Category Archives: Summer Camp

Camp Staff, Events, Summer Camp

Qwanoes is coming to Vancouver!

Just a few days ago the Qwanoes year-round staff headed to a Parksville hotel for our annual staff retreat. We sure started the retreat in Qwanoes style! We broke up into teams, made our team mascots, came up with a team name/chant, and we were off and running. We quickly turned the conference room into a battle zone with tables, boxes, balloons, and a whole lot of nerf guns!

There were nerf bullets flying everywhere, staff dodging, and shooting to protect our kingdom from other kingdoms…. yes, I know what you are thinking… and yes we are just like campers… sometimes :). When we weren’t competing in our own style of All Star Games, we were slowing down and taking time to reflect on all that God is doing in our lives personally and at Qwanoes. We took time together, to pray and look forward to all that God has in store for our new theme “Live It Up!” It was an awesome weekend to be together as a full-time staff team.

Cowichan Valley Youth Night is happening at Qwanoes tonight! It’s going to be one fun-filled night with lots of youth from around the Cowichan Valley. We have a night game planned, Quixotic will be playing along with a band of students from our Kaléo program, a message by Andrew Macdonald, and of course  Mug-Up! This is the third year we have been partnering with Cowichan Valley youth groups to put this on, and it is always a great night. The theme for the night is “ONE” – one valley, one night, one God. Looking forward to it!

 

 

 

 

Missions Fest Vancouver is coming up fast and we will have a Qwanoes booth set up once again! We really hope you stop by to say hello. We will have our new video/slideshow playing with the “Live It Up” theme song! We also have another video just out today with a brand new song for summer 2012. Be sure to stop by!

Have you received your SUMMER 2012 brochure yet!? They have all been mailed out, maybe your picture is in it or one of your friends! If you haven’t received your free brochure or you want more, it’s quick and easy to order them online and we will send them to you right away!

The new 2012 brochures are ready! Maybe your picture is in it?

 

Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

New theme, new song, new pictures, new video and more!

Alicia, our Registrar (in the back), and Keerstin, Admin Support, were busy in the Qwanoes office this morning!

At 9:00 this morning the phones started ringing, online applications started coming, and registration for 2012 programs began! It was an exciting time as we have been waiting for this day ever since last summer ended. Much planning and preparation has gone into our new theme and 2012 programs, and we can’t wait to have campers back once again!

For all your registration needs please visit our website. It only costs $150 for a deposit to reserve your spot for summer 2012 – LIVE IT UP!

We gave you a sneak peek at the live unveiling of our summer 2012 theme in the last blog post, but here is the rest of the story…

At our Staff Retreat this past weekend, Qwanoes Executive Director Scott Bayley kept sharing more and more of what summer 2012 has in store…. Okay, let me take you there to show you what it was like! The way we announced the theme is with the Squirrel (Russ Smith) at the back of Club Coco ready to press play on the new theme song. Then the big screen came down and part of the new poster could be seen… and then at the same time the new theme was heard in the song, the Squirrel revealed the new theme logo on the screen! Reading about it is just not the same as seeing it… is it? So how about we just show you on  Twitter!

What a great way to bring in the New Year with the excitement of knowing a whole new adventure called “LIVE IT UP” awaits all who will be part of Qwanoes this year! Here are a few pictures of what happened at the sneak peek of the new theme – go to our Facebook for even more photos.

Don’t miss watching the new LIVE IT UP video and hearing our new theme song! Way to go Squirrel (Russ Smith)…it’s another amazing creation!

Check out our new SUMMER 2012 page! Just click on the link and scroll down to find the LIVE IT UP logo. Be one of the first to share it with your friends!

Scott Bayley, sharing new LIVE IT UP 2012 theme!
The new posters are here and will be mailed to your house soon!
The new LIVE IT UP banner looks great outside of Club Coco!
Camp Staff, Summer Camp

Happy New Year!

A New Year is upon us! And that means a new summer theme is ready to launch!

