Tag Archives: Canada Day

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

Crazy Laughs And Choice Memories

A gorgeous morning on the first full day of Jr. High #1!

Summer has officially started here at Camp Qwanoes and the first week of camp, Jr. High #1, has been amazing! We’ve had a week of beautiful, very warm weather filled with lots of sunshine and blue sky.

Our brand-new RC Speedway being used by Jr. High #1 campers

Our brand-new activities including the Sky Station and Outdoor Laser Tag have been a huge hit this week, and we’ve really been enjoying our new RC Speedway track and new Archery location. On Canada Day we celebrated together at our giant Canada Day party with music, cake, a limbo contest, and fireworks! Last night our Kick Flip Café was open and we had the very first Glo Concert of the summer where we went bright, loud, and crazy.

An amazing fireworks display at our party for Canada Day

This week, we also have lots of leadership training with high school students going on as it’s the first week of our Counselor-In-Training (CIT) program and the very first week ever of our brand-new Step-Out entry-level leadership training program.

Staff Training 2013

CIT waterski/wakeboard program orientation and fun times on Tuesday evening

Last week, we had a full week of Staff Training to get prepared for the summer ahead. The week was filled with instructional sessions in first aid, water safety, abuse response, counseling, activity skills, emergency procedures, and much more. In addition, we began to develop the unity of our staff team and a vision for what God wants to do through us this summer.

Our speaker for Staff Training was Sid Koop, a long-time speaker at Qwanoes, and Sid is also speaking this week at Jr. High #1. Our staff team this summer includes people from many countries around the world united for the purpose of loving kids to life!

Still Some Limited Space Available…

August 25-September 1: Youth Camp. The Ultimate Qwanoes Week… the perfect way to end your summer in style! For ages 15-18.

Heard on Twitter at the end of Youth Camp last summer:

“Had the most life changing amazing week at @Qwanoes this week and I can’t wait to come back for more!”…

“DEFINITELY one of the best weeks of my life at @Qwanoes. Can’t wait for next summer!”

Youth Camp info here. Very limited space is still available in some of our other camps as well.

NLS waterfront instructor trainer leading a lifeguard clinic at Qwanoes Beach during Staff Training

 

Quote Of The Week

There was huge excitement as buses filled with our Jr. High #1 campers rolled into Qwanoes last Saturday! In the words of one of our counselors from New Zealand:

“So I’ve been here for just over a week now and am flippin loving it! In this time I have met some of the coolest people and made some fantastic friends, had some crazy laughs and made some choice memories. There was an electric excitement in the air as all the kids arrived… that I had never felt before. The atmosphere here is too good! Camp Qwanoes, you are simply the best.”

If you’re coming to Jr. High #2 next week, we can’t wait to welcome you to Qwanoes!

 

~ Written by Julie Bayley, Qwanoes’ Associate Program Director

 

 

 

Activities, Adult Retreats, Camp Staff, Events, Family Programs, Leadership Training, Social Media, Summer Camp

Having The Time Of My Life

Enjoying time together at the SkyScraper at the Women's Retreat this past weekend!

So much is happening once again at Qwanoes this weekend!

A whole bunch of high school students and young adults are heading this way as our Young Adults’ Retreat begins this evening, as well as the CIT Challenge Course Instructor Training Workshop and the LIT Pre-Summer Training Weekend.

The Countdown In On 

The countdown to summer 2013 is on and today is 50 more days until Jr. High #1 begins!

Qwanoes campers cheering for Canada during the London Olympics last summer. We look forward to bringing out our flags once again for Canada Day!

Registrations for summer continue to pour in – maybe the super-sunny, warm weather we enjoyed this whole past week is making everyone realize how close summer really is. The good news is that there’s STILL SPACE AVAILABLE in all camps so now would be a great time to register!

Speaking of Jr. High #1, did you know that this week of camp from June 29 to July 5 for 12-14 year-old’s is summer’s best value at Qwanoes? Jr. High #1 features the lowest prices of any of our Jr. High camps, even though it has everything offered at all the other camps – plus there will be a giant Canada Day party with fireworks!

Here’s a tiny glimpse of what it was like to be at our Canada Day celebration in 2012…

 

Coming Up… 

Training to be instructors last weekend at the Challenge Course Workshop.

• May 17-20: Spring Family Retreat. Families are invited to go on a memorable weekend adventure together this May long weekend! You will experience a well-rounded program with something for everyone in your family. A special feature is that we’re going to be opening our brand-new Sky Station to our guests for the very first time! We’ll even be having our first Billy Blue’s Western Carnival featuring “Challenge the Duck Hunt,” “Them’s A Snake In My Boot,” and much more. We really look forward to having Paul Johnson, the Lead Pastor at South Delta Baptist Church, as our speaker for the weekend. We’d love to have you and your family join us. Details and to register.

Thanks to the youth group from Ladner Baptist that helped with pre-summer work projects last weekend!

• May 24-26: Staff Leadership Orientation. On this weekend, those serving in staff leadership roles at Qwanoes this summer will come together for a vital time of team-building and to be better-equipped  for all that is coming in the exciting weeks ahead. We’ll be looking at the vision and goals of Qwanoes and keys to success as leaders. Plus we’ll be seeking to lay the foundations for kids to experience life like no other this summer!

Quotes Of The Week

“Loved experiencing my first Canada day with incredible people at Camp Qwanoes…” ~ International Jr. High #1 staff member on Facebook, July 2012

“…back from the best week of my life at Camp Qwanoes.” ~ Jr. High #1 camper on Twitter, July 2012

“…got home from camp @Qwanoes last night. had an amazing time. i recommend it to everyone.” ~ Jr. High #1 camper on Twitter, July 2012

“Having the greatest time of my life at Camp Qwanoes!!!” ~ Jr. High #1 staff member on Facebook, July 2012

‘Like’ Qwanoes on Facebook or  ‘Follow’ us on Twitter!

~ 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