May 27, 2020
Dear Camp Colley Foundation Supporters, Partners & Friends: We had hoped it wouldn’t come to this. But sadly and with much regret we have made the difficult decision to suspend our camp programming this summer as a result of COVID-19 and to minimize the exposure and spread among our campers, their families, and our staff. The City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department announced earlier this month that they were making changes to their community center site-based summer programs, including the cancellation of all off-site “field trips”. Because we transport large groups of campers and staff twice weekly, Camp Colley was included in this designation. With this in mind and with the White House and Center for Disease Control’s explicit social distancing guidance for schools, childcare centers and camps, we had no other option but to cancel our 2020 summer season. We are saddened that we will be unable to host Phoenix’s underserved children at Camp Colley this summer at a time that they most certainly need it most. Unfortunately, our program operations do not allow us to “wait and see” what the state of Arizona’s COVID-19 data will look like in mid-June. Our staff has invested significant time in developing a robust and impactful program for these children. And although we will be unable to implement these programs this year, we look forward to putting things in place for next year’s Camp Colley season. Because many of our campers will still be participating in Phoenix Recreation Center site-based programming throughout the summer, we are working with city staff from those locations to bring elements of our program to...
