Sonoma Valley Summer Camps filling up fast, per usual

Summer is still months away, but local organizations have already begun opening registration for their seasonal camps — and parents who wait to sign up may already be too late.

Sonoma Valley has a handful of organizations that offer summer program for kids, but many of them find themselves at or near capacity every single year.

Art Escape, an art school and creative sanctuary in Fetters Hot Springs-Agua Caliente, opened registration for its 11 summer camps on March 14, and half of them are already full or nearly full. They don’t begin until June, but it’s not uncommon for the camps to fill up well in advance, with plans to serve over 100 kids this summer.

The pandemic may have fueled even greater demand. After two years of social distancing, some parents are more eager than ever to see their kids out in nature and socializing with friends, according to a CNN article from May.

Outside of national trends, local camp leaders are used to seeing a high demand for their services.

“As soon as we put it out, a lot of them do fill,” Alma Bastress, administrative manager at Art Escape, said. “Because we have that reputation of being small and being one of the cheapest in the Valley.”

According to Bastress, classes could be completely full by within a month, with their free offerings likely being the first to go. They were able to offer four of its programs for free using funds from the Sonoma Community Foundation’s Expanded Learning Advancing Educational Equity grant initiative. Like many other organizations, Art Escape offers scholarships for its programs, and 40% of camp attendees are recipients of full or partial financial support.

“Especially for families who have more than one kid, it’s a lot,” Bastress said. “I can feel there’s a lot of pressure to schedule your kids for a camp.”

With inflation, some of the camps this year have had to raise pricing for their programs in order to pay for staff, supplies and other related expenses. Both the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma Valley have had to raise their rates by $25 per camp this year. Both also continue to offer scholarships.

“Money will never be a reason a youth cannot attend our camps. We offer partial or full scholarships for all members that need it,” Joe Hardeman, vice president of operations for the Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma Valley, said.

According to Hardeman, the club previously served 180 to 220 members a day, but this summer it increased the capacity to serve up to 480 a day in order to meet the demand after spots filled up within the first month of registration last year.

“Last summer all of our camps sold out, with that said we have slowly been growing our staffing capacity/safe spacing and ratios coming out of the pandemic. We plan to fill this summer as well, but doubling in size will be the true test,” Hardeman said in an email. “In the past spots fill up within the first month, although this year we will be partnering with (Sonoma Valley Union School District) which will almost double the number of members we can serve.”

The club draws such a large number in part because it offers such a wide variety of camps. Each week is based on a theme and includes a mix of art, science, sports, group games, team building, ecology, history and various other educational and recreational activities. It also has “Specialty Camps” that have a focused theme, anything from rock climbing, to ceramics to 3D design and more.

It’s not just finances that can limit youth access to summer camps. According to Tony Passantino, education program manager at Sonoma Ecology Center, transporting kids to and from camp can be difficult for parents who work full time.

Passantino said in an interview with the Index-Tribune that the center’s Sonoma Garden Park camps are almost always the first to fill up, in part because of their close proximity to town. The Sugarloaf Ridge State Park programs pick up registration at a slower rate, and don’t always reach capacity because the location is harder for some parents to reach.

The ecology center serves roughly 150 kids over the course of the summer, and its camps typically reach about 80% capacity.

Though options for children’s camps in the Valley are limited, the options for teens are even more restricted. Teen Services, a partner of the Boys & Girls Club, is one of the few organizations that offers programs explicitly for young adults.

“What we do is try and just get out of here because we spend so much time here during the school year,” Eric Gonzalez, vice president of Teen Services, said. That means plenty of field trips.

Teen Services offer teens the opportunity to volunteer in the community, learn valuable life skills and feel empowered to achieve their full potential. Its members participate in a variety of activities that promote college and career readiness, leadership skills, community-mindedness and healthy lifestyles.

The organization’s summer programs are a continuation of its mission, with activities such as college campus tours, culinary classes, internship programs and industry visits. Every program is free for members of Teen Services, which is free to join. They get a fair amount of middle school students, but mainly serve high school students, amounting to around 80 teens a summer just for their seasonal offerings.

It’s popular Ready to Work job preparedness program is in such high demand for the summers that they added a second. One session is set at the beginning of summer for teens looking for a gig while on break from school, with another planned toward the end of summer for those looking for an after-school work opportunity in the fall.

Though many camp opportunities in the Valley are discounted or even fully covered by the organizations that offer them, there are still kids who don’t make it off the many scholarship waitlists.

“Even when a discount is offered, it's unaffordable for these families. We have a small ‘empowerment’ fund, but with over 300 kids in the program it's not enough for everyone who would like to go to camp,” Susie Gallo, executive director of Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance, said.

Every program included in this story offers scholarships in partial and full amounts, and applications for those funds, along with general registration information, can be found on the organizations’ websites. Even if a program is full, parents are highly encouraged to join the waitlist because spots often do open up.

You can reach staff writer Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com. On Twitter @bexwolff.