Dear Friends,
It is with a heavy heart and a nervous stomach that I write this. We are shifting our trajectory and plan for summer 2021. We are entering new territory!
As most of you know, we have been waiting for the state of NM to issue new rules for overnight camps so we can open in summer 2021. The state has said this is coming, but keeps pushing it back, the latest is that this will be published at the end of April. They have said that they are ‘waiting to see’ how things go with school reopening before they publish the new rules for overnight camps. Based on conversations with the state, we expect the guidance to be very restrictive including mandatory masks, no large gatherings, and programming in small cohorts only.
We have spoken with many of our church and group leaders about this type of restrictive camp experience and whether it would be attractive to them. Several have told us that the restrictive environment is not the type of experience that they want for campers. Many of our large bookings have already canceled their summer 2021 event at EPCC in favor of booking in other states with less restrictions.
We are also facing the uncertainty of the county by county opening tiers that are based on covid cases. This system resets every 2 weeks! The reality of this system is that even when things open up we could be forced to cancel events any time covid cases increase. This makes booking rental groups very difficult.
So, in light of all this, behind the scenes we have been planning a contingency summer schedule whereby we could offer a valuable and safe experience to families and not risk closure by the state. For this contingency plan to work, we set a deadline that we would need to pivot no later than the beginning of April. We are at that decision point.
We have decided to cancel our summer youth camps and adult retreats and switch to a new family camp program that will run back to back all summer.
This will allow us to have up to 22 families at a time in a new camp program. We are very excited that families will be able to lodge, dine, worship, and play on the mountain at El Porvenir in 2021. We plan to provide an El Porvenir experience of adventure, connection, spiritual renewal, and rest for each family.
We will be opening registration and starting promotion for this program in the next few days.
This is not what we wanted to happen, but we feel compelled to take action instead of waiting for the state to change its course. We hope to be able to open to small retreat groups this fall, and be back to normal in 2022.
Please promote this program to your friends and family! We hope to see YOU on the mountain this summer!
Sincerely,
Nate Stafford
Executive Director