Camp experience inspires future leaders
Muskoka retreat expands the horizons of campers, creates lifelong memories
A lakeside summer retreat in Muskoka, Camp Crossroads has been enriching the lives of kids and their families since 1980, with former campers inspired to return as volunteers and leaders who keep the “friendship, fun and faith” motto alive.
Affiliated with the Mennonite Brethren Conference of Ontario, Camp Crossroads’ summer-long programs and events embrace the spiritual and recreational needs of children, teens, adults and families. Some can afford to come, but others need a little help from kind sponsors, like the folks who generously donate to the Star’s Fresh Air Fund.
“We’ve got a number of firstgeneration Canadian families living in the GTA who have sent their kids to Camp Crossroads over the years and some of them have gone on to universities and come back to be part of the staff,” said Andrew Hiebert, the camp’s general director, a former Toronto high school teacher who has been with the camp since 2004.
Tabitha Ranga was just one of those many kids whose great summer camp experience helped shape her life. As members of the Behta Darya Community Church in Mississauga, her family was able, with some assistance, to send her to Crossroads in 2007 when she was 11.
“My first stay at Camp Crossroads was truly unforgettable as it was packed with many firsts for me,” said the fourth year Ryerson University student enrolled in the Ted Rogers School of Management’s Hu- man Resources program. She graduates this fall with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and plans to run her own business one day.
“This was actually my first time going to an overnight camp, which undoubtedly meant that I was extremely nervous. However, I am glad that I went to Camp Crossroads as I felt safe and didn’t even have time to think about missing home or my parents, considering there were countless activities for me to partake in.
“My absolute favourite activity had to be archery. It was the first time I tried; and I also tried canoeing for the first time. Other activities at camp included swimming, tubing, hiking, roasting marshmallows at the firesides, arts and crafts, and singing at the top of my lungs during chapel.
“Camp Crossroads is also a place where I made many friends, some of whom I have remained in contact with to this day. I really loved that there could be people from so many different places in my cabin, when I was so used to only knowing people who lived either in my neighbourhood or the next city,” Ranga added.
Her reason for volunteering is to “make other campers’ experience as memorable” as hers was.
Ranga was a cabin prayer partner in 2016, worked in the dining hall looking after the needs of 150 campers and staff in 2017 and she’ll be back at the camp helping out again this August.
Campers range in age from 6 to 17, with the youngest kids accompanied by their parents on Victoria Day long weekend stays and older kids and teens attending that weekend’s Dads and Kids fishing program. There are day camps, weekend and weeklong camps scheduled throughout the summer months geared for various age groups and families. “We’ve had campers who came when they were kids, grew up, raised families and sent their kids here,” said Hiebert.
“The pioneers of this camp, going back to when the property was purchased in 1979, are now in their late 70s and into their 90s. I was a camper as a kid and now I’m seeing my friends’ kids coming back as leaders in training.”
Ranga attended Camp Cross- roads for two more summers in her youth and never lost touch, as did others whose families are members of the Behta Darya Community Church, established in 2003 with a small Christian congregation of first, second and third-generation Punjabi speaking members.
Today, the church has a multicultural fellowship, with Hindi, Urdu, English and Punjabi spoken. It has outgrown its former location and will celebrate the grand opening and building dedication of its new home at 5155 Spectrum Way, Unit 15, in Mississauga on July 7.
The Toronto Star’s Fresh Air Fund aims to raise $650,000 to send 25,000 kids to a range of camps this summer.