All posts by Julie

Activities, Events, Summer Camp

Olympic Excitement Comes To Qwanoes!

Juniors #3 On Now – Then… Youth Camp!

Emily Zurrer holding an autographed Qwanoes "LiftOff" shirt (the theme her last year as a camper).

Today is the last full day of Juniors #3 and what an amazing week it has been! Right from the start we could see that this group of campers was extra-excited about pretty much everything. We are thankful for each and every camper that is here with us! This week has been filled with all the activities, adventure, firesides, surprises, and everything else that make a week at Qwanoes so much fun. And while all the fun is happening, lots of new friendships are being made and everyone is being challenged to live life to the full here, but also in their everyday lives! See photos of the week so far.

Youth Camp 2012 is now just two days away! We have been planning for Youth Camp for months now and can hardly wait to live it up with hundreds of senior high youth next week. It’s hard to see summer coming to an end, but it’s NOT OVER YET and Youth Camp is a pretty incredible “final act” to the summer!

Emily about to speak to campers and staff at the qrok Tower.

You Just Never Know Who’ll Drop In At Tucktime!

Yesterday afternoon, a very special guest visited Qwanoes  – causing a huge amount of excitement! Emily Zurrer, former Qwanoes camper and member of the Canadian women’s soccer team that just won Olympic Bronze, was here during tucktime!

Signing lots of autographs!

Emily was swarmed by campers AND staff  – and took it all in stride. She signed tons of autographs, posed for many pictures, spoke some encouraging words to campers and staff at the qrokTower, passed around her Bronze medal, and even had time for a quick tour around the camp.

She loved seeing some of the new activities and facilities that have been added since she was last at Qwanoes like the SkyScraper and Elevator in the Challenge Course, the concrete Skate Park, the greatly-expanded Aqua-Park and Paddle Surfing at Qwanoes Beach, Shave Ice Palace, the Q-Town Activity Centre, and the Pacific Woods Lodge.

Holding the Bronze medal!

Emily was very kind and gracious to everyone, even when some campers tried to attack her with a water blaster a couple of times during her visit!

Here’s some of what Emily had to say to us at the qrok Tower: “It’s so cool to be back and to see all you guys… I just want to encourage you all to never give up on your dreams no matter what…. Have fun at camp – this is amazing – you guys are so lucky to be here… I wish I could come back as a camper and go on the Blob and do all the fun stuff you guys get to do!”

Emily with staff from when she was a camper!

It was great to have Emily back here for the first time since she was a camper! And many of us here held an Olympic medal for the very first time ever!!

To hear Emily talking to us and to catch a glimpse of all the excitement for yourself, click the play button on the video below – “Emily Zurrer At Qwanoes!”

 

~ Written by Julie Bayley (Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director)

 

 

Activities, Events, Q-Town & Music, Social Media, Summer Camp

Action Here & Far Away

Jr. High #4 Cruising Right Along

We’ve been having a great week here at Qwanoes with Jr. High #4 on right now! Right now, tuck time is beginning and campers and counselors are gathering together on the field. Tunes are blasting from the qrok Tower and it’s time to hang out together on the main field! The weather was perfect this morning for “Wide Eyed & Liquified” – our wettest game of the week – and for going down our giant wet and sudsy water slide “Big Blue.”

Love this perfect summer weather!

More Sunny, Warm Days Ahead

Speaking of weather… the weather forecast at Camp Qwanoes is for just about perfect summer weather for the rest of Jr. High #4, all of Jr. High #5, and even into Juniors #3!

As many of you who live on Vancouver Island and in Greater Vancouver already know, we all experienced a huge electrical storm on Tuesday evening. At one point, part of this storm passed directly over Camp Qwanoes causing quite a bit of excitement. This happened right as the camp was enjoying “It’s Your Turn,” a time when each cabin group gets free time to do something fun together. As the storm got closer, the field was filled with people playing games and having a great time.

Everyone was evacuated safely to the cabins and buildings and no one was hurt. For many of us, the loudest crash of thunder we have ever heard occurred right after a lightning strike very close to the Pacific Woods Lodge!

Even our food services staff are in the spirit of the Olympics... see the message in the jello!

Victory For Canada! 

This morning, many of us were very excited to hear about Canada’s victory over France in the Bronze medal game in women’s soccer at the 2012 Olympics! Former Qwanoes camper Emily Zurrer is on the team and although she has been sidelined with an injury, she has been right there part of all the action.