January 3rd at 9:00 am is a very significant time and date around here at Qwanoes. That’s when registration begins and we’ll be standing by on our computers,  phones, fax machine and in person to hear from you! We can’t wait to have many campers register for a week at camp for what could be our greatest summer ever! (By the way, it only takes a $150 deposit to reserve your spot.) For more registration info please go to our website.

Smoke, lights, party hats, music and fireworks! It's hard to capture it all in one picture!

What a great weekend we just had celebrating the New Year with many of our summer 2011 staff team. I think the best word to describe this very special weekend is “appreciation.” Our summer staff are so important to us here at Qwanoes and we want them to know how much we and all our campers love them! There is something special about bringing in the New Year together in such a meaningful way. We pulled out all the stops and enjoyed a great speaker (Sid Koop) who helped us look back at our year and challenged us to look ahead to 2012. We had late mornings and late nights all weekend long!

During the mornings we turned the dining hall into a special Qwanoes restaurant where our summer staff were waited on by year-round staff. It was quite a menu! Fom french toast to waffles and mountains of whip-cream and eggs anyway they chose! We even had special room service in the morning! We love spoiling our summer staff and they are such a huge part of Qwanoes. It seemed like there was always food available…like special mug-ups including chicken wings and nachos and snack food at the back of Club Coco. Hot tub, SkyScraper, games, free long-distance phone calls to friends around the world, Quioxtic, a full evening banquet with an awesome slide show looking back at summer 2011 and all that God has done. Thank you summer staff 2011 for a great year and weekend!

Another big part of the weekend was the sneak preview of SUMMER 2012. You could just feel the anticipation in the room as everyone was on the edge of their seat waiting for the big announcement of what the theme would be! There we were on Saturday afternoon just moments away from hearing the new theme song and the announcement from Scott Bayley, Qwanoes Executive Director. Then it happened, the theme song started playing and everyone listened intently for any clues to what it could be! Come back January 3rd for the official launch to summer 2012 and discover the theme for yourself!

We hope to see you this summer! There was so much excitement in the room when the new 2012 announcements kept going and going with brochures, tattoos, buttons, posters, displays, banners, theme song, T-shirts and MORE! Come back on January 3rd to see more pictures of the sneak preview that took place at our staff retreat.

The NEW 2012 brochures are in and will be mailed to your house soon!

 

 

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Activities, Summer Camp

What’s New For Summer 2012?!

At Qwanoes, we’re excited that it is 2 more days until Christmas – and 11 days until Qwanoes summer 2012 registration and the new summer theme are launched! We’re also looking forward to welcoming many summer 2011 staff back to Qwanoes for our annual Summer Staff Retreat over New Year’s.

So what’s new for summer 2012 at Qwanoes?! Even more fun, always new adventures! Here’s a small glimpse at what’s ahead…

Try it out this summer!

Try out the latest surf sensation – paddle surfing – this summer at Qwanoes Beach! Known as Hoe he’e nalu in Hawaiian, stand-up paddle surfing is actually an ancient form of surfing that emerged in Hawaii and is now exploding in popularity globally.

Watch out below!

The Aqua-Park just keeps growing… let’s see who can make the biggest splash on our new Aqua Rope Swing! The Super Slide has been so popular that we’re adding another amazing slide option, a new 10 foot tall Freefall Slide!

Inspired by the addition of our new paddle surfing activity – we’ll be throwing giant Surf-O-Rama beach-theme parties at our Junior High and Youth Camps, and running Surf-A-Rama carnivals at our Juniors Camps and Family Retreats!

For the latest on Qwanoes as it happens, and for some fun, encouragement and interaction, you can now follow us at twitter.com/qwanoes! We are excited about Twitter because it’s a simple, instant, and very efficient way of communicating and connecting with a lot of people.

We’re committed to making this the best summer ever at Qwanoes – and we sure hope that you’ll be a part of it! Check it out online! for much more info about our featured new activities and adventures for 2012.