Fond camp memories a lifelong inspiration
Woman’s annual donation a heartfelt thank you for childhood experience
Patricia Hart’s stay at a “Fresh Air” summer camp 77 years ago was the highlight of her young life.
It’s her summer camp experience, as a 10-year-old kid from a struggling Toronto family, that has inspired her to donate to the Star’s Fresh Air Fund each year.
“I know that there are a lot of children out there today in the same position I was in as a child,” said Hart, who was a youngster living with her mother, stepfather and younger brother in the Lansdowne and Bloor area of west end Toronto in 1941.
It was a time between two great global catastrophes, the Great Depression and the Second World War. Life was tough for countless low income families then and it still is today for a lot of parents struggling to make ends meet and unable to afford to send their kids to a summer camp.
“If I can make a donation I know is going to help somebody and make an enormous difference in their life, like it did for me and so many other kids, I’m grateful to be able to do it,” Hart added.
Established in 1922 as a “Fresh Air Camp” for boys and girls from poor intercity families, Bolton Camp, about 40 kilometres northwest of Toronto, provided kids an opportunity to live in the outdoors for a week or two, enjoy supervised activities and meet new friends.
Operated for 75 years by Family Services Toronto, with financial assistance from sponsors like the Toronto Star’s kind-hearted readers, the camp closed in1999 when civic funding ceased. It was left to deteriorate until 2014 when the Bolton Camp redevelopment program was launched by the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority in conjunction with the YMCA to refurbish the site and turn it into the modern kids’ day camp facility it is today.
“I was excited and scared,” she recalls of that first camp visit in the summer of 1941. “Excited about going, about being accepted in something new and getting away from the routine at home, but I was a little afraid about being away from my family for the first time. I recall the initial feeling of isolation when I arrived there but like all the other kids, I got over it pretty quickly.”
Hart made new friends with the kids, who turned out to be just like her, with parents desperately trying to raise a family on a single, or extremely low, income.
“There were some kids who cried at first because they missed their families but everyone soon made friends with other kids around the dining tables at meals and in our cabins at night. You made new friends, although it wasn’t like it is now. We didn’t take down addresses or telephone numbers and I don’t have any pictures from back then,” she said adding: “Who had a camera then?”
“What really opened it up for me was the plays they put on every year. I joined the drama club. It was so wonderful to dress as somebody else and be expressive as part of a show. It got me very interested in drama, and later on I got involved in local theatre with the Thornhill theatrical group.
“I didn’t finish high school. My first job was at the Township of York, and then I worked at Moore Business Forms, which was a lot closer to home, and later at Consumers Gas,” she added.
In her mid-20s Hart had open heart surgery to fix a heart defect, and was warned by her doctor not to have children for a couple of years, but being a newlywed at the time she soon had a daughter, followed by two sons, who are now in all in their late 50s.
When she retired Hart began donating her time as a hospital volunteer and did that well into her ‘70s. “I’ve had cancer (on three different occasions) but I’m in remission now and at 87 I still feel I’m here for a reason,” she says.
“I have some wonderful memories and going to summer camp, that first summer and again the next year when I was 11, was such a great experience. Back then you knew all the other kids were in the same position that you and your family were in.
“The food was a feast for a lot of us at camp …And of course there were all of the different outdoor activities to enjoy.” How to donate: With your gift, the Fresh Air Fund can help send 25,000 disadvantaged and special needs children to camp. The experience gives these children much more than relief from summer heat — it gives them a break in life and memories to last a lifetime. Our target is $650,000.
By cheque:
Mail to the Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund, One Yonge St., Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6
By credit card:
Visa, MasterCard, AMEX or Discover. Call 416-869-4847.
Online: For instant donations, use our secure form at thestar.com/freshair-
fund
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