On Friday night around 8:00 pm our first Juniors Retreat Campers started to arrive from all over Vancouver Island, soon after our campers from the mainland invaded Qwanoes too! You should have seen it! The spotlight was shining, smiles were flashing and the music was pumping! It was a pretty exciting weekend to be at Qwanoes.

The first night was filled with Q-Town music, games led by Stevie-G and crew, and a great talk from our speaker Jonny Mo who started us off with the weekend theme of “Anything is possible.” I remember being at the back of Club Coco with Grandma and Grandpa and thinking to myself “it is so good to have campers back here at Qwanoes!” and I’m pretty sure everyone was feeling the same way!

On Saturday afternoon everyone was outside enjoying the sunny weather! As we looked around it was hard to tell whether it was a Spring Retreat or a Summer Camp! Campers in shorts and t-shirts and all activities were in full-throttle as you can see from the picture of the stake park. What a great weekend of friends, fun and learning how anything is possible with God!

Yes – spring is here so that means that summer is just around the corner! I invite you to sign-up for a week of kid’s summer camp on Vancouver Island today!

Yesterday we hosted our Qwanoes Seniors Luncheon in the afternoon! Many of our guests were at Qwanoes from the very beginning. We love hearing their stories of when Qwanoes all began…during the times when the kitchen and dining room was out at Huckleberry Hideout! And when there were no bathrooms at all, just outhouses! As we look at summer 2010 coming up very soon, it does look a little bit different, but the great thing is that the reason why Qwanoes started remains the same! We love kids!

Special Announcements and important dates!
Kaléo Grad coming up on April 17th
Advance Crew for Summer Staff – starts April 28
Women’s Retreat – April 30 to May 2

Ladies, has something been stirring in you lately?

Perhaps you are sensing you need some time to step back from the rush of life and just slow down. The Qwanoes Women’s Retreat is a perfect time to do just that.

Maybe you are sensing you need to dive into some deep fellowship with other women, a time of reflection, a time of spiritual renewal, or maybe it’s a time where you can just kick back and have fun with some other women, no cooking, no cleaning, just focused time on you. The Qwanoes Women’s retreat is the perfect location to do just that too!

Fabulous Speaker: Grace Fox

Grace Fox is an international author and speaker described as “deep, daring, and devoted.” She’s written hundreds of magazine articles and four books including the 10–Minute Time Out devotional series and Moving From…read more
We are very excited to be able to welcome Grace back to Qwanoes.

Welcome to the women’s retreat and prepare for a life–changing weekend together!

Special Announcements!

Bikes For Sale! Our 2009 Rocky Mountain Bikes that were only used for 10 weeks last summer are on sale for an amazing price! Don’t miss out on this fabulous last minute deal! Good timing for the great summer weather! Contact Qwanoes for more info.

Juniors Spring Retreat (March 26-28) for campers ages 9 to 11

Camp Qwanoes is officially on Facebook! Last week we launched an official Camp Qwanoes fan page. This is another great way to stay connected to what is happening and stay plugged in.

This fan page is for all fans of Camp Qwanoes, so whether you are a camper, parent, summer staff or just someone who loves Qwanoes this fan page is for you! Postings will be happening on a regular basis as well as upcoming events, pictures and videos. Feel free to leave a comment or story for all fans to see!

Here is a story from a 13-year-old camper we received by e-mail recently:

“Hello! I just wanted to tell all the staff at Camp Qwanoes what an amazing camp it is. I had one of the best times of my life there! It was just so wonderful to know that there will always be a place to remember that was so amazing!

I can’t describe how much Qwanoes means to me… Thank you so much for opening up a new world for me, I will never forget it!!! And I look forward to seeing you this summer!!!!!”

Become a Facebook fan!

Camp Qwanoes Fan Page

Where were you when Team Canada won gold!? What a great game and what a fantastic two weeks of Winter Olympics! We had a lot of fun at camp over the Winter Olympics… we had a medal chart set up in the main office to track how Great Britain, Canada, Switzerland, and the USA were doing. Our staffing team is all from Great Britain so they were very excited when they got their one gold medal. And could you believe that goal by Crosby in overtime? That was AMAZING!

Juniors Retreat is coming up fast! During the Olympics we saw a lot of athletes realize that anything is possible as many, many athletes won medals from all over the world. That’s exactly what we will be experiencing at the Spring Juniors Retreat in just 4 weeks! “Stevie-G” has a lot of fun games in store for you, Q-Town will be rocking once again and of course there will be plenty of friends & food as well as a great speaker to challenge you! Don’t forget to share the Juniors Retreat with a friend, they will love you for it!

