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.

Farewell Circles and the Management of Risk

I had a bit of a sleepless night the other night thinking about the images I had seen of the Farewell Circle at Camp Wenonah. These were emotional and touching images of campers and staff who had clearly developed strong friendships over the Summer, saying goodbye to each other. Images of perfectly healthy, natural and human responses.



And yet I couldn't help but feel that the Farewell Circle would be an unlikely part of programs in Australia, or at the very least it would not involve the staff, because one of the ways we have responded to abuse of young people in Australia (and in many other places I am sure) has been to make it socially unacceptable for adults, particularly males, to hug children. The intention of this is, of course, to protect our children and this is a sensible and reasonable thing for a society to do. But I wonder if the solution causes other problems for young people.



I believe there are similar dynamics at play in other areas of society and not just in Australia of course. In an attempt to protect our children against injury we increasingly focus on the elimination of risk. Maybe, despite the evidence about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, this leads us to prefer our children watch television or play computer games in the lounge room where we can keep them 'safe' rather than be out riding bikes or climbing trees in what we perceive to be the dangerous outdoors.



But at what cost to their healthy development into adulthood, to their levels of resilience and to their long term physical and mental health?



Next time you see an advertisement for household disinfectant look closely at what they are really saying - and they are mostly not being too subtle about it either - germs are bad, if you really love your family then you will use our product in copiuos quantities to kill all the germs in your house.



But apart from this being a fruitless exercise, what impact is this having on our immune systems? On the environment? Is it coincidental that the more sterile our lives become the more we see allergies emerge?



I don't think there are simplistic answers to any of these questions. I am not advocating that we all just start hugging each other again, or that we let our kids run wild, or that we stop cleaning our houses. I believe it was simplistic solutions that got us into this mess. I think it went something like this:

1. Our children are at risk.

2. Hands up all those people who don't want to protect our kids.

3. Good, so everyone (except bad people who don't care about our kids) wants us to take all measures to protect kids.



I don't have the answers but I am troubled by many of the 'solutions' we have now and I think we need to keep examining these things in an effort to come up with better ways. I am convinced that these are not simple problems with simple answers. If they were then they would have been solved a long time ago and clearly they have not been. Logically this must mean they are in fact, like most issues, complex and nuanced - shades of grey rather than black and white.

But I am confident that if we continue to talk together and to look for better solutions then we will eventually find them.

Camp Walden, Ontario

Our final camp for Ontario was Camp Walden - our hosts Sol, Jen and Talia Birenbaum.

The activity at right is called the Whale Watch Board (I think) and involves a group of campers trying to balance the board without speaking. It is about two metres by three metres and looks a lot of fun.

This is a big camp and accommodates 500 campers and 250 staff in Summer. Most campers stay for the whole seven week program - this is at the upper end as far as camps we have visited so far.

At the end of a fantastic meal (a continuing theme so far) we were entertained by Dave Borins (sorry about the red eye Dave). Camp Walden has a very strong music program and Dave is a product of that program - keep your eye out for him he is destined for big things I am sure - and remember you heard it here.

Tomorrow we are off to Ottawa and then on to Quebec. Thank you to all those camp staff who have made us so welcome in Ontario (and Alberta and British Columbia before that).

Quirky Canada continued

Pets seem to provide an endless supply of mirth. Here are a couple of examples from Canadian print media.

"The Pet Ramp and Staircase" - carpeted. For when your dog is too old and arthritic to jump up on your bed or sofa to shed it's fur.

A solid pine "pet crate" to lock up your pet inside the house - but this one doubles as a "very stylish end table" - seriously.

And finally - "Butter Boy" - it is like a roll-on deodorant for your corn on the cob - only you fill it with butter - what will they think of next.

Camp Tanamakoon, Ontario

Next stop in Ontario was Camp Tanamakoon in Algonquin Park. We got to this camp via a very pleasurable ride on a 'Huck Finn' motorised raft. The only other way into camp was via a walking track (which some of us took on the way out - very pretty and we spotted a grouse on the way out to boot).

I am not sure how much better the Autumn colour can get but the gang (at right) was obviously impressed.

This camp is an all girls camp and they have a range of great activities. They have a veggie garden that the campers help with and they also have the solar panels (at right) which provide all the power for lights and hot water.

They also make their own maple syrup and gave us a bottle each to take home with us (we also got some Tawingo maple syrup from Jorgie - thanks).

Camp Wenonah

Jeff Bradshaw was our host at Camp Wenonah and hats off to Jeff and his staff for our greeting. We were greeted by a table at the end of the floating dock (right) covered with fabulous food and beautiful Canadian wine and beer.

The lake that surrounded this spot was completely covered in trees in full Autumn colour and for us Australians the colours were more vibrant than any we had seen before.

This was the perfect way to start our last camp visit for the day and as you can see from the photo at right I was flat out working for our ACA members.

I believe I was drinking a Muskoka Dark Ale - and I can highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in this part of the world.

At the end of the camp tour Jeff showed us a slide show they had put together from their Summer camp. It was a very moving experience. The last part of the show highlighted the 'farewell circle' - an opportunity for all campers and staff to say goodbye at the end of Summer camp to all other campers and staff. Jeff described how emotional this was for campers and staff alike and the photos proved this - lots of tears and hugs - I was feeling emotional just watching.

Thank you Jeff for sharing this with us.

Camp Kandalore

On this day in Ontario I had decided to follow my own advice from early in the tour and put in an extra effort to stay in the moment - so that meant no furious note taking as we visited camps (I will rely on my very reliable travelling companions for information about the camps later). Instead I just tried to be present as we walked around camp and to really listen to what we were being told - thanks to Kate Strachan for her hospitality and for sharing her knowledge.

What came to me was that the best thing about the camps we were visiting was that they were committed to their mission/purpose for being in existence. They only offered activities that fitted with their mission and their main focus was on relationships - not adrenaline. There is obviously a place for adventure activities - but perhaps only if they contribute to the development of campers and build on the relationships between campers and between campers and staff - maybe only if they contribute to the mission of your camp.

They have the confidence not to provide the activities that they think campers and their parents want - but instead they provide activities that they believe are the right activities and then trust that they can convince their stakeholders that these are the activities that will lead to the best outcomes.

Maybe this is the approach we need to focus more on in Australia - and maybe the ACA can work together with members to promote this approach more - promote it to schools, to parents, to the broader community.