Last week during Juniors #2, we showed a video from Emily in Q-Town talking about the buildup to the Olympics and sharing encouragement with all the campers and staff.  Since Canada was playing Great Britain the next day in the quarter-final, we sent Emily a new video of all of us cheering on Canada.

Our tweet to Emily before the game vs. Great Britain

After Canada won the game against Great Britain, Emily sent us a new video to thank us for our support and some of her teammates got in on this too! We showed this video in the first Q-Town at Jr. High #4. In the video Emily said, “We just want to say… a huge thank you for the video. You guys are awesome. It pumped our team up!”

Canadian goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc went on to say, “Hi Camp Qwanoes! We just want to thank you for the amazing video… we love you.” They said they hoped to make us proud and they sure did with their solid performance against the United States in the semi-final – followed by the huge win today against France!

See “‘Go Canada Go’ In Q-Town”:

See last week’s blog post Go Canada Go!  to see the first video we sent Emily.

Back to Jr. High #4… Looking forward to Q-Town and the Surf-O-Rama concert tonight, more activities and competitions like the Skate Comp tomorrow, plus everything else that happens on a Qwanoes day!

~Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director

 

 

Activities, Camp Staff, Events, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

Go Canada Go!

An Exciting, Action-Packed Week

Today, Juniors #2 is coming to an end and it has been an exciting, action-packed week.

Each day has included things like… daring to go off the Screamer, aiming for the target in archery, racing RC cars at the Qwanoes RC Speedway, playing with new friends in the Aqua-Park, creating something in Artrageous Crafts, trying out fun challenges at the Surf-O-Rama carnival, sliding down our giant wet and slippery slide called “Big Blue,” hanging out with caring counselors and staff, singing with our band Quixotic in Q-Town, listening to the week’s speaker Mark Batten (from Calvary Christian Church in Surrey), and so much more.

See photos of Juniors #2 here.

We look forward to welcoming our Jr. High #4 campers on Sunday, as well as having our CIT #2 (Counselor-In-Training) program begin!

Camp Qwanoes Cheering For Canada

On our camp picture day this week, we decided to send a huge message of support to former Qwanoes camper Emily Zurrer (on the Canadian women’s soccer team) and the entire Canadian Olympic team in London. Hundreds of campers and staff gathered on the grass in front of Club Coco. We got out our giant Canada flag, put on some Canada clothing, and went a bit crazy cheering for Canada. Who knows? Maybe a future Olympian is in this group of 8 to 11 year-old campers!

An International Olympics Celebration At Qwanoes

What do the Olympics and Qwanoes have in common? Both bring people from many different countries together! After cheering for Canada, everyone at Juniors #2 had the chance to watch as staff and campers from different countries got up in front of the group and sent messages of support to their own Olympic teams. It is very exciting to see how Qwanoes staff come from so many different backgrounds and parts of the world and unite together for the purpose of loving kids to life!

Staff from Great Britain

Countries represented on our staff team this summer include New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and of course Canada.

Hear what some of our international staff have to say about being at Qwanoes…

“It doesn’t matter where we are from… we are one big family… it’s good to be here.” – Sabrina from Brazil

“I’m a ‘go big or go home’ kind of guy which is why I have come to Qwanoes for 7 years and I’m not stopping!”– Byron from USA

Staff from Brazil

“There is nothing quite like this in Scotland… It’s so cool to get to know people from all over the world. Canadians are very enthusiastic.” – Fiona from Scotland

“Always wanted to do summer camp! And we don’t have camps like Qwanoes in Australia. We do a lot more here at Qwanoes than camps back home. We make the experience the best ever for kids so that they will never forget! With lots of purpose every week. We put maple syrup on everything! Drive on the wrong side of the road! The Qwanoes yellow buses are amazing. Canadians are super friendly and genuine.” – Steph from Australia

Our Aussie & Kiwi staff having some fun!

“Love the people, they are amazing…”– Miles from New Zealand

“I love the landscape here, the nature, forest, the ocean, people are so friendly…” – Christophe from France

Click the play button below to see and hear international staff and campers cheer for their countries!

~ Written by Julie Bayley (Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director)

 

 

Activities, Camp Staff, Events, Leadership Training, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

Living It Up Each Day

So much is going on at Qwanoes every day right now! It is hard to capture with words just how amazing it is to be part of what happens each week in the summer at Qwanoes. In the words of Cintia Rojo, a staff member from Brazil, “This week at Qwanoes… truly an AWESOME time.”

Even the Squirrel got out for the big staff beach party! He loved the new paddle surfing activity!

