Once part of Team Conrad Black, Jane Kelly knows a thing or two about tenacity, challenges and making tough decisions. Since defending the former media tycoon in his fraud trial, the 47-year-old Oshawa, Ontario native was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in 2008. Read more
It's a challenge she welcomes, from handling wrongful dismissals and child custody cases to criminal charges.
But it was at Camp Tanamakoon when she really discovered she was more resilient than she ever thought. Just 13 at the time, she recalls her first canoe portage trip at the Ontario girls camp in Algonquin Park in 1975.
"I learned I could carry a 50-pound pack, that I could withstand torrential downpours," she says. "The greatest thing my parents did for me was sending me to camp."
Kelly spent another nine summers as a camper and counsellor. She credits camp for building the foundation of leadership skills that led her to where she is today. Now that her own daughter is joining the community, she's glad that after all these years, it's still the camp she remembers - where leadership, friendship and "good ol' fashion fun" reign supreme, where phones and computers are out of sight, and where a written letter from home can make a child's day.
"The traditions have continued, the cabins haven't changed," she says. "It's a wonderful thing in this day and age when you're so inundated (with technology) on a daily basis."
Amici aims to send as many kids to overnight camp as possible, especially those who wouldn’t normally be able to go. We can’t think of a worthier and more admirable goal. [Read more]
They can read, but when it comes to functional literacy—expressing ideas, crafting arguments—some feel that students could, and should, be doing better. [Read more]