Police board agrees to sponsor Camp Fyrefly camper

The Peterborough Police Services Board is planning to give money to sponsor a participant in a new national camp for LGBTQ youth that is coming to Peterborough.

Camp Fyrefly will bring 60 campers - and nearly as many volunteers - to Trent University from July 13 to 16.

This summer, and for two more summers to come, the police board will sponsor a participant. The cost to the board is expected to be $1,000 per year.

Fees are almost entirely subsidized by the camp – participants only pay $25 each, for food and lodging for four days.

Spencer J. Harrison, a Peterborough native and Trent graduate who now teaches painting and drawing at OCAD University in Toronto, is the director of the new camp.

He gave a presentation to the board on Wednesday night to ask for the grant. He told the board the camp helps build resiliency in “youths at risk of stopping their lives.” “Our job is to save lives,” he said. Harrison said he was asking because he wants to show young people in the LGBTQ community that police care about them.

He said he knows some people in the LGBTQ community who don’t call police or firefighters for fear that emergency responders will be too homophobic to help them.

“I want to change that (perception),” Harrison said.

He also said he has invited a female OPP officer and her wife to come speak to camp participants.

The board approved the grant later in the evening.

Camp Fyrefly is an arts-based retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, intersexed, queer, questioning and allied youth.

It’sbeenheldfor15yearsinthreecitiesinWestern Canada: Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon. This is the first Camp Fyerfly in Ontario.

Harrison said he fundraised $80,000 to run the camp this summer. That subsidizes pretty much the entire cost for campers.

Harrison said he chose Trent as the setting for the camp because this is his hometown and the university is his alma mater.

Anyone can apply from across Ontario, although Harrison said 70 per cent of applicants for this year’s camp have been from Peterborough.

He also said there are still spots available at camp for July. Applications are completed online, and they will still be accepted until June 16. NOTE: The camp’s website is www.fyrefly.ualberta.ca/Ontario.