CINCINNATI — As the summer heat makes its way across the state, summer camp kids and counselors are busy trying to beat it.


What You Need To Know

  • About 150 campers every week are going to summer camp at 'Camp at the J' in Cincinnati 

  • They're keeping the camp outdoors and adjusting to the heat with more water breaks, shade, water games and swimming 

  • During the heat of the day or when there is a heat advisory, they bring camp and activities indoors 

It might feel like it’s close to triple digits outside, but seven-year-old Riley Reeves doesn’t seem to mind.

“I love when it gets really hot before we go swimming, then I get to go to the pool,” said Reeves. 

Seven-year-old Rebecca Flowers has another carefully devised plan to beat the heat.

“I have this water bottle fan like where it sprays water, but it’s also a fan, and I bring a cooling towel too,” said Flowers. 

They’re a part of about 150 kids at summer camp at the Mayerson JCC or ‘Camp at the J’ in Cincinnati.

The staff there have a heat plan too.

“We do take it into consideration, lots of water breaks,” said ‘Camp at the J,’ Director Anne Goldstein. 

She says when it’s this hot they don’t cancel camp, they adjust to keep the kids cool.

“We have a big tent we constructed this year, we have lots of shade for the kiddos and we just implement lots of water play and popsicles along our day, so we’re still doing our music and our drama sports all the good stuff, but we just implemented a little water to go with it,” said Goldstein. 

She says they also limit those outdoor activities to the morning and early afternoon times to avoid the highest heat of the day.

“Mainly in the afternoons, when we know the heats are gonna be extremely high, we have gone indoors, and we’ll do some of the same stuff indoors. We’ll do archery in the gym, we do things like that, we try not to be out in the extreme heat, when we know there are heat advisories, we definitely are indoors,” said Goldstein. 

Either way, kids are making the most of the summer heat wave.

For more information on signs of a heat-related illness and ways to stay cool, click here.