Sam & Andy Go to Washington - The Day Camp Pod - #140

Find show notes and more at https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/washington

From Capitol Hill to Camp: Why Advocacy Matters More Than Ever for Summer Camps

As conversations around childcare, workforce development and youth mental health continue to grow, summer camp has an important story to tell and this episode takes listeners straight to the front lines of that advocacy work. Andy Pritikin shares an inside look at ACA Hill Day 2026 in Washington, DC, where camp professionals met with lawmakers to push for critical issues like background check access, J-1 visa reform and stronger bipartisan support for camps. Packed with eye-opening stats, real camp stories and practical ways camp leaders can get involved, this episode highlights why advocacy matters now more than ever. If you care about the future of camp and the impact it has on families, communities and the next generation, this is a must listen episode.

• 02:01 Inside Hill Day
• 04:00 Camp Stories
• 05:44 Camp Impact Stats
• 07:35 Childcare Funding
• 09:46 Future Ready Skills
• 12:20 Background Checks CPIA
• 14:34 J-1 Visa Crunch
• 15:20 Camp Caucus Push
• 18:14 Invite Officials
• 19:38 Why Hill Day Matters
• 24:31 Summer Sendoff

Episode Links:

EIS State Sheets

BridgeUSA J-1: Exchange Visitors and America’s Summer Camps

Congressional Camp Caucus 

Child Protection Improvements Act (CPIA)

Unlocking a Future Where All Children Can Thrive

Michele Branconier - ACA - Senior Director of Volunteerism

Your Hosts:

• Andy Pritikin, Owner/Director - Liberty Lake Day Camp

Sponsors:

• Commercial Recreation Specialists (CRS)
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• Campminder
  • Campminder has the most robust offerings of features out there. But more importantly, every feature works together to create a full, seamless system that helps camps run more efficiently. Visit them today at campminder.com
• AMSkier
  • AMSkier is a leading insurance and strategic partner for many of the finest camps in America. AMSkier partners with camps to provide public relations, legal, medical, behavior support and more - Experience the AMSkier difference. Learn more atamskier.com.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey day campers. Sam and I had the honor and pleasure of being part of Hill Day 2026 with our American Camp Association colleagues. And since last year's episode was one of the most listened to episodes of the season, we figured we'd record a shorty for you. A recap of what we spoke about with the congressional offices and how it was received. I'm saving you the trip again, my friends. But next year you should go. This is the Daycamp Pod.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

This is the Daycamp Pod from Go Camp Pro, bringing you the best ideas, strategies, and discussions in the daycamp industry. You can find our show notes at daycamppodcast.com.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

The Daycamp Podcast is brought to you by CRS, commercial recreation. Go to source for recreation solutions that will ensure that your camp arrives or their website today at CRS or CRS. Let me tell you about Camp Miner, the number one camp database in the world that has the most robust offerings experience out anywhere. Every future works together to create a whole ecosystem that helps your camp office run more while giving your campaigns ADR for communication and financial Check out the details of Camp Miner.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

