Bellone offers vaccination incentives to kids, counselors as camping season begins
Free ice cream cones. Tickets to a baseball game, an amusement park, a water park and an aquarium.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced Monday that county officials are offering these incentives to camp counselors, staff and children ages 12 and up to get them vaccinated this week ahead of the start of summer camps.
County officials will dedicate a vaccine pod for those groups at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge Monday evening, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the first 100 children to get doses of the Pfizer vaccine will receive a free ice cream cone from Mister Softee, Bellone said.
The county will also offer walk-in vaccines at Patchogue-Medford library, the Suffolk County Community College Selden campus and Pronto of Long Island, a community outreach center in Bay Shore, Bellone said.
Bellone also said county officials will work with camps to offer vaccinations on-site.
Kids who get vaccinated during the #CampVax initiative this week could receive tickets to a Long Island Ducks game in Central Islip, the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, Adventureland amusement park in Farmingdale and Splish Splash water park in Calverton, Bellone said.
There are about 20,000 to 30,000 campers in Suffolk County, and "all of them want to be able to enjoy their summer experience in a safe and full manner," Bellone said.
About two-thirds of Long Island camps opened last summer, with few COVID-19 infections at them, as officials took precautions and moved more activities outdoors, said Mark Transport, owner-director of Crestwood Country Day Camp in Melville and immediate past president of Long Island Camps and Private Schools Association.
With so many people vaccinated and loosened restrictions this summer, "I do feel that we're going to be able to run a very normal season in the camp industry," Transport said.
Bellone announced the vaccination incentives for camps, which do not have mask mandates, as confusion swirled around mask requirements at schools because state officials kept announcing different rules.
Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.
