Last week we announced that Fiddleheads would not be able to offer after-school programs this Fall. We apologize for the late notice and appreciate yo Dear FiddleFriends, Last week we announced that Fiddleheads would not be able to offer after-school programs this Fall. We apologize for the late notice and appreciate your patience as we made this difficult decision. We worked hard to meet our criteria for safety and preparedness and did not feel ready given the immense burdens that COVID-19 places on all of us. We are aware of the many ways that Fiddleheads has supported your children and your families in the past, and especially this summer. With the global pandemic and much of youth social interaction taking place online, we are sensitive to how valuable being outdoors and socializing with peers is and are committed to resuming our groups as soon as we can. Meanwhile, we would like to offer you an insight into our current situation, and share the lessons and joyous moments from summer camp. How did the Summer Camp go? We are extremely grateful to the families who entrusted us with their children amidst a global pandemic. Every day, campers and counselors went through a health screening to make sure that we were as safe as possible. We learned to ask and answer questions about our health and well-being, because we realized that the well-being of everyone around us matters. We learned to read each other’s emotions through face masks. We established new friendships, deepened our connection with nature, and cherished the special times we had, in solitude and together. We cultivated our resilience to try new games and connections, sparked our curiosity about bugs and logs, practiced taking and offering turns, and played. A lot. We celebrate the courageous and adventurous young people who spent 3 to 4 weeks outdoors with us, making new friends and memories and can’t wait to do it again! Special thank you to all who took the time to provide us with valuable feedback and share your “apples and lemons” with us - we will take the lessons from the summer camp and make our program stronger. Why is Fiddleheads After School Program Not Running? Unlike summer camp, Fiddleheads after school program presented unique challenges that have no easy solutions. In the summer, we created “pods” - small groups of children meeting daily for 5+ hours for 3 or 4 weeks. The children shuttled between home and Fiddleheads and there was a smaller risk of transmitting covid due to stricter shelter-in-place orders. We were blessed to avoid the virus in all of our 10 camps, even as the number of cases began to grow, and we were painfully aware that if we had to close down a camp due to covid, we would have had to choose between refunding the families or paying our counselors. While these protocols worked for the summer, they would not be effective for less frequent meetings during the school year as we cannot confidently create “pods” with uncertainty about where else our FiddleFriends and their family members go during the week and how many other people they come in contact with. To ensure safety of your children and families, as well as our counselors, we have to take a step back to envision how our program can operate with these unique challenges. By stepping back for the Fall season, we can use this time to plan strategically and creatively for different ways the program can look in these times. We also encourage you and your family, as a core part of our Seeds of Awareness community, to send us any of your ideas to innovate Fiddleheads and help us come back even stronger! You can email us at: fiddleheads@seedsofawareness.org or schedule a call with us if you prefer to discuss ideas over the phone. Together, we can come back stronger than ever! What can our family do this Fall instead? While we do our homework, we encourage you to continue Fiddleheads adventures with your children. When air quality permits, we encourage you to go to the familiar parks where they attended Fiddleheads and learn about their special nature spaces, special trees, games, friends, and memories. Infuse your life with small rituals of taking a pause and a deep breath, noticing sensations in the body and taste of the food, vulnerably sharing your “apples and lemons” and listening compassionately to others. As always, we welcome your questions and comments. In community, Fiddleheads Team |