THAW Youth Weekends Updates & Info
It’s December! Wow.
Only 1 month until the January THAW weekend (January 8-10) and 3 months until our March THAW weekends (March 5-7 & 12-14)! It will be here before we know it.
We want to communicate the health & safety measures we have in place, and our plans in regard to the Department of Health’s recent wave of updates to PA’s Mitigation Orders that pertain to the THAW weekends at camp.
THAW WEEKENDS: We are committed to abiding by DOH orders, and CDC guidance, in order to provide a safe & healthy camp experience for the students & leaders that attend. This means we need to be adaptive and creative to keep the fun and excitement of the camp experience, even as we adjust to mitigate the spread of an unseen foe: the virus.
1) ATTENDANCE: The nature of the retreat is that we have multiple churches/groups in attendance. We are committed to keeping each THAW weekend to less than 100 total people (about 40% of the our maximum capacity) for 2021, to assist with social distancing.
2) ACTIVITIES: We are planning activities that minimize the interactions between church/cabin groups for THAW 2021 (i.e. no church vs. church tourneys). We are planning amazing activities that will allow your group to build relationships and be spiritually encouraged.
3) 3 W’s – WEARING MASKS, WASHING HANDS, WATCHING DISTANCE: We will abide by PA’s Universal Masking Order. This means that all students and leaders, and RMBC staff must wear a face mask (or shield) ANY TIME they are INDOORS with individuals who are not sharing the same cabin/dorm, live together in the same house at home (families), or traveling party (rode together to/from camp). We will also be encouraging viligance in personal hygiene, as well as maintaining physical distance of 6′ between individuals of different lodging groups.
4) GENEROUS CANCELLATION POLICY – We have never required a deposit for THAW, and we will not do so this year. If you have to cancel due to COVID concerns or sickness among your group members, that is fine. We want to keep everyone safe & healthy and the best way to do that is to stay home if you are sick or have known exposure the virus.
5) CREATING A SAFE & CLEAN ENVIRONMENT – We have been open and safely operating since May 15th, when our Family Campground opening for the 2020 season. Our Main Camp opened June 26th, when Susquehanna County was moved to the Green Phase of reopening in PA. We have increased our frequency of disinfecting surfaces, and have provided all facility-related protocols and provisions to keep our staff, campers, and guests healthy while at camp.
We are all aware that is way easier to cancel everything and “wait this out”, hoping the skies will clear and life will return to “normal.” But God has given us these hours, days, weeks, and months to glorify Him and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe the church and youth ministry is essential. We believe in-person ministry and Christian fellowship is essential. That is why we remain open and ready to assist you and your church to share the love and light of Jesus Christ during this dark/stressful time.
In the event your church decides not to attend THAW, please reach out to see if there is any other ways we can come alongside you this year . We have so many resources available to your ministry (team-building programs, lasertag, etc), and would love to explore how we can still partner with you in 2021.
If you have not done so, you can register your group online here.
Let us know if you plan to pre-order T-shirts for THAW 2021 when pre-registering.
You can check out our current Health & Safety Plan here.