Staff Development Day

Between the end of Juniors #1 and the start of Jr. High #3, we had a special day set aside called our Staff Development Day. This day included a sleep-in, some more staff training, a huge beach party and supper at Qwanoes Beach, Q-Town, and an extra-special mug-up. This was a great day to re-group and re-charge for all that is still ahead this summer!

The big show at Qwanoes Starwood night!

Jr. High #3 Happening Right Now!

Right now just as the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics is about to take place in London, a huge relay called the “Qwantathalon”  is taking place at Qwanoes! Games and events, led by Stevie G and the All-Star events team, are always a big part of a week at Qwanoes. Jr. High #3 has featured events like “To The Extreme,” our night game “Cobra Conquest,” “Planet Starwood,” and much more. Last night, we had the “Surf-O-Rama” concert along with the very popular Kick-Flip Café. And there’s still more to come!  See photos of the week so far.

Now hands are even cleaner at Qwanoes! 24 new outdoor sinks!

New Hand-Washing Station 

All of this week, we’ve been enjoying our brand-new hand washing station with 24 sinks! This station is right by the Sky Ridge Lodge where we eat our meals. Last week during Juniors #1, this giant hand washing station was built and put into action by the last day of the camp. Now washing hands before meals is easier than ever!

Living It Up At Q-Town Tonight

Q-Town is definitely one of the big highlights of a day at Qwanoes. Campers and staff love singing along with our music team Quixotic and all summer long Q-Town has been filled with tons of energy. Catch a small taste of the action during Juniors #1 and hear part of the new Q-Town song, “Q-Town Tonight”!

See Living It Up At Q-Town Tonight…

 

~ Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director

 

 

Activities, Events, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

On A Qwanoes Day

Juniors #1 Happening Now!

Camper soaring at the Qwanoes Skate Park!

Our third camp of the summer, Juniors #1, is on right now! We’ve just passed the halfway point in the week. Each morning, campers have been taking part in Q-Town at the fireside and activities like RC Speedway, Artrageous Crafts, Climbing Tower, Trapeze Jump, Skate Park, and more. In the afternoons, campers have been getting to try out a huge variety of activities at Qwanoes Beach and on the land.

After supper, campers have been enjoying games and events like Castle Conquest and tonight after a barbeque supper, the first Surf-O-Rama Carnival of the summer camp season will be happening! At this giant beach-theme party, campers will have the chance to test their surfin’ skills on the Boogie Board Bonanza, try many other fun challenges, go on fun inflatables like the Amazing Race that are coming in just for the carnival, enjoy some cotton candy or popcorn, and more!

Dancing along with the Quixotic band in Q-Town!

After the evening games and events, everybody gathers together in Q-Town which features singing along with Russ the “Squirrel” and our music team Quixotic, seeing video highlights of the day’s activities and maybe a “Captain Q” video, and listening to the speaker for the week Jonathan Headley. Jonathan has been a speaker at Qwanoes for many years and is here this week with his entire family! See more about Jonathan here. The energy in Q-Town has been unbelievable this week!

Heading up into one of our treehouses! Spending the night in the trees way, way up in the air is quite the adventure!

After Q-Town, sometimes there is a fireside with some crazy skits and more singing… and then it’s off to the cabins for bedtime! Cabins who get the highest cabin cleanup scores of the day get to sleep in our treehouses for one night. A camper just came up to me so over-the-top excited that her cabin won cabin cleanup today and they are going to the treehouses tonight!

As all the fun is happening, campers are learning what it truly means to “Live It Up” in their lives, not just here at camp but wherever they go. So excited that we still have one and a half more days to go of Juniors #1!

~ Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director

 

 

 

Activities, Leadership Training, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

Sun Shining So Bright

Camper enjoying the many different features of our floating Aqua-Park!

1st Camps of Summer Underway!

What a beautiful day at Qwanoes with the sun shining so bright! You know it’s summer when at 10 a.m. it is 23 degrees out! We are right in the middle of Junior High #2 and our summer camp season is well underway. This year’s summer theme is “LIVE IT UP” and boy oh boy, that is happening all over Qwanoes this week. Campers will be at the beach, swinging from trees, having cabin discussion time, in Q-Town, in the skatepark, playing All Star Games, all over in Club Coco, and the list could go on and on!

In Q-Town last night we rocked it out with Russ the “Squirrel” and Quixotic singing a lot of brand-new songs for summer 2012. Following that we listened to our speaker Randy Carter. Randy is a great speaker – full of stories – and we laughed together a lot! Not only are Randy’s life stories funny, they really help get the point across about what it means to LIVE IT UP in our day-to-day life.

