Trinity Western University leadership students arrived last night to a lively Qwanoes welcome with bus horns, fireworks and a steak dinner! This is the last event for the Trinity leadership students to wrap up their training and orientation for being leaders on the TWU campus. Q-Town was alive once again with chapel last night and this morning. It’s so great to have a speaker on the stage again with awesome worship music. The weather is just fantastic! This afternoon the TWU students will be in the challenge course, being pulled behind our three Tige wakeboard boats and shooting some hoops on the sports court. The sun is so bright, the Sky Deck is full at meal times, it almost feels like summer again… except one little thing, our campers are university students!

What a great first week for our very own Qwanoes students! (Kaléo Leadership Program) This past Sunday we gathered together in the Qwanoes Leadership Centre (Pacific Woods Lodge) and packed our backpacks for what promised to be an adventure like no other! We headed up to Mount Washington here on Vancouver Island to attempt to summit Mt. Albert Edward. The purpose of the trip is to bond as a group, learn about leadership and God in a whole new way…. and indeed we did! What a great way to learn perseverance!

Mt Albert Edward, standing at 2093m, is the 6th highest peak on Vancouver Island and one of the most nicest to summit of Strathcona’s giant peaks. The trail takes you through the tranquil alpine area of Paradise Meadows and ascends up the gentle-sloped ridge to the summit, providing outstanding views of the snow-covered peaks of B.C.’s oldest provincial park. With this being the 1st backpack trip for many of our students, it stretched many outside of their comfort zone. I personally loved it because that’s all part of the training! So did we make it? Is what you probably wondering???!!! Well I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Coming up next week is Qwanoes Road Tour week! The Squirrel (Russ Smith) & Stevie-G are packing the van and could be heading to a town near you. This is a great chance to reconnect with Qwanoes…a wild night of music, fun, mug-up and togetherness! Enjoy a typical Qwanoes evening- from the energy of Q-Town to many crazy, interactive events! There’ll be lots of staff from our Summer 2011 Staff Team-plus youth groups from all over. Invite your friends! All Junior High’s & Senior High’s ages 11 (or turning 11) to 18. Whether you attended camp or not…this is a night for everyone!   Don’t forget the Fall retreat season as well!

Our campers are back in school and we are gearing up for Road Tour… it feels like just yesterday when our campers were on the grounds enjoying summer camp! Just a couple weeks ago now we completed our ninth and final week of summer camps – and what a grand finale it was! Youth Camp is always such an extra special week. The weather was ideal…especially the last full day where we enjoyed an outdoor banquet and fireworks.

Sunday, September 4th was a very sad day at Qwanoes as it was the last day of what was an amazing summer with over 3700 amazing kids. All of us at Qwanoes already can’t wait for the next summer. Until then, we invite you to a fall retreat, a Road Tour event…and we will be praying that all of our campers have a great start back to school. We would like to send a BIG thank you out to all our campers and staff for making summer 2011 so special! THANK YOU!

Our students have just arrived and the Kaléo Leadership Program is well underway. On Wednesday our leadership students rolled in from as far away as Newfoundland and as close as Vancouver. We are just loving the energy these students bring. Our hope for them this year is that they would hear God’s voice and discover His will for their life. That’s what the word “Kaléo” is all about! “voice” and “to be called.” The theme for the Kaléo program is “inspired for life, called to lead” – and we have confidence that it is going to happen for all of these leadership students. It’s been non- stop action since they arrived…settling in, staff and student day, orientation, meeting their church they will be serving at and activity training today, just to name a bit of their schedule so far. Tomorrow we will be packing our backpacks and getting ready for our backpacking trip at Mt. Albert Edward. It promises to be an awesome adventure, and a great way to learn about leadership and get to know each other even more! Our student’s year is going to be filled with academics, ministry, leadership development, community and lots more adventures! Stay tuned…

Where else but Qwanoes can you be woken up by a tower blasting music through the forest letting  you know it is time to start another awesome day of adventure!? That’s what happened every day at Qwanoes this week! We actually have a sign right on the main road as you enter Qwanoes that says “Let The Adventures Begin!” What does that mean exactly? Well one minute your surrounded by your friends enjoying lunch on the Sky Deck and the next you might find yourself in any number of places from Q-Town to the waterfront or soaring through the air on the Sky Scraper! You could even find yourself defending the Kingdom of Utasia from total destruction in one of our many All Star Games!

