This year's summer camp was fantastic! We enjoyed four great weeks of camp, and you can check out the photos on the website.
We've also created a slide show video featuring some of our favourite photos from last summer! Check it out on YouTube:
We're already looking forward to some great things happening for summer 2010! Hope to see you there!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We Did It! We Built A Camp!
OK, I admit, this blog entry is long overdue. As you can imagine, we got a little busy with many, many things as our 2009 summer camp weeks came up! So the last entry showed a site plan for what the campsite was shaping up to look like. So how did it go from there? And where are we going to go next?
Cabins: We did it! We built 10 cabins, five "down below" for the girls, and five "up the hill" for the boys. What a relief it was to finally see these buildings (mostly) completed, passed inspection, and ready to go! Now I say "mostly" completed because we did have to take a few shortcuts -- window screenings on many of the cabins were quickly stapled on, for example, because we didn't have enough time to complete all of the screen frames. We discovered that these required frequent maintenance under constant barrage from excited campers, and we plan to have these all replaced with stronger frames -- with shutters to close the windows entirely -- by this summer.
Bunks: When I (Jay) volunteered to take charge of building the bunk beds, I had no idea what an enormous undertaking this would be! It's one thing to build one set of bunks... but to build 100 individual bed frames and put them up into 40 sets of bunk beds... wow! I am so grateful to all the volunteers who worked with me to build the frames, cut endless sheets of plywood, and drive in thousands of screws, nuts and bolts. I was still assembling bunk beds literally up until camp started, and a few lucky campers got to watch their new sleeping accommodations being built right before their eyes!
Wash Stations: We built two wash stations by the cabins, with sinks and outhouses in each. These are relatively temporary affairs -- the long term plan is to install septic facilities and exchange these for real flushing toilets -- but they will see steady improvements over the coming years.
Water System: This one wasn't so obvious, but it was a huge (and expensive) undertaking. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment places very strict regulations on the water quality for a children's summer camp -- and so it should be. We are pleased that our newly installed water system passed all the tests with flying colours!
Kitchen: We converted the existing lodge -- we affectionately called it the "social building" -- into a kitchen big enough to cook for 100 people at once. In addition to cooking and dishwashing, we also used the building for storage of tuck, camp suppplies, and a temporary camp office. This building was also our dining room for all of the volunteer build weekends, a place of fellowship and rest after a hard day's work!
Dining Tent: We were very lucky to have access to the large, blue-and-white striped "circus tent" that became our temporary dining hall! We ate our meals, played games, ate tuck, and ran activities like Newspaper, Movie Making, Arts and Crafts, Woodworking, Drama, and Guitar in various corners of this massive tent, and it also became our stage for events like the Talent Show. In Week 3 we even had sleepouts in here! Of course the long-term plan is to build a dining hall, and we hope to begin construction soon after a bit more fundraising!
Cabins: We did it! We built 10 cabins, five "down below" for the girls, and five "up the hill" for the boys. What a relief it was to finally see these buildings (mostly) completed, passed inspection, and ready to go! Now I say "mostly" completed because we did have to take a few shortcuts -- window screenings on many of the cabins were quickly stapled on, for example, because we didn't have enough time to complete all of the screen frames. We discovered that these required frequent maintenance under constant barrage from excited campers, and we plan to have these all replaced with stronger frames -- with shutters to close the windows entirely -- by this summer.
Bunks: When I (Jay) volunteered to take charge of building the bunk beds, I had no idea what an enormous undertaking this would be! It's one thing to build one set of bunks... but to build 100 individual bed frames and put them up into 40 sets of bunk beds... wow! I am so grateful to all the volunteers who worked with me to build the frames, cut endless sheets of plywood, and drive in thousands of screws, nuts and bolts. I was still assembling bunk beds literally up until camp started, and a few lucky campers got to watch their new sleeping accommodations being built right before their eyes!
Wash Stations: We built two wash stations by the cabins, with sinks and outhouses in each. These are relatively temporary affairs -- the long term plan is to install septic facilities and exchange these for real flushing toilets -- but they will see steady improvements over the coming years.
Water System: This one wasn't so obvious, but it was a huge (and expensive) undertaking. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment places very strict regulations on the water quality for a children's summer camp -- and so it should be. We are pleased that our newly installed water system passed all the tests with flying colours!
Kitchen: We converted the existing lodge -- we affectionately called it the "social building" -- into a kitchen big enough to cook for 100 people at once. In addition to cooking and dishwashing, we also used the building for storage of tuck, camp suppplies, and a temporary camp office. This building was also our dining room for all of the volunteer build weekends, a place of fellowship and rest after a hard day's work!