Group of girl campers with their counselor Beth from Northern Ireland!

So what’s happening right now at camp!!?? It’s cabin picture and video time here at Qwanoes. I was just out on the main field and saw all the campers and counselors spread out in their cabin groups looking their “campy” best!

I ran into a group of girl campers hanging out in the shade and asked them what they are looking forward to this afternoon… and this is what I heard back as they yelled over each other: “Swimming! Tubing! Night game! Rocket Plus! Lunch!” Sounds like a whole lot of fun to me. Their counselor’s name is Beth and she is here all the way from Northern Ireland. I asked the girls what they like about their counselor and they drew in close to Beth saying, “She is super nice, so sweet, super chill, and we are going to visit her in Northern Ireland!” Beth replied back, “Ah, you guys are the best!”

Here go our CIT's for their hike to "the Point"! Then they slept out under the stars next to the ocean. (Counselor In Training Program)

We still have some room in some of our summer camps and the Counselor In Training program! Check it out online.

All Star games coming up next and then lunch! And then time for activities all over the camp! Love summer camp!

 

Giant Canada Day Party Last Week!

By the way, last week at Jr. High #1, we had SO much fun living it up at our giant Canada Day party! Hundreds of Jr. High campers and staff (from Canada & many other countries) got together to celebrate Canada’s birthday with music blasting from the qrok Tower, Ice Cream Island, Shave Ice Palace, eating cake, and seeing the sky light up! To catch a glimpse of this, see our “Giant Canada Day Party At Camp Qwanoes” video:

 

~ Written by Jay Kennedy, Qwanoes’ Assistant Director

 

 

Camp Staff, Leadership Training, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

It All Begins TODAY!

Here at Qwanoes we’ve just completed Staff Training and we can’t wait to welcome our first campers of the summer this afternoon!

Welcoming campers to Qwanoes in summer 2011 - 1st summer 2012 welcome happening today!!

Jr. High #1 begins today and campers are on our their way to camp right now.

Some Facts About Staff Training 2012…

• About 185 leaders have been part of Staff Training this past week. Those in attendance included a full range of ages from high school students and 2012 grads to our much-loved Food Purchaser Norm Cardiff (who turns 80 today!!).

• The staff team bravely got in the water at Qwanoes Beach last Saturday (on a not-so-nice weather day) and learned how to do a water search in case someone ever goes missing at the waterfront.

• Staff training included taking everyone to Central Baptist in Victoria on Sunday morning followed by an afternoon of team-building in a park by the ocean.

• Randy Carter, a long-time speaker at Qwanoes, was our speaker for Staff Training. Randy was a big part of our week and he could be seen in afternoons working with crews painting where needed during Camp Prep!

• Sessions included Capturing A Vision, Activities In Action, Risk Management, Providing Quality Health Care, and much more.

Learning dryland training techniques during the Waterski/Wakeboard instructor training clinic.

• Over 25 activity clinics were offered over the course of the week – training staff how to lead everything from Challenge Course to Artrageous Crafts to Skateboarding to RC Speedway to Waterskiing/Wakeboarding and the other activities we offer.

• Our Quixotic music team led by  Russ (the Squirrel) spent much time practicing Q-Town songs and getting ready for our first Surf-O-Rama Concert of the summer happening at Jr. High #1! What’s Surf-O-Rama?

• Our staff team this summer includes people from the United Kingdom (Ireland, Scotland, England), Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil, France, the United States, other countries, and of course Canada – all united for the purpose of loving kids to life!

Special Highlight Of Jr. High #1

Speaking of Canada, it’s Canada Day tomorrow and a special highlight of Jr. High #1 is a giant Canada Day party! We’ll be celebrating the day with all our campers and staff and look forward to blasting tunes from the qrok Tower, eating cake, and hopefully even seeing the sky light up!

School’s out and summer’s here… so let the fun begin!!

~ Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director

 

 

Activities, Camp Staff, Events, Leadership Training, Summer Camp

Club Coco is being invaded!

Summer staff team 2012 unites

New staff have been arriving every day over the last two months, but now TODAY is the biggest day with new arrivals almost every minute! Staff Training starts today and staff from far and wide are descending on Qwanoes to prepare for an amazing summer together! One week left until Junior High #1 and then soon campers will come rolling into camp in cars and buses! Fireworks will be going off, the qrok tower will be pumping out the tunes and summer 2012 will underway!

