Family Day Supports the Mile End Mission (A Nature Mission)
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As you may know, Family Day / Journée de la Famille is supporting the Mile End Community Mission.
Find out why, read this piece by Linda-Lou Hachey describing A Nature Mission
A Nature Mission, is a project that will provide 10 children of the Mile End Mission in Montreal with a wonderful opportunity to spend a week enjoying and learning about nature and the environment at the beautiful Quebec Lodge Outdoor center. The camp experience will take place over the last week 2 weeks of July and the first 2 weeks of August, 2022, with groups of 2-3 children taking part for one week during this four-week time frame. This new partnership initiative with the Quebec Lodge Outdoor centre will be one which we hope continue offering our members in years to come.
The Quebec Lodge Outdoor Centre is a children’s summer camp located on 70 acres of forested land on the shores of Lake Massawippi in the Eastern Townships. The camp has an educational mandate to teach environmental awareness and healthy living. One of the guiding principles of the Quebec Lodge Foundation, which owns the camp, is to ensure that no child is prevented from attending for financial reasons. As the President of the Foundation remarked, “We are very excited to be working with the Mile End Mission. It realizes a long-standing goal to bring children from low-income urban areas to the camp. We look forward to developing a constructive partnership.”
The camp program emphasizes active, hands-on, small-group Environmental Education and Healthy Living Skills Education. Quebec lodge has a camper to staff ratio of 8 to 1. The staff team consists of 2 teachers, 2 counsellors and 4 leaders in training. who have a close relationship with Bishops University and most of the teachers are recruited from the BU education-program. At Quebec Lodge there are 3 yurts that can accommodate 8 campers and staff each as well as the lodge that is used for meals and indoor activities.
Throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic, children found their realities and their innocence being altered in so many negative ways. For many children of the Mission who were already struggling a great deal due to existing life challenges, the pandemic only served to make their lives even more difficult. Unable to engage them in group activities or outings for a long time due to fear of the virus and public health restrictions, there was little opportunity to help support or encourage them through it all.
We are certain that following the tough lock-downs and restrictions resulting from the pandemic, a week at the Quebec Lodge camp will provide participating children with beautiful open spaces from which to enjoy and explore nature, develop new friendships and lasting memories. They will also be able to revel in the freedom, independence and growth that comes from being away from home, probably for the first time in their lives. Leaving behind all the traffic and noise on their way up to the camp, the children will gradually be able to disarm themselves of the various inner-city and poverty-related constraints that often limit their curiosity, their sense of self, adventure and fun. It is also hoped that through this wonderful camp experience, the children will come to believe in the great potential their lives have for ongoing growth, change and new opportunities.
While other larger community organizations in the area offer camp experiences for children, our members feel part of a family here and value the shared experiences and memories of our community-based activities and events.
The project will be promoted on an individual basis to all families of the Mission who have children in the age range we are targeting for this camp experience (10-14). More specifically, we will discuss the opportunity with parents when they come to the Mission each week for our free meal and food bank programs.
We anticipate that each child will have had a memorable, fun, and stimulating camp experience that will give the children an opportunity to:
• get out of the city and enjoy the beauty of nature
• have their curiosity engaged and learn more about nature and the environment
• learn more about healthy living
• engage more in physical activities like swimming, running through the woods, rowing etc.
• be able to get in touch with a feeling of freedom, independence and life possibilities
• develop new friendships and memories
• share experiences/ skills/ abilities with new friends
• grow as a person through the overall positive experience at camp
Anticipated outcomes and impacts of the Nature Mission project will be measured through an end of session focus group discussion with the children about each aspect of their camp experience. We will also quantify the number and types of educational opportunities, learning projects, physical activity opportunities that took place.
Here are some of the Costs for Camp:
Supplies needed for camp- 12 children x $250 each child - Need to fundraise $3,000
Camp Supplies to be purchased for each child
Sleeping bag
Pillow
Towel
Flashlight
Snacks & Lunch
Full water bottle
Pyjamas
Hat
Sunglasses
Sneakers and rubber boots
Long pants and shoes that cover all of the foot for hiking and walking through the woods
Rain jacket
Umbrella
Bathing suit
Sunscreen
Soap
shampoo
toothbrush & paste
hair comb/brush
Insect repellent spray
Pencil case with pencil crayons and scissors