It’s amazing what happens in the world of a camper as they  quickly get caught up in an unforgettable life-changing week in a place built for kids from the ground up!

Another adventure that campers have quite often at Qwanoes is discovering life like no other. This week many of our campers discovered a world that they never thought was possible, a world with Jesus at the center, which is truly life to the full. This week our speaker Sid Koop shared all about how we don’t have to walk through the adventure of life alone, we can walk confidently with the one created us.

I just got back from being out at tuck time and I ran into some campers from Korea! That’s right, all the way from Korea. A group of about 30 students just arrived in Canada two weeks ago and they will be here for five more months. I was so curious to see what they thought of all of this and what they thought of being at camp. The three girls that I met were Jieun, Ye In and Sujin. Right away they told me Canada is very cold… and it was +24 out at the time! They love the big mountains, and said everything is so green and big. Their favorite thing to do a camp is the SkyScraper and they love cookies at Mug-Up! They enjoy Q-Town music very much, and said it is very different then their chapel times back in Korea. I have to admit… our Q-Town’s are quite different than most chapels! Oh one last thing that I thought was quite interesting… they think Canadians say “excuse me” ALOT!

Another great week of Junior High camp comes to a close at Qwanoes – our very last Junior High week of the summer. We are sad about that, but still very happy we have our Juniors Camp coming up and then Youth Camp!

Tuck time is a grand old tradition at Qwanoes! It’s a time when the whole camp takes a break together and heads to the main field to hang out. It is quite something to see 400 campers and almost 200 staff descend onto the field from every corner of Qwanoes. I just got back from a walk around the field and boy was there a lot going on!

First I stopped by the most famous island at Qwanoes –  “Ice Cream Island” of course! There I met Zack who just got his order of a coke and mint chocolate chip ice-cream…now that is quite a combination! Our stores at Qwanoes are really neat, as everything is run through personal Tuck accounts. Our Juniors campers feel so grown up as they walk up to the counter and put in their order at one of our 5 stores spread around Qwanoes.

Walking past Ice-Cream Island you can find Shave Ice Palace! It is brand new this summer to our Juniors campers and they are loving it! I just walked the line and the campers are feeling the Hawaiian spirit as they can’t wait to get their mouth around a cool tasty ice treat. Shave ice can be found on many Hawaiian islands, and we thought hey! we are on an amazing summer island too, so why not have shave ice right here at Qwanoes! Russ the “Squirrel” even wrote a song called “on the island” and he sings it while playing a ukulele!

Talking about the Squirrel, there is something going on at the qrok Tower across the field! I better make my way over to see what’s going on! It seems that some crazy summer staff and campers have spontaneously broken out into a dance party ont he qrok deck. Wow! What a day! The sky is blue, the qrok tunes are playing, tuck is happening, it is summer at Qwanoes!

Our Tuck store was the first store at Qwanoes, and still a favorite of all our campers. I like to walk inside sometime as you can smell the wood, and all the treats… it reminds me of camp so much. Okay, that might be a little weird, but you should try it sometime!

Up on the hill I can see Grandma and Grandpa doing memory verses with the campers! During tuck the campers gather together in their cabins and tell their memory verses to our camp Grandma and Grandpa. I yelled out “What are you guys doing?” A couple campers spun around and said: ” Earning points! Memorizing verses is a way God can teach us about Him!”

And last but not least, it’s a special day today as the winners of “Cabin Clean-up” were announced. The winners all receive an ice-cream party right on the qrok deck. I asked one of the girls cabins who won what their secrets were and Evelyn told me: ” Stick everything in the bottom of your sleeping bag and no one will ever know!”

So long from tuck time at Qwanoes! Until next time!

