Legacies & Lessons – 50 Years of Pre-Camp Wisdom: Focusing on What’s Most Important for Campers
Knowledge of the past enlightens the present and, like a flashlight, discovers paths to the future. – Dr. Mary Northway, OCA Honourary Life Member
In this monthly message, the Archives Committee explores a current issue impacting camps by sharing knowledge from past and present camp leaders that you can find in the Trent Archives and use to “discover your path to the future”. Our purpose is to provide insight into our rich history, to ponder and apply to the challenges OCA members are facing today. We would love to know what you think and hear your stories on the subject. Please use the email or links provided below this article. Enjoy!
50 Years of Pre-Camp Wisdom: Focusing on What’s Most Important for Campers
Vol.2, Issue No.4: May 2025
This May issue of Legacies & Lessons will be our last before summer and we change to a new quarterly publication in the fall. May is also an exciting time of change, as winter gives way an explosion of new life and, for many of us, months of winter planning, hiring, recruiting and purchasing give way to a new summer camp season. It’s pre-camp time!
In keeping with the season and all your busy camp preparations, this article highlights some pre-camp words of wisdom about keeping perspective on what’s most important to our campers, from three past OCA Camp Directors, 30, 40 and 50 ago. As your pre-camp gets underway, we hope these timeless treasures from Bob (1997), Catherine (1984) and Bruno (1975) may be helpful to you and your staff in reflecting on what’s important to your campers this summer.
As always, the full articles highlighted here can be found in the Archives Camp Collection at Trent (see links below).
Enjoy the articles, and keep making our history matter!
Diane Blair, Archives Committee Chair
Excerpt from: Musings of a summer Camp Director,
by Bob Demare, (then Director, Camp PineCrest), OCAsional News, June 1997
…When it comes down to it, all children have something at which they can be successful. Finding that something and encouraging its growth is one of the most incredible things we can do. Think of your role with children this summer. We have countless opportunities to “catch” children doing something right. Beyond fostering success, our camps, have much to teach beyond the “program”. Psychologist Daniel Goleman describes the “competencies” that camps can give children: “…competencies to learn to wait, learn to work with others, learn to compromise, learn to tolerate a greater level of frustration, learn to persevere, ask for help, learn to recognize ones own feelings, recognize the emotional reactions of others, positively express feelings, balance individual needs against the group’s, and assess risk”. Developing these in children is a fantastic opportunity for us all!
Excerpt from: Focus on Pre-Camp: The Camper! A Letter for Pause and Reflection
by Catherine Ross, (HLM, then Camp Mi-A-Kon-Da), Canadian Camping Magazine, Vol3, no2, 1984 Summer,
Pre-Camp ’83 was progressing much the same as any other… Amidst the hive of activity a letter arrived. Hurrying to the dining room in response to the bell, I tore it open… The words brought me to a halt on the path. (It) was from a lifetime friend, Linda, whose eight year old daughter was due to arrive for her first residential camping experience.
On reading the letter, my first reaction was one of humility and apprehension. ‘How dare I presume to accept such an awesome responsibility?’ But I quickly remembered that I was not carrying this burden alone. It is one that I share with a caring and competent staff. As my confidence and ego resurfaced I thought – we are accepting a grave responsibility presuming to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of each camper, but what a privilege to influence and shape the lives of these eager young people. In a final effort to put all our preparations into perspective, I shared Linda’s letter with my staff. Let me share the letter with you.
‘You and I go back a lot of years. We have been campers and counsellors together and shared the burden on a portage. I feel now I can share some of my ‘first year mother’ anxieties with you. I know it will be helpful for me if you know them, and perhaps might be helpful for you in anticipating and understanding some of the thoughts that I’m sure are not unique only to this mother.
There is still time to prepare Jennifer well physically. Her clothes will be plentiful, clean and well labelled. Her flashlight will have new batteries – the best, so as not to burn out. Her notepaper will include stamped, addressed envelopes home! Knowing I have time to do this with her before she leaves pleases me and makes me feel useful.
