Families whose children attend YMCA summer camps in Huguenot are not giving up on their mission to save the camps just yet, though after Friday, their chance of success seems slim.

During a visit from Spectrum News to her family’s home in Matamoras, Emma Farr shared photos of her and relatives at the camps.

Farr, 12, has been going to the YMCA’s summer day camps since she was 4.

“We swim. We ride horses. There’s archery,” she said.

The friendships with young people of various backgrounds, she said, are the most important part of her camp experience. Most campers come from the New York City area, and four out of five of them receive some level of discount or scholarship, according to a member of a regional board that oversees the camps.

“It’s because of the environment,” Farr said. “They’re giving, friendly, open-minded. It’s a very unjudgmental place. We need more of that today.”

To the total shock of families like the Farrs, leaders with the Greater New York YMCA announced February 24 that they are planning to sell the camp property, they are laying off nearly 2,000 employees, and they “truly wish circumstances could be different.”

They said that because the pandemic, many YMCA services shut down over the past year. The organization suffered $100 million in losses, forcing the closure of summer camps.

A network of families with close ties to the camps immediately started a campaign to raise $5 million, the approximate sale price the YMCA is seeking for the property. If the families were to be able to purchase the property, they would seek out other investors or bonds to operate it, one active member said.

The group has raised just over $50,000 through an online fundraiser, and other methods.

Farr’s grandmother, Robin Farr, laughed when she pulled from an album a photo of Robin Farr, taken when she won an award for her quality work as an employee of the camp.

Robin Farr went to the camps as a child before taking a part-time job that she then parlayed into a full-time job as business manager. She recently retired.

She hopes someone, or some group, comes to see the value her family sees in the camps and makes a multimillion-dollar investment.

“If we don’t get our angel, or angels, which we truly hope for, it could come to an end,” Robin Farr said.

The YMCA’s deadline for accepting offers on the property expired Friday at noon. A spokesperson said in an email the organization has now turned to evaluating the multiple offers.

The YMCA has not disclosed information about potential buyers, nor has it given any indication that any of the prospective buyers would plan to continue running summer camps at the property.

“I’m nervous about the outcome because we don’t know right now what’s going to happen,” Emma Farr said. “I’m hoping that even if it’s not the Y (supporters) that buy it, something could give what the Y did.”

In a note to families, the New York YMCA camps director assured families the organization is working on alternatives for campers.

"We are committed to continuing our support of the YMCA camp movement, and are exploring how to use our endowment to send children to other neighboring and partner Y camps,” director Thad Gifford-Smith wrote. “We will be in touch with you with more information.”