School’s out! No need to worry about the flu going around classrooms anymore… right?
Summer is the perfect time for kids to practice their skills and stay active before school tryouts in the fall. But just like any athletic program, sports summer camps are also the perfect time for germs to crop up and make young athletes sick.
Parents of young children often rely on camps for summer childcare and entertainment while they work, but young children are especially susceptible to germs, since they don’t have the hygiene habits that older athletes know to practice.
Is your camp following safety protocols to prevent common sports-related illnesses? Here are a few germy places that might be getting overlooked.
Pinnies
It’s quick and easy to break your campers into teams and hand them a random pinnie, but after a full day of sweat and play time, do your pinnies just get tossed back into a bin?
Skin infections like MRSA, staph, and ringworm can contaminate clothing and then spread from pinnie to pinnie when they come in contact with each other in storage.
However, it takes time and energy to wash hundreds of pinnies every day after camp, and it’s often not feasible for camp staff. Laundering all of those pinnies also deteriorates the material faster, so you may end up needing to replace them more often. Read on for a better solution.
Football Training Equipment
Football camps are popular for everyone from little league to professionals — and now we’re seeing girls join in the fun too. Unfortunately, the high-contact nature of the sport results in high incidences of staph infections.
As football camps expand, it’s time to pay closer attention to infection prevention at practice. Coaches use tackle dummies and sleds to practice blocking, which can result in germs jumping from skin onto the equipment and then spreading to other athletes. These need more than a wipe down between sessions to create a safe environment for campers.
Camps for younger football players are probably also providing safety gear for their campers (like helmets and shoulder pads). If you’re not assigning the gear to a camper for the entire week, you run a high risk of spreading germs between players.
Common practice is to wipe these items down by hand, which is both time consuming and often ineffective. Gear has lots of small nooks and crannies that are hard to reach with traditional cleaners and often harbor germs.
Mats
You need safety mats for cheerleading and wrestling camps — two very popular summer sports. With mats that big, are they good to go after a quick wipe down?
Short answer: no.
For one, it’s very easy to miss a spot, leaving germs to thrive. Also, if you use liquid cleaning products (including aerosols), the wet residue left behind can be a breeding ground for germs. And if you’re using cheer mats with soft carpet coverings, wiping them down just isn’t an option.
This type of equipment often gets overlooked because the mats are just too big to deal with. Unfortunately, they can harbor dangerous pathogens for several days, much like towels and jerseys.
Locker Rooms
If you provide changing rooms and lockers for your campers, they’re likely breeding grounds for germs due to the rooms’ humidity and the amount of shared space. Like any locker room, yours probably needs to be frequently disinfected to prevent the growth of bacteria, molds, and fungi.
Especially in lockers rooms where campers shower, the moist environment invites microbial growth that can spread on campers’ feet or shoes, which can quickly invade the entire facility. This germ-ridden environment often contributes to irritating (but aptly named) Athlete’s Foot, or in serious cases, MRSA infections.
Sanitize Better at Your Camp
With hundreds of kids flowing in and out of your camp each week, you need a disinfection solution that’s both highly effective and time efficient.
Sports-O-Zone is an all-in-one deodorizing and sanitizing system that is designed to eliminate germs and protect your gear from damage using the power of ozone. Camps that need to sanitize gear on a weekly (or even daily) basis can use our 32 minute disinfection cycle to quickly take care of shared gear.
For your large, hard-to-disinfect equipment, Gear Blaster can sanitize entire rooms and all equipment inside up to 2,000 square feet. Simply leave your mats and football dummies to disinfect overnight to create a safe environment for your campers.
After using Sports-O-Zone, your gear will smell fresh (a rarity at summer camps) and you can promise a high standard of safety to parents.
Want to see how Sports-O-Zone can revolutionize disinfection at your camp? Reach out today.
