A Post-Camp Reflection

This summer was really amazing. While I cherish every summer at camp, 2026 felt extra special. It was a year where I intentionally set out to take in every single moment I had. This year, and for the past few years, my time at camp has been limited to Pre-Camp and the first two groups, and it breaks my heart. On top of this, because of my professional background, I have been generally relegated to the nurses cabin since joining senior staff. This year, however, I was given the opportunity to branch out, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity.

Pre-Camp

In my view, pre-camp is a very important and special opportunity to get to know the counselling staff, reconnect with returning staff, welcome the CITs and new counsellors, get back into the camp spirit, and show the team the ropes. In pre-camp this year, our schedule included a Cabin Night (previously tribal night) evening with our pre-camp cabins (senior staff leading a group of counselors). As a group leader,  I felt it important to plan a great cabin night not only for fun, but also to let them experience what a good cabin night feels like. I came up with an idea: Camp Ozanam Family Feud. I shaved my head, shaved off my beard, left a moustache, and paired up with another Pre-Camp cabin, and it was ON - cabin vs. cabin. I had a blast planning this session, and my staff had fun playing.  This leads me to my main reflection of pre camp - enjoying the process. We have a very clear goal in Pre-camp - to train our staff. It’s a busy time, and a lot of work, but this year I took a lot of joy in that hard work, and I think that joy was transferred to the counsellors. There are the ingredients of a good cabin night - a bit of prep, a crazy costume, a wacky personality, but the real magic of a good cabin night is having fun yourself.

Counsellors at the pre-camp bus pick-up

Group One

As I think back on my years of camp I get the same feeling every time a new group comes to camp, nerves and excitement. The whole reason we come up to camp is for the boys that are going to get off the bus, to ensure they have the time of their lives. In group one this year I served as the sky section head (formerly the Papoose section, and my personal favourite). Over the course of the week, I was blessed with the opportunity of leading an amazing group of eight counsellors who worked incredibly hard, with a fantastic group of campers. Watching the campers grow over just seven days was extraordinary. With the guidance of their counsellors, boys who were homesick and struggling on night one transformed into kids who didn’t want to leave on day seven.  These transformations are rare gifts. The biggest thing I took out of group one is being a light in the darkness. There were moments in the week that were difficult, when the campers were being challenging, but I was able to witness counsellors being incredible and being leaders by showing patience, kindness, and love in those challenging moments. I will always be grateful for the effort that the counsellors put in, and most importantly, the campers will forever be in my heart, and incredibly loved.

Group Two

In group 2 I was tasked with leading Evening Entertainment, which is something that I had never done before so naturally I was a bit nervous, but excited, because it was one of my favorite parts of the day as a counsellor. I wanted to make it memorable.  As a person who has never been the best at visual arts or the most comfortable in front of a crowd it took a lot of courage for me to do it. Thinking back on the legends of Evening E from Captain Canuck, Dude Love, Twizard, Spider-bud and many greats in between. As well as some awesome clue games, epic candy filled carnival challenges, and adventurous nature survival games - there are a lot of big shoes to fill! However I remembered the most important thing I had to do, and that was make sure that the boys that were here during the week had the best time.

As I thought more about it I knew I wanted to do something relatively simple, with an easy to remember cheer, a generally easy to remember story and some fun games. I decided my name would be Space Head Stu, a previously used character that I had done in 2018 when I was an activity counselor at our target activity. He was a space traveling human whose robots went rogue and caused his space ship to crash. We played a version of camp-wide battleship on night 2, did carnival challenges on night 3, and played a large game of capture the flag on night 5 (night 4 is cabin night). On night 5, it was also the climactic space head stu vs. the computers battle. Overall as I look back at the week and seeing how the kids reacted to space head stu, it was a success. The games went well and all of the skits were enjoyed. As the week progressed I was reminded of one of the reasons that makes camp so great, yes the activities are fun, yes the meals are amazing but the most important part is, it gives a chance for kids to truly be themselves. It gives an opportunity for them to laugh, be silly, be creative, be an explorer, and have FUN. Something that every kid deserves. 

Space head Stu in his upgraded out fit and his all terrain vehicle.

Closing Thoughts

I’m writing this as my summer comes to a pre-mature end. Despite not being able to be here for the whole time, I can't help but feel that it has to be one of my favourite summers ever. In my first summer as a counsellor, being pushed outside my comfort zone helped me realize my own potential and appreciate the talents of those around me. Re-entering a similar space this summer as a senior staff reminded me of that power. In my wildest dreams I never thought I would be running evening entertainment, but I did. I never thought I would be in a leadership role on any staff, but I am. I never thought I would be able to give kids the opportunity to be in an environment that they might have never got to experience, yet I am blessed with the opportunity to do so. I also think about the other staff that make this opportunity possible, from the incredibly talented counselling staff who work magic with the kids everyday, to the incredibly hard working kitchen staff that fill our bellies without complaint, to the other senior staff, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep this camp running, to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul who have provided this beautiful property that we call home. But most importantly I think about the kids, the whole reason all of us come back every single year, they deserve every ounce of love, care and affection that we can give.