“There is a concern, given that we are taking children out of cities,” Mark Zides, president of the Pennsylvania Camp Association, said Thursday. “Coming to the mountains for the summer is what summer camp is all about. “
Camp YMCA Kon-O-Kwee Spencer in western Pennsylvania closed its pool Wednesday and sent home some fitness campers, said Karla Schell, associate executive director of the camp about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. The camp accommodates 244 youth in its classic program and 19 adults in a program for others with special needs.
120 MILLION UNDER AIR QUALITY ALERTS AS WILDFIRE SMOKE HEADS EAST AND CHOKES NEW YORK CITIES SOUTHEAST
“We definitely felt that morning, and then as the air quality index continued to rise, we adjusted our business as we do with any climate change we have,” Schell said Thursday. “There are activities that we normally would have done outdoors. We were doing those activities on the inside. “
In the same way, all the activities of Wednesday and Thursday were moved to the interior of the 8 camps that run the Boys.
Children walk at YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer in a smoky haze in Zelienople, Pa. , June 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection told young children, the elderly and others with respiratory disorders to avoid outdoor activities and prolonged exertion. The company declared a “code red” for air quality and said smoke was concentrated in the western component of the state. .
Maggie Groce, one of the summer camp program administrators at the Tanglewood Nature Center in Elmira, N. Y. , said the young people stay indoors when the air quality point reaches 183, in the dangerous red zone.
SMOKE FROM CANADA’S WILDFIRES REACHES EUROPEAN SKIES
“Ideally, we’d like them to be outdoors in nature, on trails, so that would disappoint our plans,” Groce said.
As the elementary school youth center’s day camps began this week, science projects were being built with papier-mâché volcanoes inside, youth pools to engage the mess.
Other regime camp activities, such as walks and running in general, were cancelled. Groce said the older children understood, but it was harder for younger ones, especially with blue skies and the sun and fog.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
“It was very complicated for them on a perfectly sunny day that they can’t be outside,” he said.
Zides said some of the many campgrounds in the Poconos and northeastern Pennsylvania have air-conditioned buildings where campers can gather, and some even offer air-conditioned cabins. COVID-era air filtration systems were useful for editing the effect of smoke.
“We’re doing everything we can to provide the safest environment for all of our youth and we’re tracking everything that’s going on,” Zides said. spaces with program areas. “