Foundation President Doug Forbes Testifies for Camp Safety Bill at Capitol April 5
Meow Meow Foundation co-founder Elena Matyas holds photo of daughter Roxie Forbes at Sacramento Capitol
Los Angeles — Meow Meow Foundation President Doug Forbes will testify before California Assembly committeess on April 5 and April 19 in support of AB 1737, the bill he and his co-founder wife Elena Matyas introduced in an effort to establish health and safety protections for California’s unregulated children’s camps.
Forbes will also testify before Senate committees on dates to be announced.
Matyas died one week ago. Forbes said that his wife’s compromised immune system was directly related to the emotional and physical toll borne of the summer camp that killed their daughter and covered up the circumstances, largely because they thought they could get away with their fraud and gross negligence.
Forbes will testify in person to honor his deceased wife and daughter Roxie.
The bill will require owner-operators of children’s camps to administer annual background checks, emergency action plans, operational plans and certifications for high-risk activities. Camps must also employ a health supervisor who is certified in CPR and fundamental First Aid.
Forbes said that camp operators, camp lobbyists and county health agencies have refused proper oversight for decades, which is largely why California legislators have not instituted regulations for day camps and why overnight/resident camps are subject to nominal oversight.
MMF President Doug Forbes
“I am testifying in person before the health committee because these folks need to see the dark, joyless eyes of a father whose child was killed by owners of a camp who admitted to prioritizing money over meaningful child protections… and got away with it for far too long. The camp industry and the government are to blame, for inertia that has harmed children.”
He said that, while camp injuries are an issue, sexual assaults at children’s camps are an especially persistent problem, considering assaults at Boy Scouts of America and YMCA camps alone have reached epidemic levels.
The California Collaboration for Youth is a lobby organization with clients that include the Boy Scouts, YMCA ,Christian Camp Association and American Camp Association, organizations whose members have opposed such bills but account for a staggering number of sexual assaults on children, injuries and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Forbes and Matyas said they withdrew their 2020 camp safety bill because lobbyists from CCFY and county public health associations asserted enough influence on the legislative environment that the bill became a watered down nonstarter.
“Those who oppose this updated, streamlined bill do not acknowledge the need for critical and long overdue child safety protections that can reverse this largely unknown safety epidemic — it’s really that simple. It’s time for CCFY and the American Camp Association and its clients and members to put kids first. It would be nothing but beneficial for the industry. Let’s get this done together and stop the nonsense,” Forbes said.
The Capitol will be open to attendees of this hearing. Citizens can also watch the hearings as a livestream on the Assembly’s website at https://www.assembly.ca.gov/todaysevents.