Sushi Restaurants and Seedy Lodging Among Others Reaping Benefits As Parents Orchestrate Faux Visiting Day

Livingston, NJ (July 24, 2020) – Throughout the tri-state area, gourmet candy stores, low-budget lodging, and sushi restaurants are experiencing unexpected high sales mid-July, especially given the recent economic downturn. Recent reports revealed that many families of camp age children are simulating the mid-summer “Visiting Day” even though almost all sleep away camps are closed because of Covid-19.

“Our summer calendar was already color coordinated and annotated with the important summer dates including the bus drop off and pick up dates,” explains Dina Goldfein of Teaneck, NY whose two children Johnnah, age 12, and Lilly, age 10 both attend Camp Huron Lake. “It was heartbreaking to delete absolutely everything off the summer calendar so we decided to keep the visiting day, something which we always dread but have to do anyway.”

Jennn and Mattt Finkelstein who sent their twins to the basement for seven weeks are also looking forward to seeing their kids. “My husband and I wanted to make the day as authentic as possible so we actually haven’t seen or spoken to the kids since June 27, the day we were supposed to take them to the Modell’s parking lot for the camp bus but locked them in the basement instead. We’ve been sending one way emails which I’m sure they don’t receive since we took away all electronics . I’ve gotten one postcard in the past three weeks with a long list of candy and junk food, bunk gifts and trademark-infringed sweatshirts items that they need me to bring on the July 24 visiting day. I’ve been shopping for weeks.”
 
Other families, including the Bernsteins in Ridgewood, New Jersey, are taking elaborate steps to make the faux visiting day as realistic as possible. Parents Jennifer and Brad, whose girls Samyi, 9 and Annye, 13, attend Camp Huron Lake, stayed at a Springhill Suites by Marriott on Friday night near their house to ensure they arrive in time for the ribbon cutting that marks the start of visiting day.

“The price of the room was too low, so I insisted we pay double the rate, just as we would in the rundown dumps we stay in near Huron Lake, PA. Early Saturday morning we will be sprinting through our neighborhood carrying the trays of sushi and bags of candy the girls requested. It’s important we
get to them quickly so we can be the first to post our enthusiastic hugs on Insta.” The Bernsteins took additional steps to reenact visiting days of past years including shutting off the central air conditioning so the house will be a balmy 98 degrees. They contracted a pest control company to install a wasp nest as well in the hopes at least one of them will get stung.

“I can’t wait to hug my girls,” remarked Brad. “Then I’ll return to my phone, complain about the heat and traffic, and ignore everyone just like other years. We are all seeking some sense of normalcy this summer so why not on a fake visiting day?”

Camp Huron Lake’s director, Marty Feldstein applauds the families’ efforts to create a “camp at home” atmosphere. Hoping to recoup some of his lost revenue, he’s making himself available for hire via Zoom. Throughout the day, he will be offering up garbled announcements, insincere compliments and even bunk and sports awards for a modest fee of $100 a call.

“ I’ll be giving each recipient a generic compliment about their child along with calling them by either their wrong name or something like ‘Champ’ or ‘Sweetheart,” commented Feldstein, as he attempted to memorize the names of the campers who had signed up for the calls.

Parents are eager to have their visiting days over too, according to reporters. “It’s just too much family time,” lamented Robin Schwartz “and this Netflix is not going to watch itself.”