Summer camp is all about embracing the outdoors — even when that means getting soaked in a downpour or sweating through a hike. But something about the outdoors wasn’t right one hazy day this summer.
“The sun’s a little bit different,” said 7-year-old Isla Pokrant, a camper at Hale Education in Westwood. “There’s, like, fires in Canada.”
A fellow camper had a different, more imaginative, explanation for what was going on.
“The animals at Canada rain forest had a barbecue,” said 6-year-old Henry LeMoult. “And they forgot to turn off the grill and the fire spread and almost burned down the entire forest.”
These kids were describing how for a few days in mid-July the sun turned into a glowing red orb and the sky took on an orange haze when a thick blanket of smoke from Canadian wildfires descended on Massachusetts. It wasn’t just weird looking — the smoke triggered air quality alerts across the region, with recommendations for people to stay indoors.
The hazy sky is a reminder that summers are changing, and the hundreds of camps in Massachusetts must adapt. As climate change fuels dangerous heat and unhealthy air, the outdoors is becoming something camps must protect children from.
“It’s been a warm summer already,” Hale Executive Director Aaron Morehouse said while walking the campgrounds. “This year, last year, the year before — they are different. The science shows us that.”
Climate change brings a whole host of challenges for summer camps, from frequent heat waves and powerful storms, to algae blooms that make it unsafe to swim.
“Every night I have to monitor what the weather is going to look like for the next day,” said Emily MacDonald, a director at The Common School in Amherst. “If it goes to 100 [degrees] we don’t go outside … and that stinks because lots of the camp is outside.”
MacDonald said she wished the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which sets minimum regulatory standards for camps, would provide more guidance for dealing with dangerous weather events.
The department requires camp directors to develop contingency plans and procedures for emergencies including natural disasters, but stops short of requiring specific protocols for climate hazards like air quality alerts, extreme heat and flooding.
“It feels like it should be a bigger discussion,” MacDonald said. “How do we do this?”
This summer’s Fourth of July heat wave upended camp routines across the state. As the temperature soared to 100 degrees, one camp leader gave counselors permission to retreat inside and turn on Netflix. Some camps closed altogether.
At Everwood Day Camp in Sharon, Director Jaime Pickles canceled the afternoon buses that deliver children home.
“Kids sort of sitting in a hot bus with no air conditioning, particularly in potential Fourth of July traffic, was just a no go for us,” Pickles said.
It was a hard decision, she said, because many parents depend on those buses to get their kids to and from camp. Roughly 75 kids stayed home that day, she added.
“When they can’t get here by bus then it affects their childcare, it affects their kids’ experience and people really have to reshuffle.”
“It’s been a warm summer already. This year, last year, the year before — they are different. The science shows us that.”Hale Executive Director Aaron Morehouse
Children are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat and poor air quality. And those with asthma or an underlying heart condition face even greater risks.
Kids’ bodies are still developing their ability to regulate temperature, said Dr. Harleen Marwah, a pediatrician at Mass General Brigham.
“Their bodies heat up quicker than adults and then they release less heat from sweating,” Marwah said.
Plus, most kids don’t notice when they’re getting overheated. They rely on others to keep them safe.
“That leaves them vulnerable to their caregivers’ ability to notice the risks, the signs or the symptoms early on,” she said. “And then get them to a cool place and keep them appropriately hydrated.”
But that doesn’t mean kids should entirely avoid the outdoors, Marwah added. Playing outside is crucial for children’s growth and development.
Still, keeping everybody safe at camp increasingly means limiting some outdoor activities that have always been part of camp, like campfires and s’mores.
“Some of the fun of outdoor camp is that you get to take risks,” said Katharine Robb, whose 6-year-old attends camp at Hale.
Robb remembers her own childhood summers spent adventuring outside. Back then, she said, the thrill of a rare thunderstorm was simple fun.
“But if that’s thunderstorms that are happening all the time and it’s actually not just a thunderstorm but it’s a really extreme weather event, then that can get really dangerous,” Robb said, referencing last year’s flooding at Camp Mystic that killed 25 campers and two counselors.
Camp directors are thinking about this more extreme future, with some planning to add indoor space and expand shade cover. They’re also making changes where they can now. Some are flipping schedules — moving the highest energy activities early in the day when it’s still cool.
Evidence of these shifts can be found all over Hale. Campers now huddle around industrial misting fans to cool off. Counselors enforce mandatory water breaks every 15 minutes on particularly hot days.
Campers also monitor their peers. This look-out-for-each-other approach means kids regularly pause to check if their buddy is showing signs of overheating, like lethargy.
Morehouse, Hale’s executive director, said he believes camp is even more important in the context of climate change. Camp teaches children how to be adaptable and resilient, he said, and those are exactly the skills they need in a changing world.
“That’s another reason why we can’t lose summer camp,” Morehouse said. “That’s what we’re doing here.”
He pointed to a climbing tower nearby.
“And then you gotta have fun,” he added.
As the day came to a close, campers boarded buses, calling out their seating preferences — window, aisle.
One camper promised to bring his Pokemon tomorrow. Another tried to sneak an ant she’d named Tallulah onto the bus.
The adults keep an eye on the weather, so the kids can just be kids.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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