Qwanoes goes back to school? That’s right – we will be at three schools this week showing the 2010 slideshow. Will we see you? If you are at Richmond Christian Middle School, Cornerstone in Abbotsford, or Delta Christian, the answer is YES! Not only do you get some time out of class you get to warm up with some great pictures and Q-Town music from Qwanoes!

Hope to see you soon at school or at the Juniors Retreat!

What a great weekend at Briercrest College in Saskatchewan! Their “Youth Quake” event we attended was a BIG success. Not only was the school packed but the schedule was packed too! Late night concerts, great workshops, awesome opening night drama, giant remote racecar track, deep worship and Sid Koop who often speaks at Qwanoes did a great job in the main sessions!

Over the weekend we ran a Rocky Mountain Bike and HO Sports wakeboard giveaway contest! That’s right – two people received some very nice prices! We had over 225 entries for the contest, and the winners were Ian Andvaag from Regina and Jo Bird from Manitoba! When we announced the winners we had past Kaleo students and summer staffers – Josh Whincup & Keerstin Giesbrecht come up on the stage and share all about their Qwanoes experience while showing an exciting video in the background – over two thousand people had the opportunity to hear about Qwanoes! Did I mention we took the Mountain Bike and Wakeboard down the screamer to promote the contest? What fun!

Our Qwanoes AGM (Annual General Meeting) was a big success as well. There was a great spirit of unity and excitement among all those who attended. A key decision was made that will make a big difference in the Qwanoes ministry. We will soon be launching a new capital campaign that involves a lot of important building projects. These building projects are going to be key in making sure we can accommodate even more campers who want to come to camp in the future! More details will be coming soon!

The Kaleo mission trip to the Olympics is going really well! There have been lots of opportunities for the Kaleo students to ministry to people. Here is a great believe it or not! One of our very own Kaleo students was manning the entry gate that the Vice President of the United States passed through! She even asked for his identification, but the Secret Service kindly informed her that he was cleared for entry!

More info coming soon! Spring Juniors Retreat is one month away – March 26-28 – we look forward to seeing our Junior Campers soon!

Exciting things are happening at Qwanoes all the time and life at Qwanoes can move quite quickly! Stay connected with Q-Life – You can always come right here every week to stay in the loop on what just happened, what is going to happen or what is happening right now!

Big weekend coming up!

QWANOES AGM – Is happening on Saturday, Feb 20 at Qwanoes! What is anAGM? It stands for “Annual General Meeting” and it is a great time to come and hear the pulse of Qwanoes and be in on ground level information. It will be on Saturday from 1:30 – 4:30 pm right here at camp and all are welcome to attend! Members who have been chosen as delegates by their church can be part of the voting process. We look forward to having you all here!

Qwanoes goes to Saskatchewan and Alberta this weekend! That’s right – we will be at both places at once! Why are we going? This is the season where we connect with students about all the different opportunities there are at Qwanoes, from being on summer staff to being a student with our Kaleo program!

Saskatchewan! Briercrest Bible College is putting on an event called Youth Quake

and there are estimating that there will be 2000 people in attendance. The Qwanoes booth will be set up and we will be running a contest all weekend to give a brand new Rocky Mountain Bike away and an HO Sports wakeboard. As a part of the promotion a video was made of taking a bike and a wakeboard down our very own SCREAMER!! Qwanoes and Briercrest partner together to bring you the Kaleoprogram, which is an 8-month foundational training program for developing young Christian leaders.

Alberta! Missions Fest Alberta will be happening right in Edmonton and Qwanoes will be there! We are looking forward to having our 2nd camp booth set up and talking with lots and lots of people about what’s happening at Qwanoes and how they can get involved!

Vancouver and Mexico! Our Kaleo students are still at the Olympics and in Mexico for their mission trips – last report everyone is doing well and enjoying their very unique once in a lifetime missions trip!

Whether it’s in Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Mexico or right here at camp we hope to say a big hello to you this weekend!

The Winter Olympics are starting this FRIDAY!!!! Will you be there? Our Kaleo students are heading out on their missions trips soon! One team will be heading to Mexico and another will be heading to Vancouver to be a part of the Olympics. There will be 23 students and 4 leaders volunteering in various areas and staying at one of our supporting churches, Squamish Baptist for 18 days – Maybe you’ll see them there!

Have you checked out our new Shine Out Loud site? More videos will be coming soon! Grab a video camera, shine out loud by singing a Q-Town song and upload it today! Here’s an idea…sing a Q-Town song with an Olympic athlete or someone from another country, now that would be cool!

