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It's been six weeks since area schools closed and students transitioned to "distance learning" as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Now summer camps are wondering if they'll be next.
Summer camps were not included in the first phase of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's plan to reopen the economy.
"I say it's the backbone of reopening the economy because workers have families," said Joan Altabelli, vice president of Extend-A-Care YMCA, which offers school, daycare and summer camp programs across Austin.
Without clear directives, however, many local summer camps are planning for multiple scenarios.
"We have a plan in place if the 10-person gathering ban is still in effect," said Robert Fowler, chief program services officer for the Boys Clubs of the Austin Area. "If, by some miracle, things reopen tomorrow, we are ready to go."
The local nonprofit serves over 8,200 members across Travis and Bastrop counties.
"Ninety-nine percent of our families will return to us for the summer, so we know that parents want [their kids] to go to summer camp," Fowler said.
In case in-person camps are not an option, BGCAA staff are considered virtual programming. "I call it reality camp," Fowler said.
Austin Sunshine Camp, which offers overnight programs to children in foster care or whose families qualify based on their household income, announced April 16 that it would offer its first two sessions of the summer online. Word on the remaining six is expected early next month.
Neuron Garage, a summer camp with 12 locations around Austin, is "cautiously optimistic" and is preparing to host campers starting June 1 while awaiting official guidance.
The organization has updated its protocols as a result of the pandemic, however, and will increase cleaning, implement screenings and limit class sizes to 25 campers. It is also offering full refunds—including deposits—in the case camp cannot proceed.
Like almost every industry, summer camps—and the schools that host them—are financially impacted by the pandemic.
Extend-A-Care YMCA—which is only able to provide child care to essential workers under current state rules—is burning through its rainy day funds.
"It's an absolutely devastating impact to us," Altobelli said. "We have no income coming in."
Laura Colangelo, executive director of the Texas Private School Association, said private schools across the state are eagerly waiting for the governor's word on summer camps
"Frankly they get a lot of revenue from those programs," Colangelo said.
Across Texas, private schools are reporting an average drop in enrollment of about 20% due to the pandemic. Camps could be one way to offset some of those losses, but only if families choose to pay for them.
"A lot of parents do use these camps for childcare, so [virtual programming] is not going to solve that problem," Colangelo said. "That's why we really hope they can meet in person, but if they can't, then I imagine schools are going to try anything they can to stay engaged with the community and to make up some of that revenue. They're just going to have to be really creative about how they do that."
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Popular
(Bob Daemmrich)
Hours following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion, on Friday, about 1,000 people gathered in Republic Square with signs calling for change.
The rally, organized by the group Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights Texas, started at the federal courthouse on Republic Square on Friday at 5 p.m. before the crowd marched to the Texas Capitol. More protests are expected to ensue over the weekend.
People showed up with all types of signs like Mindy Moffa holding up, "Keep your filthy laws off my silky drawers."
Austin joined cities across the country that saw protests for a women's right to an abortion after the ruling.
According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
Sabrina Talghade and Sofia Pellegrini held up signs directed at Texas laws. A Texas trigger law will ban all abortions from the moment of fertilization, starting 30 days after the ruling. When state legislators passed the trigger law last summer, it also passed laws for more protection of firearms, including the right to open carry without a permit.
Lili Enthal of Austin yells as around 1,000 Texans marched to the Texas Capitol.
From the Texas Capitol, Zoe Webb lets her voice be heard against the Supreme Court ruling.
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(Paxton Smith/Instagram)
Paxton Smith’s 2021 valedictory speech at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas wasn’t the same speech she had previously shared with school administrators. She dropped the approved speech and made a case for women’s reproductive rights after lawmakers passed the Texas "Heartbeat Bill.”
Her advocacy made news on NPR, YouTubeTV and in The Guardian. Just over a year later, the “war on (women’s) rights” she forewarned has come to a head as the U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday morning to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending constitutional protection for abortion access.
“It is up to the people to show up and show the courts and the politicians that we won’t sit back and let this happen,” Smith told Austonia Friday morning. “We will show up, we will fight back. Before, we were scared of them, now they should be scared of us.”
Now a University of Texas sophomore and abortion rights activist, 19-year-old Smith said she wanted to give the same speech in the “the most public way possible” to reach “as many people as possible who don't agree that I deserve this right.”
However, she says the response was “actually overwhelmingly positive” and supportive of her cause. According to a recent UT poll, 78% of Texas voters support abortion access in most cases.
The speech opened up further opportunities for activism: she advocated for reproductive rights at the International Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, interviewed with Variety magazine and spoke to tens of thousands at Austin’s Bans Off Our Bodies protest at the Texas Capitol in May.
Smith also serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, a national nonprofit organization that helps fund abortions or medication abortion—like Plan C pills—in all 50 states. Most recently, Smith has been attending protests in Washington, D.C. leading up to the ruling.
“This is land of the free. This is where you get to choose how you live your life,” Smith said. “Overturning Roe v. Wade violates everything that we have come to believe about what it means to live in this country. I think a lot of people aren't willing to accept that this is a human right that is most likely just going to be gone for over half of the country within the next couple of weeks.”
Bracing for the next steps, Smith gave some tips for supporters:
- Find a protest to attend.
- “I would say invite somebody to go to those protests with you, invite a couple of friends, invite people into the movement,” Smith said.
- Talk about the issue on social media—use the platform you have.
- “Have these kinds of conversations where people can just talk about their fears and then find ways to go and advocate for yourself,” Smith said.
- Volunteer at a nonprofit near you.
“I feel like a lot of the reason things have gotten as bad as they have within the abortion rights world is that people are not making a scene, not protesting, not putting the effort into ensuring that the government doesn't take away this right,” Smith said. “I want to emphasize that if you're not doing anything, don't expect the best scenario, expect the worst because that's the direction that we're going in.”
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