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!
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