Avid4 Adventure will conduct summer camps for kids
BOULDER — Avid4 Adventure Inc., the Boulder-based adventure camping company that offers multiple camp experiences for youth, will have camps this summer, but they might not look the same as in past years.
The company said in a press release that many of the traditional resident camp experiences have been canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, but expedition camps are still scheduled.
“We must do what is right for the public health of our families, our staff, and our greater communities,” Paul Dreyer, CEO of Avid4 Adventure, said in a press release. “Through proactive policies and procedures and following the guidelines put forth by the American Camp Association and the CDC, we will run camps that appropriately control and minimize the exposure and spread of COVID-19 and still allow for a positive outdoor experience.”
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Avid4’s expedition camps, held in Colorado and California, are week-long experiences for fifth through 12th graders. Participants will experience mountain biking, rock climbing, paddling, backpacking and sleeping in tents, all in a small-group setting away from crowds.
The company has also added three new day-camp experiences.
“We saw early on that our business would be significantly affected [by the outbreak],” David Criswell, director of marketing, told BizWest. “We talked to our customers and to our team and came up with three programs.” They are:
- Small Group Adventures — These camps will include four or five children and one health-screened instructor. Children will be dropped at trailheads and participate in the planned activities.
- Camp at Home — In these experiences, parents will select a group of four children. A screened instructor will come to the home and provide a customized curriculum that could include things such as survival skills, biking and outdoor cooking.
- Online Camp — These camps are interactive adventure experiences delivered online with pre-shipment of materials that will be needed. The programs run two and a half hours per day either in the morning or afternoon.
Criswell said the online camp is already in operation. The other two camps have launched registration and are getting good responses.
“The small group camp is getting a ton of interest because it is most similar to what we had before,” he said.
Avid4 Adventure, which normally hires 700 seasonal workers to augment the work of the 25 or 26 workers in the company’s headquarters, expects to hire about half that number of seasonal staff.
The company has stepped up its safety protocols. “Risk management, even before this, was dialed in. We’ve ramped that up,” Criswell said. Among the steps taken are smaller groups, daily health checks, and physical distancing, he said.
“We’ve had a positive response from families. We’re doing our best,” he said.
