Winter 2013 - YMCA of Greater Toronto

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Winter Programs This is the best winter Ontario has seen in years and Pine Crest is making the most of all this snow! Join our March Break program for children 11-14 from March 10-15, 2013. You’ll snowshoe and back country ski on our many trails, play broom ball, build snow shelters, experience the high ropes course and get a thrill on our tube run. Contact the camp office or visit camppinecrest.ca for more information. Summer Camp Registration Registration for summer 2013 is well underway. We’re now 70% full for our summer programs so now is the time to register! We still have a few spaces in our Senior Leadership July program for 16-year-old girls and in the Georgian Bay Sea Kayak and Coulonge river program for 13 and 14-year-olds. Please contact Anne Coleman at 1-877-878-9622 for more information on availability, registration and program information. Decade Dinner — 1980s Calling all Pine Crest alumni from the 1980s! You’re invited to join us for the first annual Decade Dinner. Each year the Alumni Committee and YMCA Camp Pine Crest will throw a celebration dinner for a different decade. This year‘s dinner weekend is March 2-3, 2013. Alumni are welcome to arrive at Pine Crest at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon for activities including ropes and weather-dependent snowshoeing, broom ball and snow tubing. Dinner will be held in Winter Lodge and you’ll stay the night in our winterized lodge accommodations. The cost is $70 per person. Please call our office for more information on registration. We’re looking forward to a great evening! Dates to Remember Decade Dinner March 2-3, 2013 March Break Program March 10-15, 2013 Spring Work Weekend April 26-28, 2013 Alumni Weekend June 7-9, 2013 Pine Crest Games Reunion September 11-13, 2015
Where Are You Now In this edition we’re catching up with Beth Cotton. When were you at Pine Crest? I was at camp for three years in the mid-1980s and held the positions of Counsellor in the girls’ section, Pioneer Girls Director and Assistant Waterfront Director. How are you involved with Camp Pine Crest today? I was excited when my daughter Maddy and her best friend Annie declared (at age nine) that they were ready for one week of camp at Pine Crest. Then I was hit with an avalanche of thoughts — firstly how could I be old enough to have a child going to Pine Crest as a camper! Secondly, where have the years gone? It feels like just yesterday that I was preparing for a 10 trip to Temagami with pioneer girls! Since then our car has been one of the first in line each summer waiting for registration to begin. There has never been a thought for Maddy to take the bus. As she can attest, I’m almost more excited than she to step back onto the Pine Crest property each year, smell the scent of the pine needles, walk the docks down at the waterfront, and climb (at a much slower pace) the rocks up to Kekindewin to see my name written over the carved canoe on the board showing the staff/ camper canoe marathon winners from the ’80s. And now that Maddy will be a counselor this summer in her second year as a staff member, all the memories are coming back, especially the great fun during pre-camp. Boy do I feel old now! This past December I attended the Pine Crest reunion at the downtown YMCA. My daughter and a few of her great friends presented a fabulous power point on their shared experiences on the Senior Adventure Leadership Trip that ran the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2011. I got to see Maddy as a wonderful ambassador for all the fantastic leadership opportunities the camp offers to campers now. I also reconnected with a few characters from my staff days and met a group of interesting men that filled the staff positions in the 1960s when Pine Crest was a boys-only camp. Watching Madelaine and her friends interact with the alumni from the 1960s made me realize that Camp Pine Crest isn’t defined by its location on a map of Ontario. It’s a living experience that travels wherever her campers and staff travel throughout the world, united by our shared love of opening and closing campfires, canoe trips throughout Ontario, and of course the Pine Crest Games! That and our own Pine Crest language are the common threads that tie us all together despite our differences in age. I wouldn’t have attended the reunion if it weren’t for Madelaine’s presentation, but boy am I ever glad I did! For a few hours, I was right back there in the ’80s, remembering that tremendous time of personal growth and laughing with all of the crazy and embarrassing stories. Good fun indeed! Welcome to the Newest Member of the Balmer Family! We’re very excited to welcome Elowyn Shea Lennon Balmer to the world! Elowyn was born on November 29, 2012, to Andrea, Pine Crest General Manager, and Coel, Pine Crest Facility Manager. Andrea will be taking the year off to spend time with Elowyn and Coel is currently the Acting General Manager and Camp Director. Congratulations Andrea and Coel!
Page 1: CAMPFIRE CHATTER N e w s l e t t e

Winter 2013 - YMCA of Greater Toronto

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?