Greetings, Skye Farm Campers!
It’s the time of year at camp when we get excited to share with you all the awesome programs and events we have planned for the year ahead. This year, with the pandemic-affected 2020 camp season in the rear view mirror, we’d like to share with you our fun-filled, mission-driven, safety-focused plans for 2021.
As we took on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last year and dramatically scaled back our summer operation, welcoming families for cabin and lodge rentals became the primary way we were able to serve our community through July, August, and September. This unexpected ministry offered countless opportunities for many camper families, alumni, and new friends of Skye Farm to get away and enjoy some time together at camp. With this success, these rentals, which include lodging & basic access to our facilities, will continue in 2021. Cabin rentals will kick off on Memorial Day Weekend, and will be available over the weekends from May 28th through June 27th and seven days a week from September 1st through October 11th. Pending final schedules for summer programming, more dates in July and August may be available.
Retreats, Skye Fam Weekends, & Little Ones Program
Although the pandemic continues to impact our programming, this year we are blessed with far more time and knowledge as we prepare to welcome guests to our site. We know that this year we can run safe & fun-filled programming for families, households, pods, etc. who arrive together and lodge together, that we can open swimming and food service with the proper protocols and staffing, and that we can run safe activities for kids and adults who are staying on site. Thus, we want to offer as many opportunities as possible for our Skye Farm Family to come and enjoy camp in this way.
In addition to some themed retreats (Paint & Sweets, Creative Workshop Weekend, & more) and a session of our Little Ones camp (for kids 2-7 with a guardian,) we’re excited to introduce our Skye Fam Weekends, which will include a variety of lodging options, meals, swimming and waterfront programming, worship and devotional opportunities, and lots of fun camp activities for all ages and abilities. These weekends will take place throughout July and August. We hope these weekends will offer the chance for families to enjoy the camp experience together, for alumni to reunite and relive their camp days, and for God to work in our community.
Outside of these camp-run programs, we are happy to host retreats of all kinds throughout the year, including church groups, weddings, reunions, & more, as considerations for group sizes and social distancing allow.
Summer Camp
At this time, we are not able to make a decision on the running of our traditional overnight summer camp programs. The camping world is holding its breath, watching the progress of vaccine distribution and infection rates, hoping and praying for significantly reduced risk by July. We know how special and impactful summer camp programs will be once we’re able to run them again, and we do have plans in place to run a limited slate of programs this year if the public health situation allows for it. We will launch a soft opening for registration for these programs in early March, reserving spots but not yet collecting deposits. Throughout the spring, we will work with all the camp COVID guidelines available to us along with our local Department of Health. Ultimately, the Department of Health will make a verdict on overnight summer camp programs and we will announce the final decision, sometime in mid May.
Registration for cabin and lodge rentals and Skye Fam Weekends is open now, all at skyefarm.campbrainregistration.com. If you have any questions about all the goings-on at Skye Farm in 2021, we would love to help answer them. Reach out by emailing info@skyefarmcamp.org or calling our office at (518) 494-7170. We look forward to this year, which, although it will still look quite different from years past, will allow us to welcome more people from different walks of life to spend time at camp in new ways. We’ll be able to reconnect with each other and with God, spend time away from our everyday routines, enjoy the new and revitalized spaces around camp, and make new memories. The light at the end of the tunnel is bright.
We’ll see you at camp!
In Christ,
The Skye Farm Leadership Team
