in the Parent & Volunteer Pack, so please read that for more info. If you have a question about something not covered there, please contact us.