Who is going to get the Skee Ball high score this summer? Maybe you!!

Club Coco is being invaded with brand-new games for Summer 2012

Summer staff couldn’t wait to try out the new games in Club Coco! Earlier this year the Giant Connect Four joined popular games like Battle Top Arena already in Club Coco – and now Club Coco just got three brand-new games for summer 2012! That’s right – four new games to try out just as soon as you arrive!

Bumper Pool – Fresh out of the box (literally)… Defend or attack?! That’s the big question when playing this game. Who will be first to score all their balls and be declared the winner??? Campers this summer will love this new game! It’s Carpetball with a twist!

Take a rest in style with the Club Coco giant bean-bag chairs!

Skee Ball – Step on up and try your skills at another new game. It’s like bowling mixed it in with a little target practice! Challenge your friends all week long and see who gets the high score for the week!

Massive bean-bag chairs – You will never see a pillow any bigger than this! Need a break? How about settling back in one of our three giant bean-bag chairs! There is always plenty of room to fit one more!

Giant Connect Four – New to summer 2012! It has been a big hit all spring and now it’s time for our summer campers to try it out for the very first time.


Try Bumper Pool - this awesome new twist to carpetball! Defend or attack, what are you going to do??

 

While in Club Coco this summer be sure to try an old-fashioned milkshake, tasty smoothie, or another treat from the Coco-Hut… come and enjoy!

~ Written by Jay Kennedy (Qwanoes’ Assistant Director)

 

 

Activities, Summer Camp

What…?

With 75 activities in the summer at Qwanoes, it’s a challenge to choose what to do! But it just got even harder!

Yes, it’s true – we’re already adding LOTS for this summer. At Qwanoes Beach… Paddle Surfing, a Freefall Slide, a brand-new Super Slide and Super Totter, an Aqua Rope Swing. Plus even more fun in Club Coco. There’s tons!

But now – there’s one more brand-new choice! …Ready? 

Debuting summer 2012 is Qwanoes RC Speedway!

What…? Yes, we’re adding high-end, high-action outdoor super-sized RC car racing! Join a friend and race against four other teams at the same time! Each car is over two feet long – “this ain’t no Mario Cart video game” – these cars are real, fast, and built for racing!

Think you have the skills? Well – put them to the test against all your friends and the rest of the camp. Don’t even think of googling for the cheat codes… ’cause there are none. Just you, your pit-crew partner, and the track.

At Qwanoes we always seek to make a week at camp one of the greatest weeks ever in the lives of our campers! Around here there is always more fun and always new adventures every year. No summer is ever the same at Camp Qwanoes!

Come and experience Qwanoes’ RC Speedway for yourself. We can’t wait to welcome you!

See more about our new activities for summer 2012 here.

~ Written by Scott Bayley (Qwanoes’ Executive Director) & Julie Bayley (Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director)

 

 

Activities, Camp Staff, Events, Leadership Training, Social Media, Summer Camp

Summer Is Almost Here!

It’s June! That means that school is almost out and summer camp is about to begin! Lots is happening at camp every day at this point as we gear up for summer. Staff in every area at camp are hard at work getting ready – setting the stage for the adventure that is going to be lived out in the weeks ahead!

Enjoying the sunshine in a session on the Guest House lawn!

Last weekend, we had Staff Leadership Orientation with almost 40 leaders on our staff team. It is an exciting thing to see staff come together from diverse backgrounds and unite for the common purpose of helping kids discover, live, and share life like no other! Our team of Advance Crew staff is growing every week and we look forward to the arrival of many others on the summer staff team on June 22, the first day of Staff Training.

Now we’re only one week away from our annual Open House and everyone’s invited! Our brand-new Qwanoes Beach activities for summer 2012 will be available for the very first time including the Aqua Rope Swing and Freefall Slide… or be one of the first to try Paddle Surfing at Qwanoes!

The latest surf sensation... get ready to glide and explore!

Find out more about what’s new for summer 2012 here.

Speaking of new activities, another new activity is coming to Qwanoes this summer – in addition to the ones already announced earlier this year! We’re always seeking to make a week at camp one of the greatest weeks ever. Around Qwanoes there is always more fun and new adventure every year. No summer is ever the same! If you want to be one of the first to know what new activity is being introduced, be sure to follow Qwanoes on Twitter!

We can't wait to welcome everyone!

 

Just under 30 days until the camp buses and many cars roll down the road filled with campers and summer 2012 at Qwanoes begins!

~ Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director