There is not enough time left for me to prepare her well emotionally. Then again – maybe she is – maybe I’m not! I wonder about such motherly things as: who will understand when she has trouble sleeping at night that an extra hug and kiss will soon bring pleasant dreams? Who will understand how to deal with her shattered world if she receives a rebuff from her peers or idolized counsellor? Who will give her the much needed and cherished praise for a job well done or new challenge met? Who will be able to determine if a hurt is really physical or a cry for emotional uplifting? For the next two weeks, who will nourish and mother her if I am not there? These next two weeks will change and mould her as no other two weeks in her life! I truly believe the who will be you and your hand-picked staff.
Each camper is a special person to his parents and family. In his time at camp it is our responsibility to continue the nurturing and development of these beloved children. We can do this by attending to each child individually, listening to him and sharing with him at some point in each day, whether he demands it or not, some of our time. By doing so we show him that we care and we reinforce his positive self image. Let us commit ourselves to do our very best for all the Jennifers and Johnnys now packing their suitcases, excited and a little apprehensive (about) camp.
Excerpt from: The Importance of the Unimportant,
by Bruno Morawetz, (HLM, Camp Ponacka), Canadian Camping Magazine, June 1975
Everyone has had the experience of getting uptight about something which at a later time proved to be of very little consequence. It is useful to maintain the kind of perspective in which the things of lasting importance are given their proper due. …If one is not to swing aimlessly on the pendulum of public opinion, one must have some definite convictions about the important and the unimportant things in life.
I am starting from the assumption that the only thing which is important to a human being is what happens to his inside. The inner life (is) referred to by various terms, in English “soul”, in Greek “psyche”. A camp director who does not gear his camp to the inner life of his campers and staff will not be accomplishing what is most desirable. Most camp directors know that their camp has a special mystique, which makes camp what it is — a place set apart, an oasis for thirsty souls. … It exists because, in the intimate atmosphere of camp life, the souls of all impinge on each other. In most camps, the director unconsciously gives guidance to his camp mystique, hence it is true that a camp is the expression of the individual who runs it.
It is well to remember that, just as life consists of minute moments, a camper’s 14-hour day consists of hundreds of minute incidents. His 14-day sojourn is made up of thousands of small incidents, …It is these seemingly unimportant moments which make or break his camping experience. During these thousands of seconds, the doors to the soul, the senses, are on full alert. How frightfully important that the eyes should see beauty, that the ears hear pleasant sounds. How important the warm touch of a friendly hand, … Many people live under the illusion that on some day, at some moment, from somewhere, will come some great event which will reveal to them the meaning of their life. Such moments rarely come. Far better that we should recognize the holiness of each moment…
In a good camp, …where there is honesty and trust and genuineness among people, the inner life of every person will be soothed and helped. How important are these unimportant things? How much of the director’s time is spent on these?
Are we, the gardeners of our campers’ souls, sufficiently tuned in to these subtle ways of communicating? …A good counsellor needs ears tuned to the ripples of a child. He needs more the ability to listen than the skill to teach. If a counsellor’s time is too important to share in the discovery of some unimportant beetle, will he be good for the child’s inner life?
…If it is true that these subtle influences are of the greatest importance, the director might be wise to delegate the “important” things, like daily routines, maintenance, buying etc. to a member of his staff. It might be the right thing to keep himself free for all those “unimportant” things like being free to talk to a camper on the path or tell a bedtime story to one little group. I found a poem in my files, I don’t know where it came from or who wrote it but perhaps it will convey what I have striven to say…
“I took a piece of human clay
And gently formed it day by day
And molded with my skill and art
A young child’s soft and yielding heart.
It came again when days were gone
It was a man I gazed upon
The form I gave him still he bore
But I could change him nevermore.”
Pondering the past, present and future…
- How is this information from the past relevant to you now? How can you apply it to future actions?
- We invite you to add your comments, share your camp’s story on this topic, or ask your questions by contacting the Archives Committee at OCAarchivescommittee@yahoo.com
- To learn more about these and other valuable OCA camp archives, visit Trent Archives or contact Trent Archives Head Archivist, Special Collections at karensuurtamm@trentu.ca.
- For tips about archiving and donating your camp history to the Trent Archives, click here.
- Keep discovering and making our history matter!
For past Legacies & Lessons, please visit the OCA Committees Blog under OCA the Communications tab in the Members Portal.