Camp Nominingue: Alumnus Interview with Quentin Frenette

Watch our Alumnus interview with Quentin Frenette to hear firsthand what children experience and how they grow at Camp Nominingue.

Transcript of the interview

What makes Camp Nominingue special?

I went there between 2012 and 2020, I think it was eight or nine years. 

What makes this camp so special is all the games played and all the activities made for us, to really bond together. We made really great friendships. 

I went there so young that it's where I made a lot of my first friends and where I learned to talk to others and make new friends out of nothing, even if they're complete strangers at the beginning of the camp. And then two weeks later, they're your best friends. Then when you leave, you're sad. 

When you get there, you're scared of being homesick and everything, and then when you leave, you're sad to leave your friends. 

That's what makes it really special: the people there and all the bonds you make.

What memories stand out to you most?

I have a couple. I'll go with one that I think is my number one. It's special because I learned a lot from it. 

I was maybe 11 or 12, I tripped and broke my finger in the middle of camp. I wanted to go home. For a day, I really wanted to go home and I was scared because I thought, “Oh, I won't be able to do any of the activities!” After a day or two, I thought, “It's not that bad. I'm still having fun, talking to people and everything.” That year became my best year ever at camp. It's the year I had the most fun. I don't know how I did it, but even without activities and everything, I just talked with people and did what I could. It was still really fun. Before that year, I used to see camp as like, “You have your activities, you have everything, and it's like a schedule.”

But after that I saw camp as just having fun as friends, and the activities are just there to do together. It changed my way of seeing how the camp works. I started really just having fun. That was my best year. 

How different was your experience from what you expected?

My first year, I think I was seven or eight years old. I was really homesick, obviously. It was really scary. I had my two big brothers there, so that was helpful. But it was still really tough. 

However, I had the best staff around me. ... I still talk to them now. Really, they were the best. For the next eight years, they were there with me and I still talked to them every year. 

The year after that, I was scared of being homesick again. But when my parents left and said bye, I gave them a hug and I just ran off and started doing my own thing. It was way different from my previous year. I was used to it and it was really different. I felt at home even at camp, so it was really great.

What kind of challenges did you face?

The hardest part about camp and sleeping there is being homesick, but you get used to it and it's not that big of an issue. 

I'm someone that has trouble getting out of their comfort zone. So it was really hard for me in the beginning because we have a lot of canoe trips. But every time, I just took a chance and went on canoe trips and it was really fun! Obviously, it was hard for me when we left camp. It was a tough hour for me. 

But once we left and I was with maybe five or ten people, in the middle of the lake just canoeing, it was beautiful and so fun. The best memories were made there, obviously, when you connect with people. Even when we were young, I remember talking about subjects no one our age was talking about, big discussions about life and everything. It was just so much fun.

What would you do differently if you had a chance?

The part I miss is not being stressed, not having any care in the world about anything. I would just disconnect from the world, not having a phone, not knowing what's going on in the outside world was just so great. 

At the time, while I was a camper there, I didn't realize how nice that feeling was and how easy it was on the mind. Now, I realize what I had and now I don't have that anymore. I wish I would have taken the time to enjoy and just have my mind free.

How did staying overnight add to your experience?

It changes everything, honestly. I used to go to day camp a lot. It was fun, with activities and everything, but the fact that you sleep there forces you [out of your comfort zone]. At day camp, you can just not talk to anyone. And at the end of the day, you're just going home. But because you sleep at Nominingue, you're forced to talk to others if you don't want to get bored.

And with the people at this camp, it's impossible not to make friends. It's a great community. Everyone keeps coming back every year. 

I have my two big brothers that went there with me. We've been there as a family for almost 12 or 14 years. We went there for a long time. The reason behind that is just that people keep coming back every year. If it was day camp and you didn't sleep there, it wouldn't be the same. 

Sleeping there is why we can create those kinds of bonds. 

Do you keep in touch with the friends you made?

Funny story about that… Back in 2018, I made a couple of friends in camp. I was there for about a month, and I hung out with them most of the time. Then when we came back to Montreal, I think two years after, we ended up going to the same school. So that was fun. 

When I went to school, I kind of knew they were going there, but it was still really fun to have them there. I went to a school where I knew almost nobody, and then they were there. We just went as a group and it was fun to have people I know there. It was comforting and obviously really nice. And I still talk to them to this day. 

Obviously, some people I can't [keep in contact with] because people from this camp come from all around the world. There's a lot of people from Spain, France, so it's harder to keep in touch. But I have them on Instagram and on social media. So when I want to speak with them, I can, but it's not often I can, unfortunately. 

What have you learned about yourself?

I learned that I can do more than I think. I had to trust myself. 

I remember one story. There's an activity in the morning where we choose whatever we want to do. That year I picked orienteering, where you have a compass and a map and you have to find flags all around camp. 

Then to get an achievement, I had to...I think it took 30 or 40 minutes to find about six or seven flags. But that day it was raining and I was super-stressed because I worked the whole week just to learn how to read a map. I was maybe 12 years old at that time, and we were in teams of two. We were running for an hour around camp, trying to get all the flags and complete it. In the middle, I almost quit. I thought we weren't doing it. But in the end, we got it with a minute left, so it was really close. I was really proud of myself that day. It was great. 

You don't expect to learn things at a camp, but looking back now, I see that I learned so much! I learned to take care of myself. Just going there helped me to learn a lot about myself.

What advice would you give to newcomers?

The main thing I would say would be to enjoy being there. Even if in the beginning it looks hard and you think that you're not going to make friends. There's so many things that you think can go wrong, but they don’t. 

People are so inclusive and there's so many activities, whatever the age. There're different games for different sections of people, by ages. 

But there's no reason to stress. Just get there and just try to have fun and live in the present. You'll see your parents, they will be waiting for you at the end. It's not a big deal. 

I know some people are going to miss home. I went through that and it was hard. But looking back, I wish I would have just focused on having fun. 

Interviews with parents, participants, and alum

Camp Nominingue: Parent Interview with Samantha McGavin

Watch our Parent interview with Samantha McGavin to hear firsthand what children experience and how they grow at Camp Nominingue. Watch interview