Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many summer programs and camps have had to adapt to the inability to meet in person. Two of the clubs impacted are the Spartans Sports camp and Camp Imagineerz.

In early May, the decision to cancel the Spartan sports summer camp was made, which was following the decision to cancel the spring break Spartans sports camp. 

“As time went on, it became more and more clear that we’re not keeping a lot of summer camps due to the safety issue,” Administrative Director Doug Wiersig said. 

The Spartans Sports camp has been around since 2012, and is directed by Wiersig who is also an alum of MVHS (class of 2005). 

Every year the camp receives between 800 and 1000 students, who this year will not be able to participate. There will also be a big impact on the employees, many of which make a “significant amount of money working over the summer, and will be financially impacted,” according to Wiersig.

Despite the impact on both the staff and the camp participants, Spartan Sports Camp was cancelled.

“The safety of the campers and the employees is most important, and was what guided our decision,” said Weirsig. 

Similarly to the Spartan sports camp, Camp Imagineerz will be mostly canceling its in person camp however they will be moving it onto a digital format. Camp Imagineerz is a STEM program that strives to build “i-can attitudes” in all of their camp attendees. The camp was founded and started by Vaibhavi, who has a background in both computer engineering and business administration. 

According to camp founder Vivabhi, that platform will be Zoom. Zoom is a video call platform that many schools now are using to communicate with students during the quarantine period. The plan is to have part of the summer be Zoom classes, and the other part be in person.

With all these changes Vivabi says, “We are trying to do the best we can given the circumstances to ensure that the campers are safe and still having fun.”