This year at Mayfair day camp ranging from the ages 6-13  located at 4450 W Sunnyside  all groups have experienced a sudden change involving the campers grouping. I as a voice of the community ask today that you hear me and my fellow campers out by reading my petition and signing a signature or filing a complaint with the director or district. This year All four groups have been segregated by gender into 4 different groups or 2 male groups and 2 female. This change has caused an issue affecting camp counselors that are now overwhelmed with drastically increased numbers of campers in different groups. Our camp counselor Nicholas known as Nick was assigned a group with over 20 kids ranging from 4th graders to 8th graders. This is affecting how games,activities and transitions flow. Older campers  are forced into trying to control or guide the younger campers and the gaps are showing. Younger boys and girls should be mixed together as well as the older boys and girls to create a fair playing environment for all. The reason this issue should be changed is that younger kids feel intimidated by the older kids due to the physical gaps between them. This is occurring now on the first day and will only get worse over time.For example during dodgeball the younger kids are scared and at a drastic disadvantage due to the mental and physical gaps between them. Transitions are messy and older kids cannot play normally without having to worry about younger kids getting hurt or falling behind. Also I have gathered statements and opinions from campers and they reported feeling isolated or trapped in their groups due to the many rules imposed this year gender segregation being the biggest. The older boys have reported that there is many conflicts and disagreements due to the amount of campers in one group along with the age gaps being 4th graders and 8th graders. The older girls have reported that the younger kids don’t “try” or play in most activities because they feel intimidated or nervous to play with the older side of the group . I understand that this change had reasoning behind it but evidently it’s not a good choice. As a fix I suggest going back to the grouping system seen last year as no issues were evident during the camp time.Groups enjoyed the friends of both genders and unity they had last year. I understand that this was a new change but it’s already showing incredibly large downsides with little to no satisfaction or agreement from counselors and campers. I ask that you help change this issue in our camp and sign this petition to hopefully convince our camp directors Lisa Dolan and Destiny Collier to reconsider. You can voice your opinion respectfully directly to Lisa Dolans email Lisa.dolan@chicagoparkdistrict.com. Finally the reason that there is no real name or group behind this petition is so that no one involved will be in trouble or face consequences as a precaution.

Thank you for reading 

Warm Regards- 2026 Campers and Counselors