Why this exists
I started comocamps while trying to plan a summer for my own kid. I'm a Columbia parent with a full-time job, and every spring the same problem shows up: dozens of camps, scattered across dozens of websites, none of them telling me the one thing I actually needed to know, which is whether the camp covers my whole workday or just a few hours of it. I got tired of opening ten tabs and calling the rest, so I built the tool I wished existed.
How it works
comocamps is a free, filterable directory of summer camps and one-time kids events in Columbia and Boone County. You can filter by whether a camp genuinely covers a full workday, the week you need coverage, your kid's age, and price. Prices are listed up front instead of hidden behind a "contact us" form. Single-day and drop-in events are included too, for the inevitable gap days a full week of camp doesn't cover.
Registration happens on the camp's own site. comocamps is where you find the right camp, not where you check out, and there's no fee tacked on for using it.
Here's the part I care about most: every listing shows when it was last checked, and anything we couldn't confirm gets labeled as unconfirmed instead of quietly filled in with a guess. I'd rather show you a gap than fake certainty.
Where it's going
Right now comocamps covers 60-plus local camps plus a growing list of free and low-cost kids events, all gathered and checked by hand, season by season. It's the first piece of a bigger project called como4kids, which will eventually cover afterschool programs, community events, school fundraisers, and more resources for Mid-Missouri families.
comocamps is new and it's going to keep changing. If you spot something wrong, missing, or just confusing, I want to know.
Tell me what's up
Drop a note below. It goes straight to a real person (me).