With traditional camp and child care options scarce, Continued team members come together to develop fun, educational classes.
When schools across the country closed abruptly due to the spread of COVID-19, parents grappled with working remotely with their children at home. As spring turned to summer, conversations around the company’s virtual watercooler—aka Slack—became centered on summer child care woes, and that’s when the creativity started flowing for virtual camp programming.
Continued’s Joanne Slater, AuD, CCC-A, director of CEU administration, was the first to toss out the idea.
“Creating educational content is what we do. Why don't we create content for our team members' kids to help parents a bit during this time?” Slater said.
The conversation took off from there, and Continued’s health and wellness manager, Amy Martin, stepped up to lead the charge.
“With many summer camps and traditional child care options cancelled due to the pandemic, we wanted to find a way as a company to step in and help support our team members who are juggling kids at home.” — Amy Martin
Coined as “Camp Continued,” a mix of live recordings and zoom events were organized to help entertain team members' kids and teach new skills. Numerous team members and their families contributed to the content, which included courses in art, cooking, improv, crochet, gaming, coding, LEGO creations, and more. Children could log on live at scheduled times or view the recorded courses and participate on their own time.
“With many summer camps and traditional child care options cancelled due to the pandemic, we wanted to find a way as a company to step in and help support our team members who are juggling kids at home,” said Martin. “Many team members and even employees’ family members stepped forward to use their skills and knowledge to create fun classes for our kids to attend throughout the summer.”
In total, 18 classes were offered, with nearly 30 different children participating over the course of the program.
“We are so fortunate to have many creative talents within the organization and a willingness to offer the time to our kids this summer,” said Wendy Bradbury, VP of Sales - Career & Educational Services. “My boys have not only participated in the camp classes but also helped in making several cooking classes. It has been so much fun coming up with new ideas to share with their Camp Continued friends and has given them something to look forward to when we have nothing but time on our hands otherwise.”
“Creating educational content is what we do. Why don't we create content for our team members' kids to help parents a bit during this time?” — Joanne Slater
