“We feed body and soul” at Newport Adventure Camp
Campers at Newport Adventure Camp. Photo: CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
City kids not only learn survival skills in the wilderness but the importance of respect
by Leslie Ferenc, Staff Reporter, The Toronto Star
SKELETON LAKE, HUNTSVILLE, ONT.—First time campers don’t know a lot about life in the outdoors including how to paddle a kayak, pitch a tent or build a campfire. Those are the survival skills they learn while in the wilderness.
But it’s rare that a camper doesn’t know how to ride a bike.
That’s a skill parents are supposed to teach their kids as a rite of passage.
So when one of the teens at the Salvation Army’s Newport Adventure Camp dug in his heels refusing to ride the woodland bike trails, Gina Haggett sensed there was more than bad attitude at play.
Turns out, he’d never had a bike and no one had ever taught him to ride, said the camp’s new director. The youth was too embarrassed to admit it.
Once he did, his counsellors went to work and within hours the 14-year-old was riding on his own. Now that was one happy camper.
Helping young people find their way is the goal at Newport Adventure Camp and other Salvation Army camps including the Blaze program for younger kids at Jackson’s Point. The Salvation Army has been offering summer escapes for children since 1898 when the first camp was established in England. In those early days, the success of the camp was based on the number of pounds children gained while there, said Haggett of poor children who were deprived of food.
These days, kids are still disadvantaged. Many come from broken homes and low income single parent families. Some live with emotional and physical abuse and violence. Some are still hungry. They’re all survivors.
