In an open letter to the Shelter Island community, Camp Quinipet & Retreat Center announced Monday it will hold no programs this summer.
“In light of the uncertainty of COVID-19 in the Long Island region, Quinipet, like so many other East End resources, has been faced with a difficult decision,” said Executive Director Brooke Bradley in a letter she shared with the Gazette. “As a team we have searched for a safe and responsible way to open this summer and welcome the children of our community, but the facts and risks are insurmountable.”
“Therefore, it is with heavy hearts that we have made the decision to cancel all camp programs this summer,” she wrote “We are heartbroken, but the safety of our campers, staff and the Shelter Island community is paramount.”
60 years of programs
The camp, owned and operated by the New York Conference of The United Methodist Church, has offered retreats, camps and environmental education programs for 60+ years. It occupies 27 waterfront acres on the Island’s northwest shore, a setting Quinipet says on its website “invites connection, reflection and spiritual growth.”
In summer, it offers both overnight and day camp programs, including a popular community sailing program. Should pandemic restrictions permit, Bradley said, Quinipet may work with the Town of Shelter Island to possibly offer a modified program.
“We will continue to monitor the situation closely and if there becomes a time when we can responsibly offer any programming to our local community, we will jump at the opportunity to provide a safe environment for campers to come and enjoy all that Quinipet has to offer.”
‘We’re all sad’
Bradley is on the board of the American Camp Association for New York and New Jersey, and says camp directors have been constant contact with one another.
“I’ve been sitting in on groups of many, many camp directors in the Northeast that are trying to make sense of this situation,” she said in a phone call Monday.
Quinipet and the Perlman Music Program are the only overnight camps on Shelter Island, and are regulated by state health officials. But regulators haven’t said whether and when camps might be permitted to open.
Given the lack of guidance from health officials, “some camps, including us, have decided we just can’t continue to wait on this.”
“Parents have been very patient about asking about refunds, but there are people who really need this money back and we didn’t want to be sitting on their money,” she said.
The ACA, Bradley said, hired a consulting firm to develop guidelines to help camps figure out what they may have to do to meet anticipated requirements for social distancing and other virus control measures.
“I thought it was a really creative step,” she said. Apparently so did the CDC, which Bradley said has adopted the ACA guidelines.
Another important factor in the decision was Quinipet’s role as a citizen of the larger Shelter Island community, she said.
“We feel pretty safe here on Shelter Island,” she said. “The leaders in the community have done a great job. But we bring in staff from overseas. We have international campers. It would change the dynamic.”
Meantime, parents have been “overwhelmingly supportive” of the decision.
“We say ‘come back next year’ and they say ‘we’ll be there’,” Bradley said.
Not open to the public
Year-round staff will remain on the property to see that it is maintained and protected. Bradley noted that Quinipet is not open to the public. She asked that people please refrain from entering the property and not use its facilities (like the ball field and playground). There are no public trails to walk, and no hiking, hunting or fishing is permitted.
If you have questions or inquiries, contact the camp office at quinipet@nyac.com.
