July usually brings along the familiar smells of bug spray, sunscreen and campfires as kids tie up their laces and head off to camp.

Brock University’s summer kids camps are incredibly popular with hundreds of children coming to campus to attend a wide variety of camps led by Brock student instructors.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and following public health guidelines, Brock had to make the difficult decision to cancel its summer camps.

Searching for a way to virtually connect with campers, the Brock Recreation and Brock Sports teams used this opportunity to create an online catalogue, allowing kids to get a small dose of camp from home.

The newly-launched Camps at Home is an online resource for parents and guardians to access lesson plans and website links for fun camp-related activities.

“Camps at Home is a free, online resource for campers and their families to find engaging and educational content to keep them busy and active while staying safe at home this summer,” said Michelle Leone, Program Manager, Youth University. “We will share videos, lesson plans and our favourite online resources throughout the summer.”

Unlike usual summer camps, Camps at Home does not require any registration or fees, there is no maximum capacity and it is fully accessible 24/7. The activities for campers cover everything from technology, the arts and science to aquatics, sports and adventure.

“Although we can’t be together in person this summer, we are pleased to share a small bit of camp on our new website,” said Leone. “Throughout the summer, we will post new activities that have been carefully curated by our team. Our goal is to include as many streams of camp as possible.”

New content will be uploaded by the camp staff all summer. To access Camps at Home, visit Brock’s Recreation website.