Dining Tent: We were very lucky to have access to the large, blue-and-white striped "circus tent" that became our temporary dining hall! We ate our meals, played games, ate tuck, and ran activities like Newspaper, Movie Making, Arts and Crafts, Woodworking, Drama, and Guitar in various corners of this massive tent, and it also became our stage for events like the Talent Show. In Week 3 we even had sleepouts in here! Of course the long-term plan is to build a dining hall, and we hope to begin construction soon after a bit more fundraising!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Map of the campsite!
Now that the cabins are built, it is starting to look much more like a summer camp! Kittiwake drew this little map, which shows the location of the cabins and other facilities we'll have when we run camp during this first summer!
Friday, June 5, 2009
June 5 Construction Update
Good news! The tin roofs are on all 5 cabins on Maple Grove (the girls' side). Some still need windows and railings on the stairs; but the doors are all in and the railings have been fixed on the decks. Here's a picture of Black Bear and Stetson working on the roof! We also hauled rocks to make an area for the Gobbler Green campfire pit. (clearing beside golf course) Get it? (golf course, golf green--and we've seen lots of wild turkeys running around there!)
Bunny
Bunny
Monday, May 25, 2009
Interim Update
Thanks to everyone who came out to our official build week between May 1 to May 10! We took tons of photos, and Bunny prepared daily reports with photos that show how well the cabins are coming together! (See the earlier blog entries).
Meanwhile, a small core group of us have continued to work steadily up at camp every weekend and every spare day we can get! We're focusing our attention now on roofing -- every cabin needs to have tar paper, strapping, and a tin roof installed, and right now all the cabins are in various stages of progress on this (from "almost complete" to "almost started"...) There is still much to do!
The first day of camp is just weeks away, and the clock is ticking. We need your help! If YOU have a spare weekend and would like to offer your help (and check out the new camp at the same time), please consider joining us. We'll provide food and lodging (we've got warm rooms, showers, toilets, everything you need).
Meanwhile, a small core group of us have continued to work steadily up at camp every weekend and every spare day we can get! We're focusing our attention now on roofing -- every cabin needs to have tar paper, strapping, and a tin roof installed, and right now all the cabins are in various stages of progress on this (from "almost complete" to "almost started"...) There is still much to do!
The first day of camp is just weeks away, and the clock is ticking. We need your help! If YOU have a spare weekend and would like to offer your help (and check out the new camp at the same time), please consider joining us. We'll provide food and lodging (we've got warm rooms, showers, toilets, everything you need).
Saturday, May 9, 2009
MAY 8 PROGRESS REPORT by Bunny
Recruits from Toronto arrived—halleluiah! Theo and Rob enjoy a hearty lunch before heading out to assemble the two pre-fabricated cabins they brought with them. Meanwhile George gives his buddy a hard time—maybe he wasn’t working fast enough? Black Bear is spying on Dragonfly—a hearty meal perhaps? Today was mostly spent building decks and putting roofs on. It was another great day with beautiful weather and a lot was accomplished.
MAY 7 PROGRESS REPORT by Bunny
Wow! Things are really moving along well. Cabin 1 now has 3 walls and a deck on. Cabin 2 has 4 walls and a deck. Cabin 3 has the very first door in place—it’s almost habitable! Justin is up on the roof nailing the last piece of tar onto the plywood. Check it out from the inside! Bugs don’t hold me back—there I am pretending I’m working on cabin 8. Rain or shine, the work must go on, as demonstrated by Cabin 10 & their tarped roof. By supper, they had all 4 walls up as well. Like clockwork, Meagan & Sarah bring snack to the hungry workers. The last pics show Justin chain sawing out a window, before he & Dave look out to admire the view from their handiwork on Cabin 5.
MAY 6 PROGRESS REPORT by Bunny
It was another beautiful day of fine weather and plenty of black flies, as you can see by most of our headgear. At day's end, Maple Grove was looking pretty good. Cabin 1 had 2 walls up with only 2 guys, and cabin 2, with a larger crew, was well underway with 4 walls finished. Cabin 3 was prettied up with an awesome railing and finishing touches.
Up on Oak Ridge, Norm's team had a wall up and the deck half done. As well, construction of cabin 8 began, with the putting up of the floor beams and the joists. Justin wields a mean chainsaw!
Friday, May 8, 2009
May 5 Progress Report
With fewer volunteers to help, we still managed to proceed quite nicely today. Even the women helped with construction. Faye continued work on our bunk beds until a little accident interrupted her work. Praise God she is OK now. We had 4 teams working on the girls side, and one team started the floor on Cabin 10 on the boys' side. Even though there were only two of them, they managed to get the floor joists completely finished. See the pics for how they looked before supper. Another awesome day!
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