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Written by Kates Joanne
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Friday, 27 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full story. Our office is closed for a post-summer break. We will re-open - IN TORONTO - on Wednesday September 8. The 2011 camp application (both on-line and downloadable) is already available on our site under Camp Office. We'll be mailing all 2010 campers their pre-filled-out 2011 camper application on September 10, and to hold the same space you had in 2010, you'll need to get your 2011 application with deposit to our Toronto office by October 15. After that day we start to register upgrades from four to eight weeks, siblings, waitlist children from 2010, and then new campers.
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Monday, 23 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full article. The last campers driving home have just left camp, the airport bus is in Toronto and our campers flying home are starting to check in with our airport staff... The Toronto buses have just pulled in to Herb Carnegie Centre... and suddenly it's as if the colours at camp went from vibrant to gray. When the campers leave, the life goes out of this place. It is so sad to say goodbye to these cherished children. Watching them grow and shine for two months has been profoundly wonderful, and all of us on staff will miss the campers of 2010. Speaking more personally, I am both sad and happy. Sad because I love my job, and because every camper smile is like a star sparkling in the sky, to my eye. Sad because it is fabulously fulfilling to participate in their growth, and in the positive energy generated when that's happening... And happy because, underneath all the joy and fun and learning and growth, I live in pretty much constant terror all summer. The sacred trust you place in me is to keep every child safe, and to send them home to you alive and well. This is a terrifying responsibility, and when it's over my relief is enormous.... On a lighter note: Camp 2011 starts June 30. First session ends July 26. Second session starts July 28. Camp 2011 ends August 23. (Yes, we know - same dates as this year. Camp dates are always determined by the Toronto District School Board - We start the day after they end, so as to not lose too many of our U.S. campers and staff early at the end of camp, because many of their schools start in late August.)..... Yours till the loons call and the moose munch on Tepee Lake. Joanne Kates
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Written by Elijah
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Sunday, 22 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full article.
We're coming to the end of a fantastic season at Camp Arowhon. Tomorrow - Monday August 23 - your campers are coming home!
If your camper is taking the bus to Toronto, you can pick them up at Herbert Carnegie Centennial Centre (580 Finch Ave W) on August 23 between 11:30 am - 12:15 pm. Check the bus lists Below for your camper's name. If your camper is on Bus #1, you can expect to meet them at 11:30 am, Bus #2 can be expected to arrive at 11:45 am, Bus #3 at 12 noon, and Bus #4 at 12:15 pm.
Your campers' luggage will also be waiting at Herbert Carnegie Centennial Centre so please pick up all paddles, duffels, and back packs along with your camper!
If you are picking your camper up from camp, please arrive between 9:30 - 11 am on August 23 and our staff will help to load your luggage into your vehicle. You'll then walk into camp and meet your camper in front of the main lodge. You'll be able to tour camp with your camper and pick up any valuables (ie. passports) from the camp office before leaving.
Toronto Bus #1
Toronto Bus #2
Toronto Bus #3
Toronto Bus #4
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Friday, 20 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full article.Yesterday the Junior Boys came back from their three-day canoe trip. They had a great time - for many it was their first canoe trip, and I think they were astonished how much fun it was being out in the wilderness, and how safe and competent they felt out there. Today the Junior Girls come home from their canoe trips... And last night the second trip of Brent Babes got back to camp. Having left camp at 5:20 am on Wednesday, they paddled and portaged to the far north of Algonquin Park (160 km round trip!!) - and back - with the speed of champions. The Brent Babes (four 15 year-old girls and their two female staff) had been training for two months, and when they burst into the full camp campfire at 8:30 last night, the entire camp erupted in crazy cheers for them.... Last night at campfire we had a ten-year jacket ceremony (the 20th this summer!!) two five-year staff paddle ceremonies, and Matthew Firestone got his canoe bookshelf to celebrate his15th year at camp. In Matthew's speech he talked about the symmetry of spending seven years as a camper and seven years on staff (with one year as an LIT in between), and how important it is to him to give back to the campers what he was given as a camper himself. He recalled being a Junior Boy, and the then head of canoeing took him and a friend out paddling, and how important that made him feel...Same deal this morning when I stood on the canoe dock with Matthew and the canoeing staff and we did a 1st class canoeing test. The mist was so thick on the lake that you couldn't see the other side, there were 15 or 20 campers and five or six section staff there to watch and support and celebrate the camper.... Also this morning before breakfast there were 1st class kayak, climbing and riding tests. So there will be several campers carried in to breakfast on their staff's shoulders - it's a beautiful day in Algonquin Park, and an exciting one already.
