By Jacob Rodenburg, Executive Director
Environment Centre
As a not-for-profit charity, everything we do extends and supports our mission. At Camp Kawartha, we are striving to foster stewards. Our goal is to motivate people to care for each other and to care for the natural world that surrounds us. This ethic of stewardship informs the way we deal with the public. From the way we handle our bookings, to our creative and inspiring environmental programming, we teach children and adults to be proactive environmental citizens. We teach about sustainable building, alternative energy, conservation and ecology and of course we teach children and adults alike how to savour and enjoy the outdoors. Our leadership style involves inspiration. We accomplish this by showcasing sustainable living in action, by training future educators through our eco-mentor program in partnership with Trent University.
At the very heart of what we do, we inspire our children to honour, love and protect our very own natural community – the Kawartha Lakes Region.
Everyone who works at Camp Kawartha has an integral role to play in delivering our mission of fostering stewardship. Our talented educators are engaging storytellers, artists, teachers, musicians and interpreters. We have warm and caring office staff who take care of bookings. Camp Kawartha is fortunate to have creative and enthusiastic summer staff that embodies the very best in leadership. These mentors show what a caring and empowered community of young people can accomplish. Our Board of Directors are engaged community members who volunteer their time to help make Camp Kawartha a recognized leader in environmental education, not just in our community, but in our region and beyond.
We are working towards becoming the greenest Camp in Ontario. We are embarking on a Site and Facilities Master Plan that will help us showcase inspiring sustainable buildings and programming. From celebrating local foods through our connection to local farmers and our organic garden and straw-bale green house, we hope to inspire thousands of youth to become caretakers of tomorrow. We are working with local community leaders and educators to create an environmental framework for our region. Imagine, if we all agreed on what children of different ages and grades needed as part of their healthy development to help them become proactive and life-long stewards. Then we would work towards making sure that each child has the opportunity to learn and implement these skills. We are calling on school boards, educators, youth groups, leaders and families, to work collaboratively to make this vision a reality in our community.