Another great week just concluded this afternoon. Only a few short hours ago the qrok Tower was pumping out tunes, and campers were running around in the summer sun after finishing our last meal together. It was an incredible week filled with so many great stories and memories. It’s hard to say good-bye at the end of  a week… but I have to say one of my favorite parts of a last day is being in Q-Town one last time and watching all our campers give one last giant “cabin hug” to their counselor and all their cabin-mates. To those who have been campers – do you remember those hugs?

What makes Qwanoes so special? There are too many things to count! But I can tell you a few things that made this last week so special!

We just love kids! And Qwanoes is built from the ground up for kids to experience an unforgettable life-changing week.

Last week was filled with life-lasting and life-changing friendship! Something very special happens in a week at Qwaneos. A certain bond that’s hard to describe… but even harder to forget. Campers experience real love and acceptance by people who really care, all in a safe place where kids can be kids!

Last week was filled with adventure! From wakeboarding and archery to mountain boarding and the Sky-Scraper… there’s over 75 activity options that were in full swing. Crazy games, and great music, wild action and pure fun… and this all happens in a spectacular setting – the West Coast of Canada! There is nothing quite like it.

It is so quiet now as I hear the wind whistling through the trees and really nothing else… but soon, yes very soon those buses and cars will come rolling in again, and the sounds of kids having fun at camp will be all over from the front gate down to the waterfront as campers challenge the swimming test. We can’t wait!

It’s always an adventure walking out onto the main field at Qwanoes during activity time! You never know who you might run into and what campers are up to…but one thing is for sure, Juniors Campers know how to have fun!

Today I came upon a group of campers all mesmerized by one of our summer staff strumming on his guitar and teaching how to play. The camp counselor would show a few chords and then all the campers would try together… it was so cool to watch the kids learning and trying new things. One of the campers yelled out, “I think I have it!” It was quite fun to watch the camper strum one chord over and over and then after a few successful attempts spontaneously break out in a rock star performance for the whole group to laugh and play along.

Off in the distance across the field I can see a big game of Ricochet going on! Ricochet is our newest addition to our land activities and it is extremely popular with our campers. As I walked up I saw scrambling, cheering and some healthy competition happening amongst a group of boy campers. One camper told me that this is the “BEST GAME AT QWANOES!” I asked a camper what the basics were of the game and he gave me the gist: “Well, it’s like dodgeball but way more fun and there is only one ball, you can’t double touch, and you have to always hit it with your hand, I love it! I have played like a million times!” Maybe next time I’ll have to jump in and see how long I last… but by the looks of these campers skills I wouldn’t last very long! I asked one boy on the side what he was learning this week in Q-Town and this is what Adam had to say: ” I am learning about how God loves me and really cares no matter what. That God will forgive us even if we do bad stuff.” That’s some pretty big things to be learning… and the neat thing about camp is that you can learn about God while having a blast playing Ricohet!

Whoa!!!! Who is sneaking up behind me? It’s some girl campers coming back from the beach! Emma, Kaitlyn, Madison, Mikela, Agusta, and Jayden just to name a few. “So what were you girls up to? It looks like fun at the beach!” It was hard to capture all they were saying, as they were all talking at once, but I heard: “The blob! I fell off the Rocket! So amazing! Tons of fun! I went on the Aqua Park the whole time!” One girl made me chuckle as she looked up at me after all of her friends were done and said with a straight face: “There are no words to describe the fun I just had.”

Oh Summer at Qwanoes… it truly is life like no other! That was just 10 minutes of my day…it is incredible to think about all that happens in the life of a camper in just 6 days and 7 nights.

On Sunday we had our first full day of summer camp 2011! Many campers had been waiting months and months to finally roll into Qwanoes. It was so fun to see kids come barreling out of cars and buses with big smiles and anticipation in their eyes for an amazing week. The Squirrel was back in the qrok tower pumping out the summer tunes… and just like that, it was summer at Qwanoes with everything rolling once again! It has been a long time since last summer… but many have said it’s like the campers never left. It is just so natural to have kids here! The laughter, the Qwanoes “GONG,” campers in the cabins, chasing their counselor, eating on the Sky Deck, singing in Q-Town, playing carpetball, and the list goes on!

