Day Camps, Montreal

We also visited day camps in Montreal at the Bio Dome and the Montreal Botanic Gardens.

The Bio Dome (above right) is like a zoo and they run a range of activities around animal themes and conservation. The campers complete conservation projects and learn about eco systems and biodiversity.

At the Montreal Botanic Gardens campers also undertake projects around themes like geology, plants or insects.

They even have an opportunity to plant and tend their own veggie garden over the 7 week Summer program. They then harvest and take home the produce.

Base de Plein Air le P'tit Bonheur

This camp was founded by the Jesuits in 1962 and is on 1700 acres with 6 lakes (I am convinced it is illegal in Canada to open a camp without at least one beautiful lake.)

They use tee pee accommodation and log cabins and are in the process of trying to raise $24million over 5 years to upgrade the camp.

They have a range of programs focused on young people who have dropped out of school to try to get them to go back to school.

These campers spend 2 weeks at school learning skills like cooking or maintenance and then come to camp for 2 weeks to put those skills into practice.

Base de Plein Air Perce-Neige, Quebec

Our host at this camp was Yanik Villeneuve or Kuma (the Bear in Japanese). This camp was opened in 1977 and is owned and supported by the Canadian Tire Foundation (Canadian Tire is like Bunnings in Australia.)



This is part of the gang at left after our morning hike to the lookout.

They run a range of programs for people with a disability and disadvantaged groups, as well as school programs and Summer camp for 8-15yo.

The foundation is made up of the 94 stores in Quebec who each contribute a percentage of their profits to the foundation.

It would be great if we could get the level of involvement with the corporate sector that they have in Canada.

More about germs

In relation to my last post I found this little item for sale in my airline magazine:
"A personal germ eliminator" which apparently uses portable UVC light to kill 99.99% of germs. They recommend you use it to sterilise telephones, keyboards, bathroom services (I assume this is the dunny seat!), hotel pillows, kitchen utensils and more - now come on!

Kamp Kanawago, YMCA, Quebec

Our first camp visit in Quebec and thank you to Sean Day for delaying his reunion with his wife after a long Summer to show us around (our apologies to his wife for keeping him).

This was a camp on a beautiful setting. They have a significant focus on environmental sustainability. I was very excited to see the organic veggie garden at the entrance. Surely if they can have veggie gardens at camps in Canada with long frozen Winters, then we can have them in Australia where we can grow veggies all year round!

They also had a new toilet and shower block (above right) with composting toilets and the ability to recycle the waste water from the showers and basins via a natural filtering system (below right).

Their hot water is heated by timber from tree falls on their property and they have an extensive composting program.

Next year they plan to incorporate programs about this in their Summer Camp program - each camper will have at least 6 hours of environmental programs during a 12 day/11 night program.

I believe with an increasing focus on the environment and global warming this is the way for us to go - it would be fantastic if we good run programs which teach our campers about food miles and carbon footprints and healthy eating and where our food comes from.

We will continue to seek discussions with government in Australia about supporting these kinds of programs.