A YMCA-owned camp in the greater Saint John-area is dealing with the aftermath of an illness that has sent dozens of kids home and temporarily closed the camp.
Camp Glenburn will stay closed until at least Sunday while staff clean up.
The facility is in Kingston, N.B., roughly 11 kms north of Quispamsis, N.B.
On Friday about 100 campers were sent home as a viral illness rapidly spread through the facility.
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Roughly 70 kids displayed symptoms including vomiting and diarrhea.
Saint John YMCA CEO Shilo Boucher says this is the first time something like this has happened at Camp Glenburn, but it’s not uncommon for a camp setting.
“Because if you do have one child that’s sick this type of illness spreads fast and it could probably happen at any camp,” Boucher said.
She says swift action was taken.
“Most important to us is the safety of the children, the campers and staff, so that’s why we involved public health to make sure we followed all the protocol and that we understood what it was. We’ll be doing a debrief with public health and our staff to make sure we’ve done everything we could, and see if there’s anything we can do in the future to avoid something like this,” Boucher said.
Staff has been busy scrubbing the facility with bleach and a substance called virox.
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Boucher says they will do all they can to accommodate those whose experience was disrupted.
“We’re trying to arrange for an extra week of camp at the end of season because we are full. We offered them some day camp options, the YMCA operates in different locations. If they want to come back next year we’ll make sure we make that happen and give them whatever week they want and if they just want a refund we’ll give them a refund as well.”
The province’s public health department told Boucher campers could return by Wednesday but the camp has decided to wait until Sunday to re-open just to be safe.
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