Camp experience spans generations
Willowgrove has provided 50 years of adventure, personal development
For Reuben Nelson, positive early childhood experiences at the Willowgrove day camp are an intergenerational affair.
Nelson, 47, attended Willowgrove, which was then known as Glenbrook, for several summers starting in the 1970s and says he still has fond memories of the counsellors and of playing in the hayloft of the barn in the farm setting.
Those memories were key, he said, to a decision he and his wife made a few years ago to send their two children to the same retreat. Their son Saul, 9, will return in August to the 100acre property in WhitchurchStouffville, which is open to children and youth ages 4-15.
The couple’s 15-year-old daughter, Samantha, is booked for a two-week session, also in August, at Willowgrove’s overnight campus at Fraser Lake, a 270-acre facility near Bancroft in the Kawartha region. She’s at the age where she’s ready for a new adventure, said Nelson, and “is very excited to get away from home overnight.”
He says a particular appeal has been Willowgrove’s ongoing ability to meet the needs of Saul, who suffers from a spinal condition and “who really didn’t express himself verbally” before the camp experience.
Willowgrove has provided an additional counsellor, “but only when Saul needs the extra help,” he said. “This summer, Saul wanted to be more independent. I think he feels he is gaining confidence.”
He says Saul, who will enter the fourth grade this September, seems to have enjoyed his experience at Willowgrove, suggesting that it’s “part of his development.”
Nelson, who works as an assistant bakery manager in Toronto, said he is “extremely grateful” for the assistance the Star’s Fresh Air Fund has provided in subsidizing his children’s camp fees for Willowgrove, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
The camp’s roots can be traced to 1968, when three Mennonite pastors in Stouffville foresaw a retreat for city kids on a piece of land that was in the great outdoors, but still close enough to Markham and Toronto for children to go home overnight.
Willowgrove staff say thousands of children and youth have been part of the programs since then, with many going on to become counsellors or to send their children to Willowgrove. Today, the camp is an independent, charitable association affiliated with the Mennonite Church.
Fees for camp sessions starting July 2 range from $315 for three days to $890 for the Trailblazers program.