March 3, 2020
Dear Friends and Families of WA,
The first signs of spring are happening around Jackson Hole, and our headquarters are abuzz with enrollments, trip planning and preparations for the summer ahead. Important to the overall success of the upcoming season is the communication that we provide you, our families, throughout the entirety of your Wilderness Adventures experience. It is with this in mind that we wanted to reach out to our community and share our current perspectives and approach to the coronavirus as it pertains to our upcoming programs.
First and foremost, we want you to know that the health, safety and welfare of our participants, our staff and all of their respective families is our highest concern. Consequently, we are continuing to carefully monitor the coronavirus and its impacts both here and abroad. As of today, we are planning to run all our trips and camps this spring, summer and fall; however, this could change if unanticipated virus-related issues arise, including the possibility of local or regional travel restrictions being issued for certain parts of the U.S. or the world. In those cases, we will evaluate and respond on a trip-by-trip basis, and we will contact any family individually that has been impacted. These decisions likely will not be made in the immediate future, but will come over the next few weeks and months, and we will apprise you on a real-time basis as they arise. As a complement to our approach, if any of you or your families are directly impacted by the coronavirus, whether by travel to impacted areas or contact with infected individuals, we ask that you contact us to discuss the details of your situation as soon as you’re able to do so.
Reflecting upon other worldwide illnesses and geographic events we have seen in the past at Wilderness Adventures, we know it is easy to be distracted and sometimes overwhelmed by the minute-to-minute, occasionally inconsistent updates provided by media outlets throughout the world. However, Wilderness Adventures will rely primarily on the information provided to us by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department as well as our on-the-ground partners to keep us informed about the situation in the coming months. We believe those are the most reliable, thorough, practical and timely sources of information regarding the situation in our different venues around the world.
Finally, like all aspects of the summer experience at WA, we will work to keep our families actively informed about the situation as it pertains to their summer trip or camp experience. Nevertheless, should you have any questions or concerns about your child’s trip or camp, travel arrangements or other pre-adventure to-dos, do not hesitate to give us a call. We would be happy to speak with you. The telephone number at our office is 307-733-2122.
More information will be coming in the weeks and months ahead about the measures we will be taking to reduce the spread of illness, and the risk of exposure, during our adventures. You can rest assured that we will seek the most up-to-date information and will make plans consistent with the best interests of our campers and their families.
We look forward to the adventures this summer and can’t wait to see our students on the trail and in camp.
Tom and Catherine
