ELLSWORTH – Valerie Fleming saved for months and even stashed away her income tax return check so her grandson could attend camp this summer.

Even though her own car recently broke down, Fleming was in Ellsworth with her daughter on Sunday saying farewell for the week to grandson Zachary Brown, 12, who was busy discovering the waterfront of the Bangor Y’s Camp Jordan.

As the youngster explored, his mother and grandmother reflected on the difficulty of financing summer camp.

“I said absolutely not” to any camp, said Kyra Kimball, 31, Brown’s mother. “I said it was worth the experience, but when I am freaking out about heating oil, it’s very, very hard. It’s so tight we’re not going to be able to do anything, no vacations.”

All of Fleming’s children attended summer camp, she said, so not sending her grandchildren was unacceptable.

“When kids get out of school they need to take a vacation,” Fleming said. “It’s not only for physical activity, but to meet new people from all around the world.”

Enrollment trends for summer camps around the state indicate families are reassessing priorities given the current economy and soaring fuel costs.

The Bangor Y operates four day camps and one residential facility, Camp Jordan. Rob Reeves, director of the Bangor Y, said he has projected a 20 percent decline in enrollment compared to last year. The camps usually attract 500 school-age children, but this summer they suspect only about 400 will enroll.

As numbers dwindle, even parents who choose to pay the camp tuition are slower to commit. Historically, camps filled during the winter months, and open slots were occupied by late spring, directors said.

“Because the numbers are down, more are waiting to pay week by week,” Reeves said. “Maybe this week [a family] has a car payment due and the kids will stay with a relative, but in two weeks they can go back to camp.”

With day camp rates between $140 and $155 a week and residential camp at $390 a week, Reeves said the Bangor Y tends to serve the working class and tries to keep rates reasonable. Two camps from coastal Maine made the tough decision to increase tuition rates this summer to keep camp running.

Camp Bishopswood, which is owned and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, is located in Hope and serves campers from all around the state. Tuition jumped by $5 from last year at the camp that reports being only 85 percent full.

“When parents ask about costs, I say, ‘$390 a week, and we’ll even feed them,'” said Bishopswood Director Georgia Koch.

Food and oil costs are affecting everyone, Koch said, and while a recent commitment to buy local produce was “the right decision,” it also will weigh on the camp budget.

As part of its tuition hike, Tanglewood 4-H Camp and Learning Center in Lincolnville implemented a tiered pricing system for families based on annual gross household income. Jim Dunham, camp director, said the system is one way to keep Tanglewood running without boosting prices so camp becomes unaffordable to lower- or middle-income families.

As an example, a family earning $55,000 or less would be expected to pay $375 a week to send a child to Tanglewood, a family making $55,000 to $70,000 would pay $425, and for one earning more than $70,000, camp would cost $475.

So far, the system has worked well, Dunham said, and while sign-ups were slow through the winter and spring, numbers are now slightly ahead of last year.

“Each week it was really clear that the winter months were seeing really low numbers,” Dunham said. “I really feel it was related to people who were guarded because prices were going up, so they wanted to wait for a while and get through the heating season.”

While weekly enrollment remained steady, longer, more costly programs are not filling up, he said. The longer programs, aimed at teenagers, Dunham speculated were less popular for two reasons. The first, he said, was the higher cost. The second, Dunham said, is that teenagers now are getting jobs in the summer rather than going to camp to help the family and to fuel their first cars.

Despite available scholarship money, some parents rule out camp for financial reasons and do not take advantage of the grant opportunities, said Frances Shea, communications manager of the Girl Scouts of Maine. The Girl Scout camps still have scholarship money available, and the two main camps in Baxter State Park and Bridgton are running at minimum capacity, she said.

“I think the way the economy is right now, people are automatically assuming that camp is a luxury,” she said.

Despite the cost, parents at Camp Jordan on Sunday said camp is an irreplaceable experience.

“I suppose we could have scaled back this year and sent him to one week rather than two,” said Jennifer Peterson of Machias about her 13-year-old son, Luke. “But it’s a priority.”

trobbins@bangordailynews.net

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