BLUE BELL SENIOR CAMP

TRANSPORTATION POLICY

While Blue Bell is all about sports and adventure activities, the issue that raises the most questions is transportation. While you are considering sending your son to Blue Bell, we want you to understand how we handle transportation and the limitations that we find to be inherent.

We put a great deal of effort into planning car and van routes that are as safe and efficient as possible. Those are our only criteria in making the routes. For reasons that should be apparent, we can not consider who your son might like to ride with, what time you leave for work, what time he was picked up last year or other requests for specific timing.

The boy in the vehicle living farthest from camp is always picked up first and dropped off last. This is more efficient than driving past someone's house and later doubling back, in order to take turns with who gets picked up or dropped off first.

Before camp starts your son's driver will be making a test run of his route to make sure that he knows exactly where your house is and to determine approximately what time he needs to pick up your son in order to arrive at camp about 9:15. The driver will call you (or stop in) to introduce himself and let you know approximately what time he will arrive at your house in the morning. By the end of the first week of camp he should have a better idea of the actual travel time and start to become fairly regular with his pick-up times. It is your responsibility to make sure that your son is ready on time and does not keep the driver and the other campers waiting. The drivers have been instructed to wait 3 minutes for a late camper and then continue on their way. While this may seem like a stern policy, it works to keep those who are on time from habitually waiting for those who are not. Similarly, we expect you to make sure there is someone at home in the afternoon, when younger campers arrive, so that they can be left with an adult.

Each camper has a seat reserved for him in one vehicle. We cannot consider any request to have him travel in any other vehicle. He may, however, be picked up or dropped off at the home of someone else in his vehicle. Please give his driver a note in advance if you choose to do this.

Parents are welcome to bring campers in or pick them up at the office. Again, please give the driver a note in advance, so we know what is happening.

Unfortunately, there has been a great increase in rush hour traffic in recent years resulting in longer drive times than we saw just a few years ago. While we continue to offer transportation to most of the neighborhoods that we did in years past, some of the longer ride times can exceed 70 minutes. If your son is especially sensitive to long rides, please call to discuss this with us and we can help you find a camp that is closer to home.

Our primary concern in providing transportation to and from camp is to get your son here safely and efficiently so we can have a great day doing all of the exciting things that made you choose Blue Bell as your son's camp.

______________________