MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • April 16, 2023
Parents across southern Maine are experiencing a similar scramble to find options as the demand soars and some municipal recreation camps are fully booked within hours, or in some cases, minutes. Many day camps, traditionally an accessible and affordable summer care option for working families, cannot keep up as they struggle to hire enough seasonal staff. The high demand for camps is not a surprise to Deb Smith, executive director of the Maine Recreation and Parks Association. Community recreation departments have long been the top out-of-school child care provider in the country, she said, and during the early years of the pandemic, even more parents were drawn to their programs.