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Friday, 20 August 2010 |
Click HERE for full story. When the end of camp nears, kids scramble to finish getting their awards. At dinner tonight two Senior Girls were studying the theory for their 1st class in riding on the side porch of the Main Lodge... There was a moving 2nd class canoeist speech at dinner, and an equally moving one at lunch. I officiated at a 1st class climbing test this afternoon and had the pleasure of watching a Senior Girl master an incredibly challenging route up the wall. Tomorrow morning I'll be watching a 1st class canoeing test at 6:30 am and a 1st class climbing test at 7. The other directors will also be at 1st class tests. Watching campers meet major challenges, with dozens of their friends there to cheer them on, is always inspiring: How much they care, how passionately they commit, how caringly their friends support them. Getting to watch children find the (perhaps previously undiscovered) best in themselves is my great joy and privilege.
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Wednesday, 18 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full story.. My dad, Eugene Kates, who was the camp director for the 20 years that I was growing up at camp, always used to say the last week of camp:"Wind up, don't wind down."I keep thinking I ought to tell this to our staff, but holy hanna, they just keep on winding up without me pushing them. Yesterday Junior Boys left on trip, with the Top Gun theme. Using roll bars, tarps and other assorted camp junk, the trippers had turned their canoes into aircraft, and added helmets (accessorized with pipe cleaners and call numbers)... Last night ALL the inter boys brought their mattresses and sleeping bags into the Main Lodge (in a covert operation, under cover of darkness) and slept there.... More silly fun pranks ensued this morning.... Would love to tell you more but I have to run: At General (in 10 minutes) I have to participate in a sailing race (Battle of the Sailing Champs, announced in a skit at breakfast today).
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Monday, 16 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full article. Today is everybody's favourite day of Colour War. This morning was the Land and Sea Game - a fabulous Arowhon original: The goal is for each team to get as many coloured blocks as possible from the land across the sea. How they do it it: Runners on land have to search for hidden blocks. Once they have found a block, they have to run to their team's dock and complete an obstacle course,after which they give that block to two of their team members, who are in a canoe or kayak. The goal of the watercraft is to get the blocks to their team's staff advisors, who are in the Voyageur canoe which is anchored on the far side of the lake. Canoes pass blocks off to their team-mates in sailboats or on windsurfers, to get blocks moving faster. Canoes, windsurfers and kayaks may land at the Voyageur; sailboats may not. It's a complicated game, made more so by the Bad Guys (aka Captain Hook and his roving band of pirates) in canoes and on windsurfers who have the ability to capture blocks from teams. Today's Land and Sea Game took place in fairly high wind, which made the game faster and more exciting. To see every boat in camp on the lake, all moving blocks across the lake as fast as they can, is mesmerizing. I was on the lake the whole time (1 1/2 hours) and loved it - My particular joy and (I confess) pride is that our campers are so competent at sailing, canoeing, kayaking and windsurfing that they can play the game - and play it well! This afternoon was the Marathon, a giant relay involving every single camper and every activity in camp, which culminates in the team captains, once they are tagged, building a fire to burn the rope to end the Marathon.... Now the teams are practicing their Alma Mater songs to present after dinner.
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Sunday, 15 August 2010 |
Click HERE for full story. A super fun Day One of Colour war....gotta run so I can get into my hiding place for the Counsellor Hunt!
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Sunday, 15 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full text. Last night was the Colour War break skit. After campfire (which included a soulful rendition of Hallelujah with a camper on guitar, and the REAL Tom Thomson story), the entire camp was led by torches to the front of the Main Lodge. We saw a scene from Peter Pan: John and his brother being awakened from bed by Wendy, who then led all of us out through a real (oversize) window in a full (wallpapered) bedroom wall, to Neverland. There we saw Captain Hook and his band of evil marauders emerge (fully costumed of course) from a 16 foot-long pirate ship (yes, an actual wooden schooner with masts, built by our miraculous maintenance man Lou)... Then the Lost Boys led by Peter Pan slid down a fireman's pole from a tree house at the top of the Main Lodge, and enjoyed their banquet and food fight. The Lost Boys fought with the pirates... The crocodile with the clock appeared (another Lou construction - 12 feet tall and ticking!).... and you know the rest. This morning the four teams assembled in their colours. Game on!.... Oh, and yesterday was the annual Wayne Peck Sailing Regatta, which we've been doing since 1965: One camper and one staff in each boat, the camper must skipper the majority of the race. Yesterday's race included the top three boats from four heats, and the wind was strong and gusty. It was a great race - fine sailing and fun for all.
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Written by Kates Joanne
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Saturday, 14 August 2010 |
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Click HERE for full story.Tonight after evening activity was the annual Colour War Fakeout - an elaborate skit with a cast of about 35 staff, who portrayed the Battle of the Animals. There were horses and a donkey (real) versus mosquitos and turtles (costumed staff) versus dogs etc. It was fun and funny, the icing on the cake of a gorgeous hot sunny camp day: Inter Girls had a beach party with much play on windsurf boards for evening activity. Junior Girls baked cookies in my cabin.... Today during the day 35 camper canoeists, sailors, swimmers, archers and kayakers paddled our Voyageur canoe south to Camp Tamakwa on South Tea Lake for races. We stressed sportsmanship and good manners to the team, and yes, we won pretty much everything.
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