As Evanston’s children bid farewell to pencils, books and teachers’ dirty looks for the summer, some local camp directors said they are hoping for a late surge in enrollment.
The city offers more than 25 different summer programs, the themes of which vary from figure skating to “battle of the bands,” according to a city brochure. This year, some programs are not filling up the way they have in years past, said Bob Dorneker , Evanston’s recreation superintendent.
“For some of our programs we have seen a slight reduction in enrollment,” Dorneker said. “It’s a little bit early to say. There’s a tendency for some people to register at the last minute.”
The summer programs at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center, 1655 Foster St., and at the Robert Crown Community Center, 1701 Main St., had been slower this year to fill up than in previous years, though this is not necessarily cause for alarm, he said.
The largest declines have been among older children who can fend for themselves during the day, camp directors said. Though summer camps are a recreational outlet for children, they also serve as daytime supervision for parents who work during the day..
Donna Kent, who has run the summer program at the Henry Crown Center for two years, said she’s seen smaller enrollment numbers among older children at the camp. Kent said she was seeing lower numbers among her oldest campers.
“It’s not as if I keep the statistics from year to year,” she said. “In my preschool program it’s pretty much the same as usual. In my older kids it’s a little less. Eight to twelve is running a little bit behind.”
Kent said she guessed some of the children who were old enough to stay home unsupervised would not attend camp this year as a means of conserving money in a tight year.
“I can only imagine it’s because of the economy,” she said. “We’re still going to run as we usually do. I’m just going to plan for who’s there.”
The program at Fleetwood-Jourdain has seen declining numbers for the past five years, said Alando Massie, a representative of the program.
The after-school program is “one of the more affordable ones in the city,” he said, but it serves a neighborhood in Evanston’s Fifth Ward with few numbers of children.
This trend of families holding off on sending their oldest children to camp exists outside Evanston.
Susan “The Camp Lady” Kasnett, who helps families find summer programs for their children, said declining enrollment has affected teen tours and programs for older children, more than long-standing sleep-away camps.
“The camps that have always done well are still doing well,” Kasnett said. “Parents are going to find a way to send their kids back to camp.”
