Help Us Celebrate our 50th Summer
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Wah Tay Ho Updates - May 5, 2010 |
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On Sunday, May 2 the first of our Spring Crew arrived at Camp - a group of University students committed to being here from now until the end of the summer. Many of you, yourselves, will remember being a part of what we used to call Spring Work Party, but now call our Spring Crew...spending the warm, buggy days of May and June helping us get the site ready for our summer campers and program: scraping; sanding; painting; moving canoes; painting; chopping, chipping, splitting, and distributing wood; painting; seeding and sodding; painting; staining; raking; swatting (and sometimes swallowing) blackflies and mosquitos...and painting. There is something almost therapeutic about finishing one's final exams and then coming to this place we all love, working alongside people we all love, and working with one's hands...doing something purely physical...not to mention the excitement and pride that comes from seeing the fruits of one's labour everyday for the rest of the spring and summer ("Hey, see that cabin? I painted that!"). In the photo at the top, is part of the Spring Work Party from 1979 - you may recognize Billy Richer, Jim Knowlton, Gary Rasberry, Geoff Gibbs, and Terry Finucan, doing some yard work near the Pump House at the Canoe Beach...who knows what the rope is for, but it reminds me of the string that primary children hold onto whenever they're on a field trip, so that they all stay together and safe! On the bottom is a shot of our Spring Crew from May 2009: Jocelyn Gibbs (daughter of Geoff and Janice, granddaughter of Brian and Marianne), Alice Shipton, Stephen "Archie" Ross, Bobby Crowe (the Spring Crew Supervisor for 2008 and 2009), Jasmine Green (niece of Terry Beck), Dave Richardson, and Ceccha Cacchione (daughter of Barbara Beach and granddaugther of John and Evelyn Beach)...missing is TJ Clark. You can see how much fun spring work is - despite the bugs!!
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- Jack and Helen Pearse have officially registered for the July 3/4 Staff Reunion and will be coming to stay at the Taj...and, we hope, Jack will lead a little singing on Saturday night with some special guests! This is one of the most exciting pieces of 50th Anniversary news since the celebration began at the beginning of this year!
- For any among you who are still considering registering for the 50th Reunion in July, please do so SOON, as it will be fairly soon that the number of registrants exceeds our ability to feed you all. Register here!
- In other registration news, we hit the 1000-campers-registered mark for this coming summer, a month earlier this year than last! If you have any thought to send a camper to Tawingo for this summer, we encourage you to make that choice quickly!
- 50th Anniversary clothing is now available for order ! To order all kinds of different clothing items, simply click here. There you will be able to view actual people wearing the actual items available to all of you - including the different colours! We're a little out-of-sorts that Positive Identity didn't call one or all of us, here at Camp, to act as models...perhaps they thought that they wouldn't be able to keep up with the demand if they had!
- Last Friday, Tawingo College held a Spring Luncheon and Assembly to which our College families were invited. After a sumptuous lunch (which included our famous Tawingo cookies) families made their way to Laughton Hall to be treated to a presentation from each grade on just a few of the things they have been doing this term - such things as G-8 World Issues Posters, Soap Stone carving, stop-animation movies, yoga, an original song written for the guitar, original puppet shows, a performance by the choir, eco-gifts made from re-used and recycled materials, gardening projects, the "Happiness" recording project, medieval projects, and a slide show of all of the eco-projects that earned us Gold Medal status from Ontario Eco-Schools (e.g., verma-composting, gardening, outdoor pursuits such as biking and canoeing, cross-country skiing and a biathlon, the streaming of recycled goods, car-pooling, the bio-diversity game, an eco-newsletter, and so on, and so on). One of our parents leaned over to me during the slide show and said, "Can you believe how lucky our kids are to go to this school?" How nice...
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TFTD (Thought for the Day): Each morning in the summer in the Chapel someone at Camp leads us in a Thought for the Day. It may be a song, skit, poem, reading or other presentation:
In 1985, Dana Coleman - our "Herman, the Health Bug" (a.k.a., Public Health Supervisor) for that summer, stepped to the Chapel podium and delivered this thought to us all:
To us, the egg seems so fragile an object - so easy to break open.
