Camp director: Summer camp is safest place for kids amid measles outbreak

Many parents across the Hudson Valley say they are concerned this year about sending their children to summer camp in the middle of one of the worst measles outbreaks in the country.
Deerkill Day Camp director Todd Rothman says camp is safer for kids than keeping them at home amid the measles outbreak.
The Wesley Hills camp, in accordance with recent Rockland County guidelines for all camps, won't allow anyone who hasn't had two doses of the measles vaccine from going there, not even if they have a religious exemption.

“Coming to camp, especially a regulated and accredited camp, is the safest place you can be. You're guaranteed that everyone who steps foot on our ground, every staff and camper, has their immunizations,” he says.

Camp directors tell News 12 that they are making sure the buses they contract out to pick up campers across the Hudson Valley don't also serve unregulated camps where children may not be vaccinated.

Across the county at Camp Gan Israel of Rockland in New City, camp director Rabbi Simcha Morgenstern says he's happy the county is barring children who haven't been vaccinated, even for religious reasons, from coming to camp.

“This is America, we have free choices, but it doesn't mean you have to have your children here, putting other children at risk,” he says.

Rockland County's guidelines apply only to multipurpose camps, not single-purpose camps, where children do only one activity per day, like horseback riding or baseball.