In a place like Camp Kawartha, we naturally have stories about the successes of our participants. This one, shared by our Head of Outdoor Education, Neil Fortin, provided us with some much valued post-visit feedback that delighted the whole team.
“A class from an inner-city school in Toronto came to Camp for a 3-day visit. The school is located in a lower socio-economic area of the city and many of the students face challenging home and social situations.
While here they participated in adventure and leadership programming, focused on learning about personal growth and leadership.
A young student commented to one staff member following his experience with the high ropes that he had not smiled so much for quite a long time. He and his classmates enjoyed their time here experiencing a wide variety of outdoor adventures.
A follow-up visit to the school allowed us to catch up with the Principal several months later. When that student was mentioned in conversation and the Principal was told about his ‘smiling’ comment, the Principal responded that staff had noticed a marked change in that young student. He was happier, his school attendance had increased and he was more willing to participate in class.”
That growth was attributed to his visit here, and we take great pride in that. It affirms for us the profound impact that time at Camp Kawartha has on our visitor’s lives.
Visits like these are typically fully paid for by families with maybe some help by fundraising at the school or grants from the school board. Often times though there are students or schools that simply cannot afford to pay the fees to visit Camp Kawartha, it is beyond the means of their families and communities. In those cases we are always so grateful that we have wonderful donors that offer financial contributions to our subsidy fund. Our subsidy fund gets used several times through the school year to help students and even whole classes lower the fees to make it manageable for families to send their students on this trip that they and their student’s teachers believe is so valuable to their education and growth.