The slightest crack and it is broken.
Yet, to a soon-to-be-hatched bird inside that egg, it is the greatest struggle in life.
That thin shell separates that baby bird from life and the world.
And it takes every bit of strength and courage that bird has to break through that shell.
Each of us finds some things in life a struggle. What is an easy task for one person might prove really difficult for someone else. We must all try to be aware of each other's ability and strengths. With each other's help, we can all break through our shells and fly.
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Story behind the Picture: Each week, some of us review a couple of trays full of the thousands of slides and pictures we have collected over the years. Invariably they trigger tangential memories and stories:
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In 1963, Tawingo sent out its first Voyageur Adventure, a canoe trip that - as so many of you know first-hand – is designed for our oldest boys who have achieved a FOX Crest. In 1968, we began the same program for Girls’ Camp in a trip we call the Wilderness Journey. Both trips have been running every summer since! We have endeavoured, over those years, to send our VAs and WJs to some pristine part of Ontario or Quebec to enjoy their 21-day (now 15-day) wilderness tripping experience. Quetico, Temagami, and Algonquin Park have all been destinations. For the past three decades (with a few exceptions) we have gone to the Kipawa Forest Reserve in Quebec. So…in looking at the photo above, of our very first VA, it might cross your mind, “What pristine wilderness setting is this?” Why, Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, no less!! Just look at all the greenery! Yes, our very first VA in 1963 travelled a section of the Ottawa River. It began, however, in Algonquin Park at Kawawaymog Lake, wound its way to and down the Petawawa River and eventually on to the Bonnechere and Ottawa Rivers. Three things worthy of note: 1) between Cedar Lake and Grand Lake on the Petawawa, the river was swollen with rapids…not wanting to damage, in any way, the brand new, Northland, cedar-strip canoes, the leaders arranged for the canoes to be "portaged" on a wee freight train – the canoes in the baggage half, the boys in the seating half – all the way to Clemow Lake; 2) while travelling through Renfrew on the Bonnechere River, to avoid a dam in town, the boys portaged their canoes right down main street; and 3) the trip finished on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa at Lansdowne Park during the Central Canadian Expo…and was met, dockside, by the Mayor of Ottawa, himself – Mr. Don Reid! Can-oe believe it? In the photo above, the lads have just brought their canoes up from the Canal in order to get them ready to go back on the trailer for the return journey to Camp. The gentleman with his hands on his hips under the sign for Gate 10, is Bob Edwards, who led the trip with his Dad, the late (great) Jake Edwards. Bob is coming to the 50th Staff Reunion in July. Two of the campers on that trip – Bob Brown and Bill Houston – are also coming to the 50th Reunion! How exciting it will be for those who are leading this year’s VA and WJ to have a chance to visit with three of the originals from 1963. Such is the magic of Camp and Reunions!
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Banquet Speech: The last night Banquet Program has taken many forms over the years. Recently, we began preserving some of the camper and staff speeches for posterity.
Jamie Morton - First Session 2007, cabin 22.
Hey, has anyone heard about the excellent farmer? He was outstanding in his field! This is the joke I’ve heard I don’t know how many times from my Algonkin Circle Director Dan Simmons. But no matter how many times I hear it, the joke never gets old. This is much the same as Camp Tawingo, and how it is never dull, and always exciting. Every year I come back there is something new and fun to do. But at the same time, the old things I always love about Camp are still present.
This year did not disappoint. There are so many aspects of the Algonkin Circle that make it outstanding, but you can never really understand this until you are in the Circle. Things like Roast Out, The Alwonikin, Gonk/Uga Sticks, The Boy Band theme and even All Boys' Program have been huge contributions to making this session one to never forget...
We all make memories at Camp. They all mean different thing to different people, but the one thing that stays constant is the fact that everyone loves this place...people grow and people change but everyone leaves with the memories they had here at Camp Tawingo. I just hope that all of your memories were as amazing as mine were.
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Links
Events Page
Facebook Exchange: Tawingo (open to all), Tawingo Alumni Circle (open to staff)
Memory, Message and Reminiscing
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