 JUNE 18 • 2020 | 21

Camp Walden Closes
for the Summer

Family Camp considered as an option. 

C

amp Walden in 
Cheboygan, Michigan, 
announced on June 6 
that it won’
t open as a residen-
tial summer camp this year due 
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Camp Walden is a popular 
destination for many Metro 
Detroit Jewish families, wel-
coming roughly 400-450 chil-
dren throughout the summer.
“It was a long and tortured 
decision-making process,” said 
Liz Stevens, who owns the 
camp with her husband, Scott 
Ruthart.
 “We had to envision what 
camp would look like if we 
were cohorting and social dis-
tancing from one another. We 
had to feel confident that if we 
had a case or cases at camp that 
we could properly address the 
quarantining and isolation that 
would be involved with some-
thing like that,” she said. 
“We finally had to just admit 
to ourselves that we just could 
not see it coming together in a 
way that would be satisfying for 
our families and our kids com-
ing to camp.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 
issued guidelines for residential 
 
camps to mitigate the spread of 
COVID-19 on June 12.
“The state guidance … 
resembles that given to day 
camps, with some alterations 
for residential camps that per-
form rigorous and repeated 
testing, strict cohorting and 
constant health monitoring of 

campers and staff,” Walden’
s 
statement read. 
“Regardless … of the avail-
ability of testing … our own 
medical advisers, with whom 
we have been conferring for 
months, continue to raise 
questions we cannot answer 
and pose scenarios — as statis-
tically unlikely as they might 
be — that would derail a camp 
session at Walden.”
Camp Walden continues 
to explore the idea of Family 
Camps, which would begin in 
mid-July and run five nights 
each. The families would have 
to stay at the camp at all times 
for the five nights, socially 
distance from other families 
and wear face coverings during 
brief interactions with camp 
staff.
Stevens said parents are enti-
tled to a full refund of tuition 
for the 2020 summer camp 
season. They can also roll the 
money over to the 2021 season.
“We know your children 
yearn for Walden summers. 
Their healthy development 
requires the socialization, the 
fresh air and the camaraderie 
of friends more than ever,” 
read the statement. “You, their 
parents, desperately want them 
to have this and, in some cases, 
truly need a mental-health 
break of your own. We are 
profoundly disappointed —
crushed, really — that we 
cannot provide that outlet this 
summer.” 

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF CAMP WALDEN

