In the past, Kingswood Oxford Middle School students have gone to camps in order to build friendships and teamwork; however, this year, these trips were cancelled. Sixth-graders missed a trip to Camp Jewell in Colebrook, CT. Seventh-graders did not go to Camp Hulbert in Vermont. Eighth-graders were disappointed to miss the voyage to Camp Winona in Maine. Students and advisors both were let down by these beginning-of-the-year trip cancellations.
Eighth-grader Ryan Sadowsky was disappointed about the cancellation, but he knew it was going to happen due to COVID-19. Ryan was looking forward to hanging out with his classmates and learning new things in a different environment. However, Ryan agrees that the decision was a good one. “I think it would be really hard to have everybody stay in cabins with masks on the whole time,” he said. For new students to Kingswood Oxford this year who have never experienced these trips, Ryan expects that they will have the experience next year.
Seventh-grader Alex Doering agrees that Camp Jewell was how she and her friends bonded during their trip last year. Alex thinks that Camp Hulbert would have been great to reconnect with her friends that she hasn’t seen since March when Kingswood Oxford transitioned to remote learning. However, COVID-19 restrictions such as distancing, masks while sleeping and in cabins, cleaning everything, and sanitizing make every aspect of the trip a difficulty.
Similarly, sixth-grade Form Dean and advisor Alison O’Donnell thought that students would be safer staying home because of physical distancing between each other. At Camp Jewell, students make new friendships as they enter sixth grade. As Mrs. O’Donnell said, the point of the trip has “been that team-building sense of helping students who are new to KO, finding how to solve problems together, and collaborate as a group.” However, COVID-19 made that a difficulty this year.
Though COVID-19 complications have made the beginning-of-the-year trips impossible, it is good to know that this decision has kept everybody safer.
