Bunk
You find out about Zoo Camp in July, from another parent, at the pool. Bunk would put every camp in Louisville, with ages, dates, prices and open spots, in one searchable place.
Every winter, Louisville parents plan the summer across six registration sites with six different forms. Bunk would put every camp in the city in one searchable place.
Parents find camps today through Google searches, school flyers and a Facebook group. Bunk would list each one with ages, dates, prices and open spots, free for parents and free for camps. Nothing is built yet, and Bunk is a working title.
Zach is the parent it was written for:
At some point in the middle of the summer we're talking to another parent and their kid is doing Zoo Camp. We didn't even realize Zoo Camp was an option, and now we have to try to remember it for next year.
The camps parents like best are the hardest to find
Registration opens in January and the popular camps sell out by March. The zoo, the museums, the art studios and the parks department run a few weeks of camp each on a Google Form and a spreadsheet. Camp software is priced for the big residential camps (CampMinder runs $2,500 to $5,000 a season), so these small day camps don't use it, and they rarely come up first in a search.
A parent fills out the forms once, and the camp gets them
Search by the kid and the week: a four-year-old, the week of June 8, under $300, with every option in the city and how many spots are left. Emergency contacts, allergies and waivers live in one family profile that goes to every camp. Camps claim their listing for free and can pay for the tools that run a season: rosters, sign-ups, paperwork, and how full each week is. Bunk would carry each camp's own waiver text and never write one, because the Kentucky Supreme Court held in 2019 (Miller v. House of Boom) that a parent's signature on a minor's waiver doesn't hold against a for-profit company.
The first version is a directory, built before anyone asks a camp for anything
An AI-assisted scraper pulls every Louisville camp it can find into one directory, opened free to friends and family before registration opens in January 2027. If around 150 families use it, camps get an invitation to claim and edit their listing. The paid tools come after both sides are on it. If the directory alone isn't useful, nothing built on top of it will be.
The state permit list and the tax code both single out day camps
Kentucky day camps hold a youth camp permit under 902 KAR 10:040, inspected before opening and renewed every December 31. If Louisville's permit list can be obtained, it is a near-complete census of the city's day camps, and the directory wouldn't depend on camps submitting themselves.
Day camp counts toward the dependent care FSA and the Child and Dependent Care Credit, and overnight camp doesn't. For 2026 the credit rises to 50% and the FSA cap to $7,500. No directory or camp software in the research helps a parent collect each camp's EIN and a year-end statement across six camps.
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