Summer Camps and Recession | ABC30 Fresno

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By ABC30

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Fresno, CA Camps being held at Fresno State are feeling the pinch of these recessionary times. On the first day of the very first B.A.R.K. summer camp, the 'Bulldog Activities and Recreational Kids', at Fresno State the pool is buzzing but not with very many campers. But Lerin Mundell, one of the Fresno State students keeping the campers busy, is hopeful the number of campers will increase during the next few weeks. As a master's student she helped plan the four week-long camps to accommodate as many as eighty kids a week. Lerin told us they don't have that many right now, "We're somewhere between 15 to 20 per camp. Each week registration varies and we're still accepting registration til the Monday of the camp."

The Fresno non-profit 'Encourage Tomorrow' for the first time offered three academic camps at Fresno State. The first, Medical Academy, was cancelled due to a lack of paying students says Derek Abbot, "Mostly, we assume, to the economy and the cost of the camp. Two hundred dollars is a lot of money for some parents."

And it's not just new camps to Fresno state that are seeing this drop in enrollment. The Lyle Center which operates camps all over the valley is also experiencing it. One of the Lyle center's fourteen summer camps was dropped. Parents had to pay out of pocket just like the B.A.R.K. and 'Encourage Tomorrow' says Diane Phakoneicham, "The Lyle Center Toy Camp was cancelled. A lot of parents expressed concern. A lot of them did get laid off and they could not afford the camp, the fee for it."

The Lyle Center's other camps are funded with after school dollars from valley school districts. "If the school didn't step in we wouldn't have this much camp and the opportunity for the children."

Still the B.A.R.K. campers were having fun, keeping fit and looking forward to daily field trips around Fresno State and a different physical challenge every day along with their daily lunches brought from home.

Summer camp is fun, often educational but for many families this year it may be an extra activity they simply can't afford.

FRESNO

http://www.fresnostatenews.com/2005/04/0426-camps.htm

http://www.fresnosummercamps.com/fsc/about.html

http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/ParksandRecreation/RecreationandSports/SummerCamps.htm

http://www.fresno.edu/athletics/summercamps/default.asp

VISALIA

http://www.inshapeclubs.com/documents/VisaliaBrochure2009.pdf

http://www.iaf.net/businesses/category:Summer+Camp+-+Camps/location:Visalia,CA/listings.html

http://www.camptq.org/

MERCED

http://www.cityofmerced.org/depts/parks_n_community_services/cs/
rec/youth_services_after_school_programs.asp