Summer camps are an American mainstay, as prevalent a seasonal marker as hot dogs, ice cream and public swimming pools. When Texas all-girls overnight camp Camp Mystic was struck with catastrophic flooding on July 4, 2025, resulting in the tragic deaths of 25 campers, two counselors and the camp director, parents around the country reeled.
Camp Mystic has announced its controversial decision to reopen in May, amid an ongoing lawsuit brought by some of the victims’ families, who allege that camp ownership ignored longstanding warnings about flood risk and cabin locations, as well as the severity of the storm.
Following the devastating coverage of the tragedy, families may be understandably nervous to send their children to any camp this summer. To learn more about safety at overnight camps in 2026, we spoke with Glenn Smith, president and director of Camp Tall Timbers, an overnight camp in the Mid-Atlantic region.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What safety precautions have always existed for overnight camps, and how are they different from day camps?
You only have eight hours of safety or so to worry about in a day camp environment, where in an overnight environment, you have 24/7 for two, three, however many weeks a camp would run.
All camps that are accredited with the American Camp Association (ACA) follow fairly detailed guidelines when it comes to safety. Now, when people think about that, they tend to think activity-wise, [i.e.] people wear a helmet when they horseback ride. But it dives deeper into food safety issues and aquatic safety — and then emergency procedure programs that come into play. We go by the old adage, “an ounce of prevention’s worth a pound of cure.” (Editor’s Note: Camp Mystic was not accredited by the ACA).
So, you try to set your program up with these safety guidelines in play. Those guidelines are [things like] signage to remind people what would happen in the event of some emergency, or a signal system. For us, we have a walkie-talkie system throughout camp. We also have a bell that we use for moving around our activity place, but everybody’s been instructed that a constant ringing of the bell signals an emergency, and [staff are trained to go into safety protocols].
We do have an evacuation procedure. That procedure has never been in play for us, but you never know what [could] happen. We have a bus that’s at the ready for us to move people; we have a contract with the local school systems [to use] their buses. And we have some designated locations based on what we need that we would go to.
How do you recommend anxious parents research camps? Who should they talk to, what should they look for?
I don’t think any camp director would say “That’s a crazy question!” Everybody has different questions based on what their thoughts are and the type of kid that they [have].
One of the ways to weed [camps] out is through some accreditation, whatever it may be — I’m only familiar with the American Camp Association accreditation. Experience is a level as well, i.e. this will be our camp’s 55th summer.
[Between] a parent and a camp director, there’s not a whole lot of difference. You’re an actuary; you’re constantly calculating risk. If somebody says to me, “Hey, we want to do a slip and slide.” Well, that sounds like a lot of fun. What could happen on a slip and slide? “Make sure it’s on a smooth area, that there are no rocks, and make sure you have enough soap so you slide and you don’t screech across the plastic.”
That, I think, is probably what makes some camps better than others. The people there calculating the risk and making sure that they think through it all and wouldn’t do anything [they] wouldn’t do with [their] own kids.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, you’re gonna send your kid to camp and there’s not going to be any problem. But the one time that you need something, is the person that you’re going to call the person that is a good person to work with?
And then, to close out, what are the benefits of overnight camps for children? Why should parents still consider sending their children to them?
They’re infinite in some regards. For example, I have college-aged kids. [College] wasn’t their first time away from home; they had experienced summer camp. Wasn’t their first time with living with someone else; they’d been to summer camp. Wasn’t their first time coming into a situation and having to work through it; they’d been to summer camp. They had the ability to make friends; they had been to summer camp.
The other things that we all think about are unplugging, being in the outdoors and, of course, socialization. We’re a non-tech camp, and people look for that. Some of our clients have had trouble getting the cell phone out of their kids’ hands, so they make us the bad guys — you get a little detox program.
