Last week was its final session.
We caught up with some campers and staff one morning when they were enjoying their annual ‘Police and Pancakes Breakfast’, where OPP bring breakfast and hang out with the campers.
Officer Devenish spoke about being a community liaison and his visits to the camp along the banks of the York River in Millenium Park.
“The idea of this program is to help kids be more comfortable around police officers and feel comfortable approaching them.” said Const. Devenish.
The kids enjoyed getting a chance to climb inside the police car and many gathered around the officer to share thoughts and ask questions.
“My brother loves cops,” said one camper named Georgia. “He told me all about it.”
“Meeting police officers is fun and all,” said a camper named Nova. “But I would like to meet an army….like a person from the army .”
“I wanna say something.” said camper Izzy. “Mom, I love you.”
Camp manager Sarah Phoenix told MooseFM it was a great season and the busiest in a long time.
“What’s been most exciting this year is we’ve noticed an increase in new community members. Some have moved from the city who have seen our camp locally and have reached out going ‘oh my gosh, we haven’t seen something like this in so many years. Can our kids come?’”
Peer mentor Morgan spoke to Moose FM about how Experience Camp isn’t just great for kids but offers valuable experience to youth as well.
“For some counsellors, either it’s their first job experience or they’re high school students, so we’re there to kind of help mentor them, guide things along throughout the day.”
Experience Camp is run By North Hastings Children’s Services. According to Phoenix, Canada Summer Jobs provides funding for 10 youth to support Experience Summer Camp and the Town of Bancroft supports through the use of Millennium Park, the bandshell and fire department visits.
Hastings County provides funding for team and programming support.
United Way of Hastings Prince Edward provides funding to ensure the campers have access to a healthy snack to “start the day off right.”
You can find out more about the camp, and other North Hastings Children’s Services Programming here: Experience Summer Camp — North Hastings Children’s Services (nhcs.ca)