AM Skyre is the leading insurance and strategic partner for many of the finest camps in America. AM Skyre partners with camps to provide public relations, legal, medical, behavioral support, and more. Experience the AM Skyre difference. Learn more at AMSkyre.com. Welcome back to the Daycamp Podcast. I'm Andy Pritiken, director of Liberty Lake in the Philly Burbs of New Jersey. And I was supposed to be with Sam and we recorded something and it didn't take. So anyway, Sam is off being a grandma right now, and Jordana's doing a retreat with her leadership team. So it's just lonely old me. And I am here to talk about Hill Day 2026 in Washington, DC, that I just got back from, which is an inspiring, amazing experience that I invite you all to go to. But let me tell you a little bit about it. I went with my son Justin. We drove down, and there was about a hundred other camp professionals there from all parts of the United States, and not just camp directors. There was also people from IENA and camp leaders and some of the international staffing services because of the J1 Visa thing. There were people tangentially linked to camps, but certainly most were camp folks, you know. And of course, you had people that are very involved in the government affairs, like my friend Mike Stinson from California and all. And this is all put together by our friend Scott Brody and my partner up at Everwood Day Camp. So Scott has been involved in the legislative stuff for a while now. He actually even has an apartment down in Washington, D.C., where he spends part of the year advocating for us for the camp industry. And he and Andy Shlenski, who's part of the legislative stuff with ACA National, and they get a lot of support from ACA National, from Henry DeHart, the CEO, and from Michelle in the office there. And they have linked up with a couple of advocacy groups. That's that's the nice way of saying lobbyists. And the Bose Advocacy Bose Advocacy Group is the one that helps put this together for us. Making the connections, reaching out so that when we get down there, we have a full slate of appointments that we go to. And it's all laid out and it's on an app and it's on WhatsApp. It's really, really great. This year I got down there and was surprised that my entire day was filled up basically from eight in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. I just went from thing to thing. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even go to everything that was on my schedule because I, you know, I have two legs and I can't transport myself. But the New Jersey group was not that strong, I have to say, my New Jersey friends. I need some help next year, please. It was basically myself and Bruce Skaversky from the Girl Scouts of South Jersey and Jacqueline McDonough, who runs a camp called Camp Jameson, an unbelievable camp, which is an overnight camp up near the Pennsylvania-New York border right now. They rent the property and it takes inner city kids from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania out into the woods, mostly black and brown kids and mostly kids from Philly. And they actually have a relationship now with the City of Philadelphia Board of Education, and they're going to get 75 kids from there. And Jacqueline just does unbelievable work. I implore you all to find the Camp Jameis on TikTok because it's just killer. Seeing like the city folk in the woods, like whooping it up and having a blast and just turning it into the most campy thing. It's just, it's really awesome. I met some really, really great people from all over the country. I mean, honestly, even if we weren't advocating, just to be a part of this and be a part of this all-star team that assembles is just so, so wonderful. I met a guy named Joe Alarcon. He runs a sleepaway camp now called Aceda Canyon in Texas. Just one of the most amazing humans you'll ever meet. Had a tragedy happen with his son at a camp and turns it around and is just making the most amazing lemonade out of the worst kind of lemons by running a camp himself. And he was out there advocating for camp. And all this is going on while hearings are taking place about the tragedy that happened in Texas this summer. And we're all watching that. And of course, that's you know, it's an interesting subject about camp safety. And that that is something that the legislators do want to talk about. So you better get good at talking about it, friends. But anyway, when we get down there, one of the big things we do is we talk about the impact of summer camp because most people don't understand the impact. When I say the impact, I don't just mean the societal impact, which is huge. I mean the financial impact as well. And just the amount of kids that go to camp. You know, we had a University of Utah did a great research project a year or so ago, and they found that there's 26 million campers that go to camp annually in the United States. Sorry, Canada, I don't have your stats. But 26 million out of 52 million, basically. So about half the kids in America go to some sort of summer camp. And remember, when we talk summer camp, it doesn't mean that perfect-looking camp, you know, on the hill in the mountains, right? Because remember, Sam and I went to ACA National, and out of the 78 folks that were at the camp round, day camp round table, 71 of them were from non-traditional camps, right? In all different kinds of settings and nonprofits and all those kinds of things. That is what most camps are out there. Nonprofits, non-traditional kind of camps. So 26 million kids, and we employ in summer camps in the United States almost a million staff annually, right? So think about that, right? There's 20,000 camps across the United States, and we play a huge impact, right, in supervising kids and teaching them life skills and such. But the the financial impact is really, really big. The United States camp industry contributes$70 billion, billion to the national economy, right? We got a million workers, remember, right? And that's just that's$23 million in labor income that we produce, right? Overnight camps do an amazing job, you know, in these rural areas, in these areas up in the mountains where there's nothing really happening. They're providing huge income to those folks. But, you know, going back to the non-money stuff, we are providing major child care, all right? Major child care. And one of the things that I intend to be working on in September with the federal and state legislators is getting some of that federal money that's set aside for child support, getting that to camps. Because right now, I can speaking for New Jersey, we get lots of money to help support kids for childcare. But the red tape that camps have to go through makes makes it prohibitive, right? The fingerprinting and 10-hour online courses that we'd have to pay for and all this kind of stuff. Like the tens of the tens of thousands of dollars that we would have to put out might not even equate to the revenue that we get. So I got to work our way through that, and I intend to in September.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

