Rock Talk - Our Cairn Newsletter

Rock Talk - March 2007

Download the full edition of Rock Talk for March 2007.

Download rock_talk_march_2007.pdf

Another Cairn Camper!

Our congratulations go out to Jersey, our kitchen manager for the last 4 years, and her husband, Greg.  Their daughter, Remi Jayne Dunfield, was born yesterday, March 4^th.  Iain is very excited to be a big brother!!

Meet Blox - our new Student Intern

Paul “Blox” Denyer is spending his semester working for Cairn.  He will get High School credits for doing the thing he loves most in the world: camp work.  Blox has many projects, and we’re very lucky to have him with us for the next six months.  If you missed the announcement on the Cairn website, Blox has already managed to become a “Last Action Hero” for his camp work.  Details can be found here. Welcome aboard, Blox!

From the Desk of Topaz

February and March are exciting months for me.  It’s when I get to hire our spring and summer staff and begin creating our Leadership Training events and Bible studies.  After a long fall of administrative stuff and marketing plans, I get to do what REALLY excites me – work on training young people for roles of leadership.  I am busy doing a lot of research, some writing and a lot of brainstorming.  Each year, we try to bring new and different skills to our staff members and always want to be sure we are on the cutting edge of what is important in camping.  Another big focus for me these days is teaching the ways in which our Church needs to be more proactive about youth ministry.  I have been recently asked by a congregation to help them figure out why their youth programming is currently not too successful.  If you have ideas about how to re-energize youth programming at church, I would love to hear from you!  (topaz@ilovecamp.org) I am especially interested in hearing from those of you under the age of 20!

Summer Session Highlights

It’s time to get ready for the summer!  Here’s a quick rundown of some of the unique and exciting programmes we’re offering this year.

Wilderness Specialty – This Iona Programme (1-week, ages 9-14) will offer the campers a chance to get up-close-and-personal with God’s creation.  There will be an emphasis placed on outdoor living skills, nature education and environmental protection.  Campers will learn how to make shelters, build fires, and cook food using solar power and many more wilderness tricks.  There will also be an opportunity to try “all the other” camp activities during this week long session.

White Water Canoe Trips – There are 2 White Water trips offered this year! The first trip, aimed at beginner and intermediate-level canoers, will follow the French River.  The second trip, for experienced and advanced canoers, will follow the mighty Magnetawan River.  Each trip will be led by experienced Cairn Trippers who will challenge, inspire and encourage campers along the river.  Cairn provides White Water Canoes (specially outfitted), helmets and lifejackets for these trips, as well as all typical tripping gear.

Music and Arts Camp – This camp is open to campers ages 9-12 and runs for 1 week. In the course of that week, campers will choose a “major” (music or art) and a “minor” (dance, vocal music, fine art, drama, etc.).  All the “majors” work towards a large camp-wide Broadway Production.  In past years we have done “The Wizard of Oz”, “Joseph” and “Promise U”. It is amazing to see an entire show come together in 6 days. Campers will participate by performing, creating costumes, creating props and decorating sets.  The Music and Arts Show is always a highlight of the summer.

Adventure Camp – This is a 2-week Glen Mhor programme for Teens that is designed to teach skills (in canoeing, kayaking, belaying, etc.) as well as teamwork, communication, leadership and self-esteem.  Campers will have the opportunity to take a 3-day canoe trip, learn to belay using a rope safety system, rappel, paddle a kayak and master many other “adventure” skills.  Many Adventure Campers go on to be staff members at Cairn and they are well-equipped for the job.

Intro. To Tripping – FULL

Killarney Canoe Trip – This 1 week canoe trip for teens will explore Killarney Provincial Park.  Killarney is a premiere destination for canoe trips and we are thrilled to provide our campers with this opportunity for the second year in a row.

There are many, many more programme opportunities at Cairn this summer.  There are standard on-site programmes at Glen Mhor and Iona as well as other trips and special programmes not highlighted above.

For a complete list of programmes, and to register (spots fill quickly, so please hurry), visit www.ilovecamp.org and click on “Summer Schedule”.

Resource and Facility Staff 2007

Cairn is proud to present the Resource and Facility Staff Members for 2007!

