It’s been two years of modified summer camp schedules due to COVID-19, and as organizers in Lethbridge prepare for their first normal camp year since 2019, they couldn’t have expected inflation to be such a factor.
The University of Lethbridge has been pleased with registration so far. While it hasn’t reached pre-pandemic levels, a certain mainstay camp surprised organizers with demand outweighing the spots available.
“The Adventure Youth Camp we’ve been running for a lot of years, and what we do is go to the Crowsnest Pass and one day is hiking, another day is climbing, another day is mountain biking and then the last two days are an overnight trip,” Scott Whitside, who manages youth programs as well as the Ascent Climbing Centre and intramurals for the University of Lethbridge, said.
Whiteside says that camp sold out almost immediately, and when the U of L added a second week, that sold out too.
The drastic spike in demand for outdoor options is something Whiteside says he didn’t see coming, with traditionally popular options like drama camps lagging when it comes to numbers.
“I think it’s a lot of everything,” he said. “They’re not jumping into doing all of the ones they did before, a little more hesitant because finances are a little bit tighter.”
Whiteside says the university has managed to keep its summer programming costs down for the community, knowing that inflation is going to factor into many families’ choices this summer.
The YMCA of Lethbridge is also trying to ensure summer camps remain accessible as the price of everything else goes up.
“We’ve increased our options for what are called assisted memberships,” said Kristina Larkin, the director of community programs for YMCA of Lethbridge.
“Families who are low income can apply for an assisted membership — for the whole family, for just the adults or the children — and that can help them get access to at least one week free of summer camp as well as sports programs, swimming lessons and low cost on everything else.”
Larkin says of the YMCA’s roughly 10,000 local members, more than 1,300 are now on assisted memberships.
The YMCA also has licensed childcare camps that are subsidized by the provincial government, which Larkin says filled up very quickly.
“The subsidy actually increased for many families and increased the threshold of what counts as low income,” she said. “We saw more families get access to provincial funding to help them access summer camps this year.”
Larkin says demand was high even with COVID-19 restrictions still present in the summer of 2021, so the YMCA added additional programming for 2022.
Both the YMCA and the University of Lethbridge have plenty of spots available for a variety of camps — spots they expect last-minute registrants to fill as the summer goes along.