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- Adventure Awaits - Summer Camp Has Opportunities Available
- Garden Volunteers Will Help Us Produce!
- Get the Poop on Our Septic System Upgrades
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Summer Camp 2023 - Available Spots for Adventures! |
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Are you making plans for summer? February is just about over, and Spring is nigh! Consider making plans for an amazing summer experience for your child – we still have some availability, although spaces are filling fast! |
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What about sending them for a two-week session! Sessions B and D still have a few spots left.
“Our son’s two weeks at Camp Kawartha were completely transformational! Both weeks instructors took an interest in him and made an effort to engage his strengths. The result was a kid with sudden confidence and energy and spark!”
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Or what about sending them on a canoe trip! What an adventure paddling and portaging, then making camp at the end of a glorious day…dinner by the fire…to bed with the sounds of the bush and a mass of stars twinkling in the sky!!
“I have never been to summer camp before, and it was so awesome! There were so many favourite parts of the week. One part I really liked was in the tent at night and I could hear crickets, loons, and coyotes.”
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And for older campers looking for a slightly longer, more challenging experience there are still a few spaces left in our Pre-Leadership Camp!
“Just like past summers, the camp helped him become stronger and more responsible through a lot of leadership opportunities and camp activities. Especially this year, he came back more mature.”
A summer of fun, challenge, exploration, and friendships is a fabulous tonic in a complicated world!
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We are seeking enthusiastic, responsible leaders who are passionate about connecting kids with nature and creating a magical and safe summer camp experience for all.
We have a number of positions that we are looking to fill - please see our employment page for more details if you are interested in applying to work with us this summer!
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We Need Your Help - Gardeners Wanted! |
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‘Many hands make light work’ the old saying goes and we could certainly use many hands for our gardens this spring…and summer…and fall!
We understand that most gardeners will be devoting hours to their own gardens, but we have five gardens and are planning to add two others, so we could truly use some help.
Our gardens have different foci –
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Abby’s Garden is a memorial garden named for Abby McNaughton, a staff member tragically killed in a car crash, and it focuses on habitats. This project involves pond maintenance, planting and harvesting herbs, as well as seeds for next year, and monitoring habitat use and building bird houses, bat house, bee house etc.
The Environment Centre (located in Peterborough) has a garden that also needs weeding and planting. The focus is on edible flowers and other plants – sort of like a colourful salad bowl! And our parking lot garden boxes need to produce ‘produce’ for use in the kitchen – tomatoes, zucchini, squash…you name it, we want the campers to eat it!
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The Greenhouse is waiting for pots to be filled with soil, and seeds planted, then when the time is correct, to move the seedlings to their appropriate garden.
New gardens include a ‘Healing’ Garden which will be planted around the Rotary Health Centre (we are so smart aren’t we!) and another Vegetable Garden that will take up space in a vacant area left by the May derecho.
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Whatever colour your thumb, if you have some time to devote, any amount of time, please contact Susan (sramey@campkawartha.ca) to register as a volunteer gardener!
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Raising Funds for Septic Has Been Dung Before... It's Essential Again! |
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In 1985, Camp Kawartha was saved from development by some far-sighted Rotarians, who wanted to ensure that Camp Kawartha would always be there for children. One of the first things then new Board of Directors did was to install a working septic system. The ‘Colossal’ (our term) was constructed and guests have been able to flush ever since. |
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More than 37 years later (beyond the anticipated life of the system), it is now time for an upgrade. The cost is about $430,000.00 for a modern, environmentally friendly system that will use biofilters to ensure that we treat our waste water as thoroughly and naturally as possible.
The plan is to install the new system this coming November.
Our challenge? How do you raise funds for something that you absolutely need to run a safe and healthy camp, but involves poo?
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Thankfully we have acquired a large grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. And another foundation has also pledged a significant amount over 5 years, bringing the total raised to $300,000.
But we need to close the gap.
With a sheepish smile we are also reaching out to you – our alumni, camper families, donors, businesses, friends, family – to ask if you might help! If you can contribute with a one-time donation, or if you want to commit a certain amount over months or years, please reach out to us.
No matter what, you’ll get a tax receipt and the gratitude of our campers, students, parents, teachers, groups, and organizations, even staff! We will smile as we flush, thanking you for keeping our facilities safe and our water clean.
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Book your late Winter or early Spring Class Visit |
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We're inching, slowly but surely, ever closer toward warmer spring weather and so we wanted to take a moment to let you know that we still have a few spaces open for K to 12 Class Visits for Late Winter and into Spring.
Dates will soon begin to fill quickly for Spring so, we wanted to give educators a little reminder to get in touch and book your preferred date today!
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Nature Showcase - Who is Sleeping and Who is in a Torpor? |
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Out for a walk the other morning and what did we smell – skunk! Yep, that delicious smell of skunk was wafting around. ‘Skunks hibernate, don’t they?’ was the question and a quick ‘Yes.’ was the response. Then why the odour? Why was our skunk ‘up’?
Everyone knows and thinks they understand the word hibernation. In basic terms, most of us would think that an animal, like our skunk friend, ‘sleeps’ through the winter, however, that’s not the full story. In fact, there are very few animals that truly ‘hibernate’ (Little Brown Bats, Groundhogs) – instead, for those that do sleep through the winter, most enter a state of sleep called torpor or as someone described it, sleep ‘light’.
Both are survival strategies used to get through the winter months when lower temperatures and scarcity of food require animals to conserve energy and minimize exposure to bitter cold. Both involve lowering the body temperature, the breathing rate, plus the heart and metabolic rate to conserve energy. Hibernation is truly deep sleep. Torpor is also sleep, however, torpor lasts for shorter periods. A torpor state allows animals to get up to drink or defecate, even give birth (no one sleeps through that!).
Our skunk friend uses torpor to get through the winter, and we’re sure that with the temperatures going so crazy this February, the skunk was probably a little confused and the sleep pattern was disturbed. ‘Is it spring already?!’ Question is, will the skunk know enough about climate change and go back to bed?! There is still a lot of winter to get through!! We’ll keep sniffing the wind to find out.
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Camp Kawartha is an accredited, award-winning, not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to the promotion of the highest standard of programming, with a particular focus on outdoor environmental awareness, outdoor and environmental education and stewardship. Registered Charity # 12453 9214 RR0001
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705-652-3860 1-866-532-4597
info@campkawartha.ca
campkawartha.ca
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