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SPEAKER_01 9:46

So, anyway, we're talking about really critical contributors to college and career readiness. And I'm and I'm telling you this because you guys need to put this language into your mouths and into your publications and onto your websites. For we're not just talking to your camp, your potential camp parents and your current camp parents, but to your local legislators, your town, county, and state, and of course, even federal legislators, right? We help our campers and staff build critical thinking and problem solving skills, become better teammates and leaders, and increase self-awareness, grit, and motivation. That is not hyperbole. That is what we do, and we have to start talking that way. Because, friends, we are in the we are in the land of AI, right? Uh, I went to a session at the Coda conference with Matt Kaufman, where he was talking about, you know, how just AI just in camps is unbelievable what some people are doing. But we know what AI is doing in the world, right? And basically, robots are going to do any job they can possibly do, period. Okay, and that's going to take out a lot of jobs for humans. So, what are the jobs that are going to be left for humans? It's going to be the jobs that require collaboration and creativity, right? And and the kind of human skills that we teach at camp. Okay. So camps provide opportunities for youth to unplug and spend time away from technology while learning responsibility and duty to others. Camps help children form stronger connections with their faith while becoming better friends to others and stewards to our natural, our nation's resources and to just Mother Nature, right? Camps serve children with special needs, providing critical support for families and skill building for kids. Certainly we do a lot of that here at Liberty Lake. And we provide support for working families, right? We strengthen our nation's businesses and communities by providing that childcare. All right. It's we're an essential component to the economic prosperity to our country. And we prepare our children to thrive in this rapidly changing world that we're in. And these talking points are gonna go up into the show notes. This is from the American Camp Association, okay? And the American Camp Association created talking points and economic impact numbers for every single state. So if you're Mississippi, you're Louisiana, you're Oregon, whatever, you have your own two-page thing that just talks about your state and the economic impact that you guys do for your state. And it's it is substantial. It really is. So that's the impact. The another talking point, the big talking point for us, is that this in 2017, the American Camp Association was instrumental in pushing through something called the CPIA, the Child Protection Improvements Act. This allows youth-serving organizations like ours to access FBI criminal history records. Okay. This fills in a gap in state-level checks tremendously. For all of you guys that have to do background checks and and and such. And by the way, there's 20 states that don't even require it, which is scary. This would be something that camps can do what public schools do when they're hiring teachers, which have access to a nationwide FBI criminal history. And that would just help tremendously, right? Liberty Lake is located five miles from the Pennsylvania border, yet I don't have to check backgrounds for Pennsylvania. I just do it for New Jersey. That's the rule. That is stupid, right? I need a national thing, right? Sleepaway camps hire people from all over the country, if not all over the world. They are they it's exceedingly difficult for them. But even for day camps, most day camps are hiring people from more than one state, plain and simple. And even with that, there's like five different things that we have to do in New Jersey, background check-wise. Each one's 10, 15, 20 bucks, and it adds up. If we got this other thing to go through, we would just have to do this one for the most part. I think, I think, and then the, you know, if you're on this certain list for being a child abuser, that's probably a separate one. But this would take care of the bulk of our background checks. And it would be one stop shop, right? So we want this to take place. It did take place, it got signed off, and it's been stuck in the mud of the judiciary system. It's really the Department of Justice that has to sign off on it for whatever reasons. And red tape, they haven't. So we're trying to get these legislators to push us through. And actually, one of the camps was explaining this to in one of the legislative offices, and the congressman said, Oh, I'm gonna call cash right now. Take place. Can you imagine? Oh gosh, we're in a crazy world. All right, so then we we we spoke about the J1 visa stuff. For those of you there are day camps out there, we've spoken on the podcast to the folks at Brismont and Ramacoy and Willow Lake, we know that do this, and they house them at local colleges and such. It's a great thing to be able to do. But now a lot of people aren't able to come over because they can't even get a visa appointment. Because the current Trump administration has slowed this down because we are an unintended consequence of the whole anti-immigration thing that's happening right now. So it sucks. So we're trying to move the needle