BY ERIC VALENTINE
Summer camps are as much an American tradition as fireworks and hotdogs on the Fourth of July. But in a COVID world, what’s traditional can sometimes be literally a thing of the past.
Enter camp operators like Lauren Street, who for two-plus decades has operated a popular summer camp known as Clay Days. Like all camps, Street has had to reconfigure her pottery and sculpting classes to meet coronavirus-related safety guidelines. But Street has had to do it for an indoor operation—a slightly more challenging task than, say, a camp that operates almost 100 percent outdoors.
“Working with clay is very hands-on, so it’s been a challenge,” Street admits. “But we’ve made some changes and everyone is doing their part to make it work.”
The changes include the expected, such as reducing enrollment per class from 12 to 8 kids and disinfecting at the start and end of every day. And they include the unexpected, too. Street has installed air filtration “jets,” as she calls them, designed for spaces even larger than hers and containing HEPA filters so dust as well as germs are collected all day long.
“We have a garage door we’ll be keeping open now that it’s warm enough, so we’re providing an indoor environment that’s practically outdoors,” Street said.
Street also said she is carefully thinking through how to provide guidance and tips to students through verbal direction only. Normally, a pottery teacher would be very close to the student as they demonstrate pottery-throwing techniques.
So far, her efforts have resulted in the first two five-day camps in June being fully enrolled. Whether her Ketchum-based camps get filled up from early July through mid-August remains to be seen.
“This is our 23rd year in operation and the last 10 have really picked up, so it’d be a shame to see that impacted by the lockdown,” Street said.
It’d be a shame for the parents of the Valley, too, Street adds.
“I’m a parent, so I know the healthy break parents need every year. Given everything that’s happened this year, parents are going to need that break even more, so I’m doing everything I can to make them feel safe.”