Camp Big Canoe

Stories

• The Circle of Camper to Staff

  My first time enrolling in Camp Big Canoe, I was very nervous about going. I was 11 years old, much older than many first-year campers; I knew no one at camp and had very minimal sleep-away camp experience. However, the second I arrived for my camp session, my anxiety imminently went away. All of the leaders and campers were incredibly welcoming to me, it was evident that the staff cared about my while-being and happiness, wanting me to thrive and grow in the spaces provided. The leaders tried their best to make the camp fun and welcoming for all participants every day. Throughout my first week at camp, I was immersed in many great activities; got to canoe for the first time, go on an out trip with my unit, share great meals and laughs with my new friends, and spend my last night at a beautiful banquet to celebrate all the friends and memories I made. I left feeling like a valued member of my new camp community, and joyful that I had the experience of meeting so many great people and doing such amazing things at Camp Big Canoe. After my first experience, summer camp became an annual ritual for me and something I looked forward to every year. I continued making friends and great memories through my camp years, with many camp friends I still talk to today. 

  Currently, I am 17 years old, becoming a first-year staff member six years after I first went camping. I am so excited to spend the summer in a great place, with people I genuinely love. I hope to help recreate the same amazing experiences I had at camp with new and returning campers. Camp Big Canoe will always have a special place in my heart. I am ecstatic to go back, and give back, creating a great and welcoming experience for the new generation of campers!

   

• Rooted in Camp

  When I was a junior camper I didn't understand why staff didn't always come back, when I began to grow older throughout my years at camp I realized that each summer I fell in love with the new values that each year's new staff brought to camp big canoe, but as I matured I realized that the whole thing works in a system, like a family tree's roots within the ground, I realized that those roots were the first councellors who ever worked at Camp Big Canoe and first created that spirit that they rooted within those first campers that first year and as it grew although those first councellors no longer came to camp they helped teach the young campers the true spirit and that spirit and passion grew each year. The first year I went to camp and the second and third I made friends with councellors I thought would stay at camp forever and when they stopped coming I saw it as a loss, but as I grew I realized that those councellors taught the spirit to the campers who then gained the dream to be a councellor when they grew up. When I realized this I no longer saw it as a loss I saw it as growth, as I learned in my culture, we teach the younger ones as they shall teach the younger ones after them and so on, we share our joy and knowledge with those younger campers and they grow up to have roots as strong as ours and teach the next generation our love for CBC and when I realized this I noticed that the councellors who came back didn't cry tears of sadness they cried tears of joy for seeing all of the new traditions rooted in with the old, as each new camper, leader, skill and councellor brings something to CBC and I am honoured to be given the position I have at CBC and am excited to live it and then teach more the spirit of camp and step back and see what it's like to come back and visit and see it's growth. Sincerely yours Sonya-Jade Saturday March 4th 2017

  (submitted for sharing - April 2022)

• Stage Fright

  I had the worse case of stage fright when I was younger. If you had asked me to speak  in front of the whole school or perform a play in front of a large group of people, I would have  been terrified. I spent my first session at Big Canoe in 2008 and remembered dancing around  my very first campfire for the fast songs, singing about the muffin man, Bazooka Bubble gum,  and brown cars. Then the sun started to set, and everyone took their seats for the slow songs.  Guitars were brought out, bagpipes, bongos, trumpets, but I fell in love with the Ukulele. As  soon as I got home, I begged my parents to get me one. Sadly I had trouble committing to  instruments, so my mom wasn’t going to buy me something I would lose interest in and they  had a point! Something was different, and I was ready to save up and work hard to buy my first  plastic ukulele at Toys R Us. I practiced and practiced, prepared to go back next summer for  an entire session and pull out my incredible new talent of playing Riptide.  

  I was too scared to sign up at the first campfire, but over the course of the first week, I  had made a bunch of new friends and got to know every staff member telling some of them  how badly I wanted to play the ukulele at the campfire, but I wasn’t going to because I was too  nervous. One of my councellors offered to sing a song while I played the ukulele. After that  summer, I gained more confidence at every campfire and cheese house and eventually slowly  got over my stage fright, and I have Camp to thank for that. I have traded the plastic toy  instrument for a real wooden one and still practice it every day. You will be able to see me play  at campfires this summer with my instrument in hand and I can’t wait to see you there.