BY COLTON DAVIES
PALS Communications Coordinator
Removing the camp from Camp PALS this year was difficult. Our community, and we along with them, were heartbroken when the time came to suspend Summer 2020 programming. Nevertheless, the announcement came and went – and after a brief period of close-out and mourning the loss of what should have been another unforgettable summer, the PALS staff went right back to work.
We are a small team of fiercely dedicated, fast-moving individuals, and putting camp planning and execution on hold to take a step back isn’t a situation in which we’ve ever found ourselves. So, guided by our values (genuine, welcoming, passionate, supportive, and fun), we seized the opportunity to reevaluate every single aspect of camp planning, while continuing to support and serve our community through a summer of trepidation.
To support and engage with our PALS family throughout the summer, our team of staff and volunteers worked hard to leverage technology and bridge the gap created by social distancing. Between May and August, we hosted over 20 weekly Zoom experiences and created themed "Best of" videos highlighting moments from our past decade of camps as well as compilation videos from footage submitted from campers and volunteers in their homes. We also built a private online PALS community forum where people shared workout videos, cooking strategies, trivia competitions, and overall coping strategies during the pandemic.
Another accomplishment was the overhaul of the PALS volunteer camp director experience. Where live conference call training sessions were the norm in past seasons, 2021 camp directors will be treated to an On-Demand style training consisting of over 100 short instructional videos supplemented by a full online curriculum – all created by PALS, for PALS. Directors were hired last week and have already begun training, albeit with cautious optimism, for an in-person 2021 season.
Thanks to the passion and dedication of our volunteers, our PALS family held strong through a summer without camp. We recognize that we are far from out of the woods with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we vow to hold true to our mission of inclusion, to continue to support and advocate for our community, and to emerge on the other side of this bleak chapter in human history as the best version of PALS the world has ever seen.
From our PALS family to yours – we look forward every single day to joining together to build transformative friendships. Until then, all our PALS love.
