Rock Talk - Our Cairn Newsletter

Rock Talk - April 2007

The full edition is now available.  Here's the file in .PDF.

Download rock_talk_april_2007.pdf

Rock Talk April - Video Edition!

Here is our Video Edition! (There is sound, too!)

There will still be a text edition every month.  The video is just a colourful way to share the news.

Tri State Camping Conference

Zoic and Topaz and Taps and Snap all had a big adventure when we went to Atlantic City, NJ for a very large camping conference called Tri State.  In the few hours when we weren’t in sessions and conference rooms, we wandered the Boardwalk, saw a fancy water and light show, shopped at a few outlet stores and spent time with camping professionals from all over North America.  It was a really great experience.

Tri State is the largest gathering of camp professionals in the world.  Close to 4000 attendees bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to share and the result is pretty amazing.  To see some photos of the trip, watch the Video Newsletter!

Summer Session Highlights

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 be an opportunity to try all 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 tripping gear.

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

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, visit www.ilovecamp.org and click on “Summer Schedule”.

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 raiser 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

• St. Andrew’s Brampton

• St. John’s Toronto

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 - April 2007

Great Moments for this month:

• Zoic, Topaz, Taps and Snap attended the Tri-State Camping Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  It was pretty fantastic.

• Hallah welcomed twin boys (Jack and Harrison) on April 3^rd, 2007.  Ciaran is very excited to have more nephews to dote upon.

• Drite and Echidna are both getting married.

• Athens was in a photograph in the latest issue of The Presbyterian Record (check the back page).

Send your Great Moments to: taps@ilovecamp.org

St. Andrew's Port Credit

On April 28^th and 29^th, the Cairn Staff of 2007 will gather in Mississauga for a weekend of fellowship and fun.  Our annual April Weekend is the first time that the entire staff has an opportunity to be together, and is a great deal of fun.

If you’d like to join the fun, we’re leading the worship service at St. Andrew’s Memorial Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning.  We would love to see you there!  The Church’s website (with directions) is: http://www.standrewsportcredit.ca/.

We would also like to thank the congregation of St. Andrew’s Port Credit for hosting this event.  It is a leap of faith for them to let 60 teenagers sleep on the floor of the Church overnight, and we appreciate their hospitality.

LIT Day 2007

On Saturday, March 24^th, all LIT hopefuls for 2007 gathered at Morningside – High Park Presbyterian Church in Toronto.  Over the course of a few hours we played tag, built a comprehensive barnyard, lined up according to shoe size, chose between coke and pepsi, created large posters, had a business meeting, wrote poetry, practiced our silly walks, solved tricky riddles and many other standard leadership activities.  It was awesome!  To see some photos of our day, watch the Video Newsletter.

Flickr Pic of the Month - April 2007

Each month, Rock Talk will feature a great picture from the Cairn Flickr Group.

This month, “thumbs” is the winner.  It was taken at LIT Day (the photographer is unknown), and is a really nice shot.

Join the Cairn Flickr Group – and be eligible to win the Flickr Pic of the Month

Cairn on the Internet

In order to run 5 separate camping programmes all at the same time, the Cairn Directors use many resources on the internet.  The internet is instant, inexpensive, good for the environment and world-wide.

Here are some tools we use and places we go online.  All of these places are free to visit and use.

• Cairn website - www.ilovecamp.org

• Flickr – online photo storage – www.flickr.com

• AirSet – online group calendars – www.airset.com

• Gmail – a great e-mail client – www.gmail.com

• Google Docs – online word and spreadsheet manager – docs.google.com

• Google Reader – RSS Reader – reader.google.com

• Bloglines – RSS Reader – www.bloglines.com

• Jumpcut – online tool for editing videos and slideshows – www.jumpcut.com

If there’s an internet service we should be using, let us know!  We love to try to stay on the cutting edge.