Wednesday’s dangerous air quality index has forced summer camps to readjust outdoor activities to protect children.
“Making sure that the kids are not doing strenuous activities outside, but still focusing on the fun of camp,” Brenna Lupo, Vice President of Education & Childcare Services, YMCA Buffalo Niagara. “We’ve been working with the Department of Health and Safety precautions.”
It's the first full week of summer camp for kids at the YMCA’s Camp Eggert in Orchard Park. But poor air quality has forced children to stay inside as much as possible with "indoor" activities.
“It's the same thing that we'd normally do on a day that we've got thunderstorms, lightning, all that stuff. We need to make sure that the kids are in hard shelter — that they're indoors in places with as little windows as possible. We can't have them outside. We can't have them up on the rock wall doing strenuous activity like swimming and sports,” explained James Nash, camp director.
Nash says indoor activities include specialists teaching kids about nature, rock climbing, and art. Children gathered in a large indoor barn area and were divided into teams to show off the artwork they created.
“We’ve been doing some stuff with them like, something simple, like Mum-ball — is something to keep the kids quiet and they're stationary and just tossing balls, so they get the feeling that they're doing some sort of sports activity, but in reality, they're just staying in place and we've got other activities we've had word searches, coloring searches, we got a couple of games inside,” noted Nash.
Camp leaders make sure they've got enough activities for the entire day since some children arrive as early as 7 a.m. and leave as late as 6 p.m.
“I will not lie when I say that the kids are super antsy because they can't fully understand why they're being kept inside. To them, it's just a foggy day. But I commend our specialists. They're the ones that focus on the extracurricular activities with the kids,” Nash described.
"The kids have been great. Our counselors have been rotating through the group,” Lupo commented.
Teenage camp helpers, like Ben Skoba, says the ‘air quality alert’ is preventing him from leading kids through sports.
“What sports activities would you be taking them through?” Buckley asked. “I’d be doing soccer right now,” replied Skoba. “Do you miss not being able to do that today?” Buckley questioned. “I wish I was doing it, yeah,” Skoba responded.
190 children were at Camp Eggert Wednesday. I asked Lupo how they are keeping all the parents informed.
“Once we get the air quality alert last night, our staff sent out an email to all parents that were registered for Camp Eggert here and said we are aware of the alert — here are the precautions we’re taking. We're still going to have fun and magic at camp and we are working with the Department of Health,” Lupo remarked.
Other summer camp programs and outdoor kids activities in the region have also adjusted because of poor air quality.
The Town of Lewiston Recreation Department announced the Sunburn Summer amp Kids also held camp inside at the Sunburn Fire Hall Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Park School Camp in Amherst tells 7 News the program was also adjusted to keep children safe from the poor air quality Wednesday.
At Canalside in downtown Buffalo EPCI canceled the Storytime for Children's program Wednesday due to the poor air quality.
“But like — it's sometimes okay to just chill inside sometimes,” Skoba remarked.
