|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Camp Arroyo in Livermore will have a new operator starting June 1 after the East Bay Regional Park District picked Petaluma-based nonprofit United Camps, Conferences and Retreats (UCCR) as the next contractor to replace the YMCA of the East Bay.
The 138-acre camp near Lake Del Valle in southeastern Livermore serves thousands of children each year between East Bay Parks’ environmental education camp during the school year and the Taylor Family Foundation’s free summer camps for children with chronic medical, developmental, and emotional challenges.
The district was forced to find a new operator after the YMCA of the East Bay informed district officials that the nonprofit would be ending its Camp Arroyo contract effective May 31. It’s latest example of the YMCA pulling its services out of the Tri-Valley in favor of other core objectives.
UCCR will lead all programming at the year-round camp, as well as maintain camp amenities, cabins and medical yurts. The nonprofit will operate the camps through its outdoor science program, the Web of Life Field (WOLF) School.
“The park district carefully considered the options for operating Camp Arroyo,” East Bay Parks General Manager Robert Doyle said in a statement. “UCCR’s WOLF School will help continue the park district’s highly successful environmental education camps that introduce students to science, nature, and sustainable living concepts.
In explaining their decision to separate from Camp Arroyo, YMCA officials were complimentary of the district and the Taylor Family Foundation and said they would work to ensure a smooth transition as they leave their role at Camp Arroyo.
“In our role as concessionaire, the YMCA provided support services, meals and facilities maintenance. While the YMCA enjoyed its role at Camp Arroyo over the years, we feel the need to commit the YMCA’s resources to our own core mission of early childhood education, youth development and healthy communities,” YMCA officials said.
The Camp Arroyo separation follows other moves by the YMCA of the East Bay to transition services out of the Tri-Valley, including quietly closing its Tri-Valley YMCA offices on Pleasanton Avenue and stopping as a daycare provider at Pleasanton Unified schools.
For more information on Camp Arroyo, visit www.ebparks.org. The Camp Arroyo page on UCCR’s WOLF School webpage (www.wolfschool.org) is due to be activated soon.