• Head Counsellor – Chantal “Match” Jackson

• Iona Co-Directors

  • Joanna “Daisy” Moon

  • Martha “Vonte” Moon / Greer “Fiero” Gallant

• Glen Mhor Programme Director – Andrew “Gerber” Blake

• LIT Directors

  • Beth “Pryzm” Prysnuk

  • Kelly “Snap” Brown

• Administrator – Rebecca “Kiwi” Allen

• Integration Coordinator

  • Josh “Koy-Oh” Groen / Moira “Linkz” de Valence

• Waterfront Director – Michelle “Konk” Roberts

• Watercraft Directors

  • Ruth “Roo” Coulton

  • Colin “Tukon” Austin

• Creation’s Quest Director – Catherine “Breez” McQuaig

• Arts and Crafts Director – Meghan “Oosta” Elliot

• Outdoor Living Skills Director – Natalie “Flowst” Salter

• Music and Drama Director – Katie “Dolce” Sebestyen

• Dance Director – Lauren “Refleckta” Brucker

• Maintenance Coordinator – Paul “Blox” Denyer

• Assistant Cook – Meghan “Magenta” Allen

• Adventure Programmers

  • Georgina “Kyri” Fung

  • Corey “Turbo” Marshall

  • Moira “Linkz” de Valence / Josh “Koy-Oh” Groen

• Tripper

  • Greer “Fiero” Gallant / Martha “Vonte” Moon

• Glen Mhor Outdoor Centre (Spring)

  • Director – Chantal “Match” Jackson

  • Assistant Director – Andrew “Gerber” Blake

We are thrilled to welcome Lisa Hughes to our Cairn family.  She will be filling the very big shoes of Jersey as our new Kitchen Manager.  We look forward to finding her camp name too!

Counsellor Day Recap

Our counselling applicants were put through their paces on February 17^th at Leaside Presbyterian Church in Toronto.  We challenged the 42 applicants to create tinfoil farms, act like various animals, build card towers, achieve bingo, design large posters of camp and complete various other challenges.  Once again, as with the Resource Day, we worked for a little while on campy Portmanteau Words (remember “sitcom” and “pictionary”?).  Here are the results:

• "trall" - trust fall

• "chucken" - chuck the chicken

• "floud" - friendly and loud

• "canayaking" - canoeing/kayaking

• "Fources" - 4 S's

• "Zine" - zip line

• "Dell" - dinner bell

• "lopes" - low ropes

• "shoedals" - shoes/sandals

• "crest" - creation quest

• "drusic" - drama/music

• "pling-pling" - plastic string used to make bracelets (a good play on 'bling bling')

The counsellors will be hired in the next week or so, and a full list will be included in the Rock Talk edition in April.

Churches with a Heart

We would like to thank and recognize the following congregations for all their hard work in sending campers to Cairn.  Many of them hold an annual fund raise or have an amount set aside in their yearly budgets to ensure that children, teens and families have an opportunity for a camp experience.  We salute their continued support:

• Beaverton and Gamebridge

• Knox Agincourt

• St. Andrew’s Bowmanville

• St. Andrew’s Port Credit

• Patterson

• Knox Bracebridge

• First Collingwood

• Calvin, North Bay

• Knox, Sundridge

• Thornbury

If you are a congregation who also assists with funding, please let me know.  We’d love to add you to the list!

Great Moments - March

Great Moments for this month:

• Palais has been hired as the Residential Camp Director at YMCA Cedar Glen. She joins Zilch there this summer.

• Koy-Oh was in Ontario last week, on a visit from his home in Alberta.  While he was here he helped run a Church service in Toronto at St. John’s Milliken.

• Topaz, Zoic, Taps and Blox presented at Knox College about the importance of camping ministry.

• Taps has joined the Steering Committee for the Brampton Presbytery Youth Services, which will get started in June or September.  This is an exciting time for youth ministry, and you will definitely hear more about the Youth Services.

Send your Great Moments to: taps@ilovecamp.org

Ontario Camping Assoc. Conference Re-Cap

In February, Taps had the opportunity to attend the OCA Director’s Conference held in Toronto.  Here are some thoughts about the experience:

• Cairn is WAY ahead of the curve on issues of bullying, cyberbullying and internet policy

• Cairn needs to do a better job getting formal feedback from campers and parents. Already a new survey model is being put together, and we look forward to getting responses as early as May/June of 2007.  Please watch this space for the survey announcements coming soon.

• Camping takes many forms in this Province.  There are sports camps, family camps, computer camps and many, many other places that provide summer programming to youth.  Cairn is in a highly competitive market.  We really need support from Churches and congregations in order to remain a successful ministry for children and youth.

• Former Glen Mhor staff members Aztec, Schwinn and Zilch were at the conference.  All 3 have gone on to run their own summer camps in Ontario.  Yes, we are slowly taking over the world.  In the next few years, look for more Cairn alumni to join the ranks of camp directors.  We train ‘em well.