MOUNT DESERT — The first session of summer camp at Camp Beech Cliff was supposed to start Monday, June 23, but that won’t happen because Mount Desert Island schools will still be in session.
Winter weather caused an unusual number of no-school days this year. To make up the lost classroom time, the school year has been extended to June 25.
“We didn’t want to be in competition with the schools, so we talked with all of the principals and agreed to start camp on the 25th, even though there will be a half day of school that day,” said Debbie Deal, executive director of Camp Beech Cliff.
Diana Novella, events and community relations director at Harbor House in Southwest Harbor, said the extension of the school year “has kind of put a kink in everyone’s summer camps.”
Harbor House had scheduled a baseball camp with coaches from the University of Maine for the week starting June 23.
The extension of the school year also has affected Neighborhood House in Northeast Harbor, which uses Mount Desert Elementary School for some of its summer camp activities. Neighborhood House typically starts summer camp a week after the end of school, according to Executive Director Anne-Marie Hart. This year, camp will start June 30.
Aaron Long, camp director at the MDI YMCA in Bar Harbor, said the extended school year has resulted in cutting three days from what was to be the first week of summer camp.