on that. The woman that we were with, Stevie from IENA, she was telling us a story about a special needs camp that can't even open this summer because they rely so heavily on international staff and they just can't do it. It really sucks. And then, you know, this is not going to be a long podcast, folks, but another big one I wanted to touch on was the camp caucus. So, as I've talked about in prior episodes, when when we go into these congressional offices, right? So I get this long list, right? So I'm going into this office for Herb Connaway, right? Representative from New Jersey. And I go in there and and I meet, not with Herb Conway most of the time. Sometimes you're lucky and we and we get them, but most of the time you're meeting with their staffers, who are these exceptional young people in their 20s or early 30s, right? So you go in there and you meet this person, and 98% of the time they went to camp, right? Why? Because we grow leaders at camp. It's phenomenal. For over a hundred years, summer camps have been an integral part of the AM Skyer world. Today, AM Skyer is a strategic partner for summer camps across the country, building personal relationships and providing valuable resources to their clients and friends. Every day, AM Skyer is proud to support camps and help make them safer. AM Sky was founded by Abe Skyer in 1920 and is now in the third generation of Skyer family leadership. Henry, Jeffrey, Amy, and the experienced AM Skyer staff eat, sleep, and breathe summer camp. In addition to fostering partnerships with camps that last for decades, give AM Skyer the opportunity to find solutions for your most challenging insurance needs. They go above and beyond. Trust me, I know. Learn more at aMSkyer.com. So these young people, they're so happy to see us because they're like camp people. Wow, bright in our day, because we just had the tobacco industry or the chemical industry in here or whatever, and they're not as exciting. So they love seeing us. We are there to tell them camp stories, and they end up telling us camp stories. So, and and you know, a lot of the actual congressmen went to camp as well. So Scott Brody came up with this idea. We're gonna stop start a camp caucus, bipartisan, one for the House, one for the Senate. And we've already got a bunch of congressmen who have signed up for it. It's easy, they've just got to sign up for it. They don't have to be in charge of it. We have two people that are in charge of it. Let's see, it's spearheaded by representatives Chris Pappas and Chuck Edwards. They're actually the chairs of it, of this camp caucus. So, yeah, we're getting people to sign up for it left and right. And my big idea I'm trying to push ACA to do is to come up with a camp caucus for the legislative aides, because they are the future congressmen and congresswomen of this country. And some of them are diehard camp people. Man, this guy, Marshall from Andy Kim's office, he was a program director at Camp Sitta, Boy Scout camp in New Jersey, right? This other guy we met, Owen, from Rob Best Bresnahan's office, PA guy. Owen went to Camp Beckett his whole life, worked there, has his best memories of his life. He would have talked about Camp Beckett for an hour if we let him. But we had appointments to get to. So we had to keep moving. But anyway, Owen is our man, and we're trying to keep these people involved. So, anyway, before I leave, big reminder as we approach the camp season. It's so easy for you to invite your state and federal representatives to come to your camp and visit this summer. Find the folks who are the actual representatives of where your camp is, not where you live, where your camp is. Okay. And get them to come out and get on the zip line to play with the kids, play some pickleball with the kids. It is the greatest photo ops that they'll ever have. And it's easy, easy, easy. And a lot of the times these people are home in the summer, right? They're out. They have summer vacation too, these congressmen, it seems like. So get them to come over, invite them. You go to their website, you fill out a form. It takes five minutes, people. Five minutes. Okay. Invite them. Get in touch with their office. Invite them over, bug them, all right. It's easy, cost you nothing. These people work for you. All right. And what are they trying to do besides make the world a better place? They're trying to get re-elected. And there's no better way to do it than have pictures of kids at your camp. Okay? So you can say that in whatever ways you want to for them. You can go and find pictures of you know on ACA of Congressman, or just email me and I'll send you some of when they come and visit me. And it is really, a, really a great thing. So yeah, make that happen. And and like I said at the at the beginning of this pod, you gotta come to Washington, folks. I know it's not at the most convenient time at the end of April, but it is it is the most energizing thing. And you know, we sit back and we watch this shitty ass news all the time with all this horrible stuff happening, and you just sit there and you feel like a victim, right? You feel like, oh man, there's nothing I can do, right? And then you go down to Washington, DC and you meet these people who are just like you, okay? And and who these people in Washington, D.C., they look at us and they go, wow, you guys are really doing an amazing job of what you