LiftOff ‘Island-Style’ went off great last Friday! There were over 225 people who reunited together to help kick-off the summer, sing some songs, play games and be challenged by a great speaker. Just spoke with Stevie-G and he said, “My favorite part of the night was when the girls fed the boys baby bottles!”

The next day a lot of campers from LIftOff headed up Mt. Washington for a great day of snowboarding and skiing! Everyone had a blast carving it up – some may have even seen some Olympic athletes as there are a few who are practicing on the mountain!

Coming up this week! The Squirrel “Russ” is back in the studio cranking out some new songs for our new full-length all-original “OUT OF THIS WORLD” album. Here is a way you can stay connected with Q-Town music all winter long…tune into qrok.ca every week to hear the latest show!

The new Shine Out Loud site is LIVE and ready for action. Russ Smith – creator of Q-TOWN music was the first one to upload his video. Russ said “I love the site, it was so easy to upload my video and I’m looking forward to hearing from all the campers!” Have a listen to Russ singing from his basement!

I was just on the new shineoutloud.ca site and it is so cool! You can do so many things on the site – uploading your video is easy, you can listen to other people shine out loud, vote on your favorite songs and the site even has quick links to share videos with friends! We can’t wait to hear from all our campers! Check out the contest information link and let’s get started!

Last Friday we hosted a Cowichan Valley Youth Event right at the camp. It was a great event with music, friends, All Star games, a challenge from God’s word and of course mug up! There were over 250 who came to this event and Club Coco was definitely rocking!

Join the LiftOff of fun! I can’t believe it’s already time! Coming up this Friday campers far and wide from the Island will be coming together to kick off the summer! It’s your time and we can’t wait to see you! All Island LIFT OFF? (Feb 5th)
Have you tuned into the new qrok.ca show? I just listened to the latest show and my favorite song is “City On Our Knees” by Toby Mac – what’s yours? Let the squirrel know at the nest.

Are you ready?! On January 27th tune in to qrok.ca and the squirrel will be unveiling for the 1st time on qrok our OUT OF THIS WORLD 2010 theme song. You won’t want to miss this! I love the beginning! Email the squirrel and be a part of the event!

Qwanoes is hosting a Cowichan Valley Youth Event and you are invited! There will be plenty of energy with Quixotic on stage, a night game, mug-up and lots of friends. This Friday, January 29th – Time: 7:00 – 9:30pm – Cost: $4 – Who: Cowichan Valley Youth Grades 8 to 12. See you there!

Have you heard? Qwanoes is having a singing contest as a part of celebrating 15 years of original music from Q-Town Records! This contest is for all 2010 summer campers, so if you are planning on coming to camp this summer, this contest is for you! Sing by yourself, with a friend, or open those garage doors and play with your whole band. Just choose your favorite Q-Town song and SHINE OUT LOUD!

Start practicing now! On February 1st it all starts and we will begin accepting videos. You’ll be able to watch other video’s from there and share yours with friends. It’s going to be a great site and we can’t wait to see your video! Winners will be announced this summer at camp! Go to www.qwanoes.ca/shineoutloud for all the details.

Will you be at All Island LIFT OFF? (Feb 5th) Attention all Island campers – It’s now your chance to join LiftOff! Check out all the details online – It’s about kicking off Summer 2010! Summer? Yes – we are only 160 days away from camp being in full action!

This week where will you be at LIFT OFF? Don’t miss out on this one! Check out all the details online!

What’s LIFTOFF ALL ABOUT?

It’s about coming together…

Russ, Stevie-G, Ken Bayley and lots of our staff will be invading South Delta Baptist church starting TOMORROW. Invite a friend – we’re looking forward to seeing you there. Quixotic will be playing, and our speakers will be Jayson Oldham (remember him from Junior High #3?) at SDBC and Stan Parker at Campbell River (he’ll be speaking again this summer at a Junior High camp).

By the way – you can also pick up our new poster and mini brochures.

It’s about spiritual renewal…

Be the first one to see our 2010 media presentation featuring our NEW theme song Out Of This World! It’s already stuck in my head – I love it! I think it’s going to help you start thinking SUMMER.

It’s about kicking off Summer 2010!

Summer? Yes – summer is now only 5 months away! That means that the SkyScraper, Super Slide and Screamer are going to be in full action in just 160 days. Summer is coming!

Don’t miss out! We hope to see you soon! Find all the need to know details LIFTOFF 2010.

OUT OF THIS WORLD – Qwanoes summer 2010 – Reserve your spot today!