The French Woods performing arts camp in Hancock, N.Y., has canceled this year’s programs.
Photo: French WoodsCamp counselors and staff usually start rolling into Hancock, N.Y., in early June, buying buckets of paint and hammers and nails, movie tickets, pizzas and vodka from local businesses.
This year the town is quiet after the coronavirus pandemic forced many nearby camps to cancel. That has left residents and business owners in this small village about 140 miles north of New York City bracing for a slow summer.
Andrew Grigoli, owner of the Little Italy restaurant in Hancock, said his business and other establishments rely on campers and their families to get them through the slow offseason during the winter.
The Little Italy restaurant is drawing revenue more typical of January.
Photo: Andrew Grigoli“If it wasn’t for camps, would I be here? Maybe not,” said Mr. Grigoli, who opened his restaurant in Hancock 22 years ago. “The locals spend money, but the town is just too small to support a lot of businesses.”
Rural areas may be emerging from the public health crisis relatively unscathed compared with more densely populated cities, but small towns including Hancock aren’t immune to the pandemic’s economic fallout. The cancellation of sleep-away camps, festivals, sports tournaments and concerts is hurting businesses that rely on the thousands of people these summer gatherings attract to sustain them during slower months.
The French Woods camp usually stages dozens of shows each summer.
Photo: French WoodsMany sleep-away camps in New York, Massachusetts, Maine and other states in the Northeast have canceled their 2020 seasons. These camps typically welcome their first campers at the end of June and contribute more than $1 billion a year to the region’s economy, said Susie Lupert, executive director of the American Camp Association, NY and NJ. The group doesn’t yet know exactly how many operators have canceled.
Many camps that do plan to open have signaled that they will start later in the summer and keep children and staff on campgrounds and out of nearby towns and businesses.
“The camp industry is going to be very hard hit by this pandemic, and that does trickle down to the towns,” Ms. Lupert said.
Local businesses including Bisbee Lumber & Supply rely on summer camps for a significant share of their revenue.
Photo: Bisbee Lumber & SupplyThe village of Hancock, located in Delaware County, N.Y., near the Pennsylvania border, has fewer than 1,000 residents, more than half of whom are older than 55, according to Mayor Carolann McGrath. Sleep-away camps—the American Camp Association has accredited 39 within a 40-mile radius of the village—bring thousands of people to the area each summer. The nearby French Woods performing arts camp alone drew more than 1,800 campers and 450 counselors and staff last year.
“We rely heavily on people coming to visit us in the summer,” Ms. McGrath said. “We have very severe winters here. If businesses don’t make the money in the summer, there’s no way for them to make it up.”
Ron Schaefer, director of French Woods, has been buried in paperwork as he processes more than $2 million in refunds after deciding in late May to cancel this year’s programs. He said he cringes to think about the impact on his vendors as well as businesses in Hancock, where the camp holds dozens of shows—dramas and musicals and circus performances—in the town square every summer.
“Parents come up throughout the summer to see these shows,” Mr. Schaefer said. “They eat in the area, they take lodging in the area, they purchase things at the local stores.”
French Woods spent about $200,000 at Bisbee Lumber & Supply last year, accounting for about one-tenth of the business’s sales for 2019, said owner Ken Salvestrini. The lumber and hardware store, located in Hancock, sells supplies to more than a dozen camps in the area, most of which have canceled.
So far New York City residents and people from out of state who are riding out the pandemic in their Delaware County summer homes are helping to sustain his business, and Mr. Salvestrini said he hasn’t had to lay off any of his eight employees after receiving a loan from the federal Paycheck Protection Program. But he expects to see a hit to his revenue later this summer.
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“These camps are, at least up until now, constantly updating their cabins, their kitchen facilities,” Mr. Salvestrini said. “They’re a good 40% of our summer business.”
Kieve Wavus Education, a nonprofit foundation that runs two camps in Maine, one for boys in Nobleboro and one for girls in Jefferson, canceled for the first time in its nearly-100-year history, Executive Director Henry Kennedy said. The wilderness-trip camps usually accommodate about 1,200 children a summer. Staff members often buy lunch and snacks at the Nobleboro Village Store, said owner Joanne Kroll.
Campers queued up for ice cream last year at the Little Italy restaurant.
Photo: Andrew GrigoliThe camp’s closure this summer will further hurt businesses that were already squeezed during the pandemic. Ms. Kroll said she hasn’t been able to make her signature handmade doughnuts because she is too busy running the store after several of her employees said they were too worried about catching the virus to come into work.
“Most of us are struggling as it is,” Ms. Kroll said.
This year, Mr. Grigoli, of Little Italy, has six employees preparing takeout orders, and despite strong support from residents he is still pulling in revenue more typical of January than June.
“It’s not enough,” he said. “Not when you don’t have the camps.”
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