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Summer camps create stepping stones Amy Lizotte, Taiga Adventure Camp director, says camps bring active lifestyles, emotional and social growth to children
Candace Thomson
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 17, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Summer camps are often a good way for parents to assure their children are keeping busy and staying out of trouble while they're at work.
Nicole Enge, 16, grooms Summer on Monday at the North Country Stables summer camp for children aged six to 16. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo |
Renee Lelievre has a nine-year-old son, Leo, and seven-year-old daughter, Tegan, who both partake in a different day camp run by the city each week. The city offers six different day camps for children aged five to 12, and the Ruth Inch Memorial pool runs a Wet, Wild and Wicked camp.
Lelievre said the various camps on offer provide many opportunities for her children.
"From a fitness standpoint, they get to exercise," she said. "And they get to be involved in new activities and situations which contributes to the emotional and social aspects of their development."
The camps keep her children active while she and her husband, Niels Konge, work, but it also leaves enough time for the family to enjoy their own camping expeditions at Fred Henne Territorial Park.
The camps are a way to keep a routine going through the summer months, she said, adding the camps are better than the children sleeping in each morning and playing video games all day.
Things have changed since Lelievre was a child and went to summer camps.
"A lot of them were sleepover camps and there wasn't much in the way of day camps outside of daycare," she said.
The only options for overnight camping are the Foxy Peer Leader Retreat, Taiga's Adventure Land Based and Paddle to the Sea camps, and Northern Youth's canoe adventures, all of which go up to a week.
The longer adventure camps also come with wait lists, according to Taiga Director Amy Lizotte.
"Every year, there are at least 10 or 20 kids on our waiting list," said Lizotte. "Parents call us before we even advertise that registration is open to see if they can get their kids in."
She said she feels there is a need for more camps in Yellowknife.
"There's definitely a demand for more camps for Northern youth," she said. "But we do still have open spaces in our canoe trip from Inuvik to the (Beaufort) sea, and we let last-minute kids come in when there's space."
Summer camps offer opportunities for children they can't get anywhere else, she said.
"Camps can change lives and kids need an opportunity to be out on the land for an extended period of time," said Lizotte. "You don't get that in the school system and parents don't have the ability."
The camps give the children a chance to get involved in activities that might be too expensive for their parents to provide for them on their own, she said.
Lizotte also said the camps increase resiliency in children and teaches them alternative, positive ways of living and treating each other, and helps develop self-esteem, independence and leadership.
"In our philosophy, we're creating the stepping stones that Northern youth need to become leaders."
North Country Stables runs week-long camps throughout the summer, which started on Monday. Each week the camp has a capacity for 12 children and next week's camp is already full. Children in the camp learn about grooming horses, riding techniques, cleaning stables and other skills needed to care for a horse.
"They basically learn all we can teach them about horses for the week," said Abby Boyd, a full-time worker at the Stables.
The camp participants do arts and crafts when they're not dealing with horses, Boyd added.
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