I was just down at the waterfront and boy is that the place to be! “Castaway Castle” is all connected to “Pirates Pyramid” and you can walk the multiple planks to both towers and even make it over to the floating trampolines… of course only if you have good balance and can make it past others. Many do make it all the way around, but often there is lots of laughter and fun as someone loses their balance and “SPLASH!!” right into the nice refreshing water.

I ran into a big group of friends on the “Super Totter” rocking back and forth and holding on with all their strength. I yelled over and asked their names and got to know a little of how their day had been going so far. I met a few of the boys as they shouted back their names – Ben, Brandon, Alan, Zack and Graham. Here’s what a few of them had to say: “I love the Aqua Park! I love riding on the Rocket, Ben fell off 3 times… it was soooo cool! Camp is so much fun! I love being here with my friends, my counselor is cool, it is so good to be back!!” It was Ben’s first time at camp, and he loved Q-Town and the Aqua Park the most… and then went on to say: “everything is just so AMAZING” and couldn’t choose what has favorite part was so far, which is always great to hear!

Down at the end of the dock I met 3 girl campers – Daryl, Laura and Katie. Daryl said she looks forward to camp every year and that she loves being back, loves the beach, but I was also really looking forward to the challenge course and making really close friends in my cabin. Katie went on to say: “I met Daryl last year at camp and we became really good friends, and now we are back this year together! And it’s Laura’s first time at camp, and I just met her in my cabin, and now all three of us are close friends!”

Randy Carter is the speaker this week, and WOW can this guy keep your attention with all his life stories. The kids just lean closer and closer to see what he is going to say next. We are all learning about how we can trust God no matter what.

So much ahead, so much in store! It’s going to be a great summer 2011!

What a great time to be at Qwanoes. The Summer Family Retreat is well under way and families are spread all over Qwanoes enjoying activity time!

I was just down at Qwanoes Beach and ran into Monty who learned how to waterski at Qwanoes back in 2005.He had this to say “I just had the best waterski experience of my entire life… it is so smooth and calm, the weather is just perfect”.

It just so happened that standing right beside Monty was Quintin from New Zealand who was one of our past summer staff from 2005. Quintin just arrived to be a part of the team serving at the Family Retreat, and he was the one who actually first taught Monty how to waterski, so there was a little reunion that happened right on the dock.

I asked Quintin what it was like being back at Qwanoes, and he had this to say: ” I have heaps of memories from my time at Qwanoes and I always love coming back, it is so good to come back and see people I helped teach how to waterski and still see them going strong at it”.

The Aqua Park is all ready to go and waiting for you. I asked these campers how it was going and what they thought of the new additions to the the Aqua Park and they all yelled back “AWESOME!!!!!” “Pirates Pyramid” was just named yesterday! And “Jupiter” is all in place and waiting for you! (Pictures below)

Soon the gong will be going for dinner where everyone will gather together for a great meal on the Sky Deck. After dinner it’s time to for the “Carnival Of The Kings!”

Just got back from “Carnival Of The Kings!” So many great things to do out there, I saw campers shooting arrows, testing their strength, getting their faces painted and eating lots of cotton candy and pop corn! Campers were running from station to station collecting tickets, because once you received 10 tickets you could head on over to the cotton candy machine for free cotton candy!

What a fabulous day together, and what better way to start wrapping up the night then with a full fireside program. We enjoyed singing with the “Squirrel”, an upfront and center game, silly skits, a deeper time with God and more!

There is still some room in our SUMMER kids camps! If you would like to bring a friend or come to Qwanoes yourself, be sure to give us a call or go online to www.qwanoes.ca. Junior High #1 is just two weeks away!

The Aqua Park Keeps expanding!

Jupiter has landed at Qwanoes Beach! Grab seven friends and take on this floating, tilting, spinning water rocker! Now our Saturn has a rival planet on the horizon!

