Dare to Imagine Camp makes the tough call

SMELTERVILLE — After careful consideration, the Dare to Imagine Coalition has decided to cancel their 2020 Dare to Imagine Summer Camp.

The wildly popular event had become a summertime staple in Shoshone County, which allowed kids a week to explore their curiosities and try new things with careful guidance and organization, but unfortunately it couldn’t overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Camp director Ed Warren was pretty disappointed to say the least following the public announcement of the cancellation.

“It was one of the toughest decisions I have been a part of making,” Warren said. “We just had too many things that we really couldn’t overcome.”

One of the major obstacles was that the volunteer groups that the event usually has at their disposal, the Idaho Servant Adventures, canceled their summer lineup, which cost them roughly a third of their volunteer base (give or take a few).

Then, they also tend to have a large section of their volunteers who fall directly into the COVID-19 “at-risk” age groups and thus has them susceptible to catching the virus.

“We usually have over 100 volunteers to pull this off and when you suddenly don’t have 30 of them, those being the Servant Adventure kids, who usually were our camp counselors, it gets tough,” Warren said. “And then, when you have the rest of your volunteers, many of whom are in the at-risk category, you really have to start reconsidering things and looking at the bigger picture.” Volunteers in scarcity wasn’t the only hurdle the group faced, in fact, even if they had the volunteer numbers necessary they didn’t have a facility available to them.

Historically, the event has been held on the Kellogg School District campus, where they had access to multiple gymnasiums, classrooms, several open field areas and a cafeteria for lunches, but this year things are very different.

“The Kellogg School District currently allows 10 people maximum in their buildings,” Warren said. “They also have the challenge of prepping everything for opening in the fall. We don’t fault them at all, they are great partners and we totally understand why they are being cautious.”

Headed into its sixth year of existence, the camp was a well-oiled machine and Warren has no plans on letting this derail the event from firing back up next summer.

“Oh, I’m already looking forward to next year,” Warren said. “I’m sure we’ll have some awesome Back In Black, Tony Stark-like intro to next year’s camp.”

Warren would like parents and students to know that Lutherhaven Ministries, the group that usually provided the Servant Adventures kids, will be hosting several day-camps this summer for kids to attend throughout the Silver Valley.

Information on the camps can be found at www.lutherhaven.com/silver-valley-day-camps.