Registration rising at summer camps

Scaled-back economics of the past few years led to the closure of one longtime Lake Tahoe kids camp, but other regional summer camp organizers have seen an uptick in pre-registration for this year's camps.

Mark Heidt, president and owner of Kids Camp Lake Tahoe, started the camp when he moved to Lake Tahoe from Canada in 1992. He estimates he's served about 15,000 youths in that time but in early May he shuttered the camp due to dwindling attendance.

Kids Camp Lake Tahoe wasn't a typical summer camp with cabins and campfires. Instead, the camp picked kids up from Harrahs, Harveys and Embassy Suites for activities such as movies, bowling, miniature golf, swimming and hiking while parents enjoyed Lake Tahoe's gambling and nightlife.

Heidt says the downturn in attendance from about 1,000 kids a year to less than 100 started with the Angora Fire and worsened with the opening of casinos in Jackson and Shingle Springs, Calif., and the recession of the past few years.

"A lot of people through the generations have come to Lake Tahoe for gambling, and now they don't have to come this far," says Heidt, a supervisor with Heavenly Mountain Resort's youth ski school a huge feeder for the kids camp.

"It was a great run and a very difficult decision. Now we have to go back to the drawing board and look at some other options."

But other traditional summer camps in the Lake Tahoe Basin have seen a rise in attendance for 2010.

Mila Dunbar-Irwin, outdoor education program coordinator for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association based in Incline Village, says the organization's three backcountry youth summer camps are almost sold out, as is a new longer, four-night backcountry campout in the Desolation Wilderness.

"So far we have had a really good registration period for all of our backcountry camps. We are doing quite well."

The Tahoe Rim Trail Backcountry camps accommodate 12 youths per outing, and 10 in its Youth Backcountry Camp Squared camp, says Dunbar-Irwin. Cost is a main reason why the Tahoe Rim Trail camps have sold out, she adds.

Cost for the regular camps is $99. Cost for the longer campout is $150. Dunbar-Irwin says the camps are inexpensive because of grant funding from the Parasol Tahoe Community Foundation of Incline Village and a generous private scholarship fund from a Rim Trail Association donor. All camping and hiking gear is donated by REI.

"All of that allows us to offer a very affordable price," she says.

Jonathan Mueller, executive director for Sierra Nevada Journeys and its Summit Camp at Grizzly Creek Ranch outside Portola, has seen a 25 percent rise in pre-registration for the organization's four summer camps beginning in mid June.

"We have done quite well from a summer-camp perspective," Mueller says. "We are ahead registration-wise from where we were last year, and that is really good news for the kids and for what we are trying to do."

Mueller says Reno is Summit Camp's primary draw, but the camp serves youth from the Sacramento Valley and Eastern California.

Last year Sierra Nevada Journeys had about 110 campers spread between four sessions, and is tracking for 160 this year nearly 100 campers already have registered for the five-night camp, which costs $399.

Increased marketing throughout the Washoe County School District, as well as in Carson City, Douglas County and Sacramento has helped boost registration levels, Mueller adds. Campers range in age from 8 to 13 years old, while counselors are early high school students.

Nearly half of the camp attendees are repeat campers, Mueller says. "Sometimes it's their fourth, fifth or even sixth time," Mueller says.

Heidt says repeat customers and international travelers made up a large percentage of participants at Lake Tahoe Kids Camp.

"Kids who came in the early years even started to bring their children," he says. "We have had kids from all over the world; my kids have met kids from every continent."

Scott Shaffer, owner/director of Shaffer's High Sierra Camp located between the California towns of Sattley and Sierra City on Highway 49, draws dozens of campers each year from northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Shaffer says 2010 registration is up 11 percent from 2009, and is within 6 percent of 2008, its best year on record.

"We have come back three-quarters of what we lost from last year," he says, "but it's still not back to the way it was before the economy went into the tank."

Cost for Shaffer's High Sierra Camp is $1,195 for the six-night resident camp, which starts June 20. The camp has rolling sessions where campers can attend from one to eight weeks. Two years ago, he says, two girls from Elko attended the entire two-month camp.

With the late-season snows and mild spring weather, Shaffer's campers might be building snowmen as one of their activities.

"The snow is go to make opening up more difficult and a more compressed time frame," he says. "A couple of kids might be throwing snowballs when we go on hikes in the mountains."

Attendance at Camp Xtreme in Incline Village has been trending upward for several years, says Kari Ferguson, recreation and program manager for the Incline Village General Improvement District, although the IVGID has been subsidizing more of the program.

Camp Xtreme, which runs weekly from June 21-August 20, usually has about 35 campers per week, up from 15-to-20 three to four years ago, Ferguson says. A recent spring camp had 57 youths attend.

"I think it will be a pretty good year," she says.

A newly created pottery camp has yet to catch on, however.

Teresa Wik, owner of T Pots Pottery at 10607 W. River St. in Truckee, hasn't yet had any pre-registration for her first-ever pottery summer camp, but she can accommodate up to 18 kids. She's hoping at least 10 youths sign up for the camp, which puts kids behind a pottery wheel.

'I did two kids classes this spring, and the kids think it is fantastic," Wik says.