Castaway Castle Expands! Last year we added the Castaway Castle…now it’s becoming an entire kingdom with the addition of “Pirates Pyramid” Defend the tower or prepare to invade…the options are everywhere. Yes – our Aqua Park is growing again and now there’s even more to explore, climb and slide.

This event is for you! Qwanoes Open House is happening this Saturday and you, your friends and family are all invited!

This event is FREE! You just have to get here and we will take care of the rest… lunch and dinner are also included!

Come as our guest and help us kick-off summer in style! We just checked and the forecast is for a nice summer day! So grab your suntan lotion, pack your swimsuit, load up your family and friends and prepare for a special day of adventure! You won’t want to miss this!

We still have spots left for summer camp, so as you prepare for your trip to Qwanoes think of a friend you can invite to experience Qwanoes for the very first time! You can register right here at camp! Check Availability.

Everything will be set up and ready for a great day at Qwanoes, all we need is you.

Be one of the first to try out our NEW “JUPITER” – the newest addition to our floating Aqua Park!

Head into our forest and challenge your son or daughter to a race down the “Screamer!”

So many great activities! Street Hockey, our new Ricochet dodgeball game, archery, Ice Cream Island, tours of Qwanoes, skateboard park, Rocket and tubing rides behind our ski boats, kayaking, carpetball, Q-Town music, and many, many more options to choose from! Plus our new “Shave Ice Palace” is open!

Special Summer Kickoff Q-Town! We will all come together at the end of the day and enjoy some great music and singing. Come hear our brand new theme song “HERE WE GO” and join in on our first summer Q-Town.

We hope to see you on Saturday.

Who’s invited: Everyone! Adults, Families, children & youth, parents of campers, friends and supporters of Qwanoes. Invite your friends!

Date: This Saturday! June 11, 2011 at Qwanoes

Time: 11:45 am to 7:00pm

Cost: FREE! Come as our special guest! To reserve your spot on our free bus transportation please call or email Qwanoes registrar@qwanoes.ca – all the info can be found on our website.

How to reserve your spot: Call us at 250-246-3014 or email

registrar@qwanoes.ca

“Like” our Qwanoes Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/campqwanoes

More details on our website!

Qwanoes was full once again this weekend with three different events going on. First we had our Young Adults Retreat happening which is in partnership with Ethos/Coquitlam Alliance Church. The buses rolled in on Friday night, we had fireworks, registration and then off to Club Coco for Q-Town. The worship is awesome and Johnny Mo is doing the speaking along with Sandy Colero from Peace Portal Church. We are talking all about unplugging from emptiness and plugging into what God truly wants for our lives. I ran into Johnny Mo on the field just a moment ago and he had this to say “I am really enjoying the Young Adults Retreat, it is so cool to see people unplugging from the culture of this world and connecting with God and each other. I love being back at Qwanoes!”

Saturday afternoon was pretty busy around here with a camp counselor seminar going on at the same time as our C.I.T. (Counselor In Training) Challenge Course Workshop. With so many Young Adults here enjoying the challenge course, there was plenty to do for our C.I.T.’s! I ran into Nicole and Jessica at the Sky Scraper who will be coming to C.I.T. #1 this summer and were being trained on how to send campers off the Sky Scraper.

Nicole had this to say, “I can’t wait for C.I.T. this summer! I am looking forward to learning all about how to be a counselor and supper, super, SUPER excited to meet more C.I.T. friends!”

Jessica had this to say, “I love the challenge course workshop and learning all the in’s and out’s of how all this challenge course stuff works.”

Back in Pacific Woods Lodge our new Head Counselors, Viktor and Anna were leading our Counselor Training Seminar.

I poked my head in a few times and enjoyed hearing all the different aspects of what makes a great camp counselor. Our new counselors can’t wait for summer and our campers to get here really soon!

Speaking about summer! Have you seen the new  Night Game trailer video!? It is so cool!!! If you haven’t seen it, be sure to go online on the “WHAT’S NEW PAGE”“.