do. They are in awe of us and they want to help us. They look at us in the eyes and they say, What can we do to help you? Right. And then they take notes, and then some of it actually even gets done because we got people like Scott Brody down there that are actually making it happen. All right. And of course, for day camps, it's even more important to do this at the state level, 100%. But there are lots of federal things that have implications, like this CPIA thing. If we can get that happened, that would help our background checks so much. And it would make your camp families feel a lot better. And it should make you feel a lot better too, right? And if we can get this thing happening with the child care grants down to your local levels, man, that would be that would make a whole lot of underserved families in your neighborhoods a heck of a lot happier to be able to use those monies for your camp. All right. So, anyway, come to the next hill day, right? Some states have zero representatives, zero, right? There's states that have nobody is visiting them for summer camp. And then there's camps like California that have 30. But even in New Jersey, I told you, New Jersey, a very, very popular, populated state. It was me and my son and the Girl Scout guy, right? We were the only camps in Jersey that were representative, right? Which is sort of sad. So, anyway, come on down, folks. All right, and I think this is gonna wrap it up for the Daycamp podcast for this summer season, for the for up and through the summer at least. We'll start up again in the fall, in September. It's been a great run. I appreciate everybody. This was our seventh year, right? We have over 200 episodes online. Uh, I had a young lady reach out to me. She's graduating college, and she's like, Yeah, I want to get into the camp industry. Where do I start? And I said, Well, episode one of the day camp pod. Go for it. Start listening to them. Got lots of great thoughts, lots of great. Thinkers that have been a part of this. So I thank you guys all for listening. I want to thank my hosts, Sam Thompson, the amazing Sam the award-winning Sam Thompson and Jordana Grossinger. This was their first full season on this. I think she's the best on this. I think she could just take it over. That would be awesome. My allergies are kicking in, excuse me. I want to thank the GoCamp Pro team, Travis, the Pod Father himself, Matt, who, who, Matt Wilfred, who has helped really. He's so instrumental. He's like the executive producer of the whole GoCamp Pro podcast team. And our editor, Rachel, up in Canada, did a bang up job of staying on top of things. We really appreciate it. And you know, Rachel gets paid to do work, right? And she wouldn't get paid to do it, and you wouldn't be getting these podcasts. And we wouldn't be able to be on those platforms if it wasn't for the monies from our amazing sponsors, AMSkyre, right? My insurance company, the preeminent insurance company in the United States for summer camps. Check them out. They are the best. Camp Minder, the preeminent database company. I was texting Dan last night. There's so many things that they have coming down the pike, including AI reports. It's going to be sweet. Can't wait for it to happen. He also promised me texting, individual texting coming soon. All right. So let Dan know that I said it on the podcast. Camptivities, our friend Ryan Rosen, a day camp guy himself, and he put out his scheduling, excuse me, his attendance program as well. There's an episode of that in our feed. And last but not least, commercial recreation specialists. They are the middlemen that find the coolest stuff for our camps. One of the big things that we saw at Tri-State this year, they have fans, water fans. Hey, it's hot, global warming. We've got to keep the kids cool. They now have fans, commercial grade fans blowing the water through. You can set them up anywhere with a hose, or you could fill up the big tank and let it go. It doesn't even have to be near a hose. So check out commercial recreation specialists. Um, check out the show notes and our other episodes at daycamppodcast.com, as well as contact info for our guests and for myself and Sam and Jordana. Thanks for listening and making yourself a better daycamp pro. We'll be back in a couple of months with another new episode of the Daycamp Pod. Any ideas for next year topics, shoot them my way, Andy at LibertyLake Daycamp.com. Love y'all. Take care. Have a great summer. All right. There's only one thing that you can do this summer that is going to make the world a better place, and that is have a great summer. Do everything you can. Put your heart into it. Okay. Inspire your staff. All right. I want to hear all about it in the fall.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Bye. The Daycamp Podcast is brought to you by GoCamp Pro and the Go Camp Pro Podcast Network. Find a podcast for camp professionals of every age and stage at gocamp.pro slash podcast. Thanks for listening, friends. Hey Camp Ros, we love that our industry is built on sharing. In order to foster that spirit, we hope that whenever you share an idea that you learn from the Camp Hacker Podcast, conference, summer camp professionals group, or wherever else, then you're quick to give credit where credit is due. That way, we can all encourage more camp pros to share the tips and tricks that will make camp better.