Previous Issues
Precious summer memories
?Our cover picture this week, even though it features but one child, has a pretty major story behind it. Young Graeme McDougall looks carefree as a bird, flying across the grass up at the Museum, but what he’s doing is all part of a carefully planned program, created by the experienced leaders of the Junior Whiz Kids Science Camp. Not long after his picture was taken, Graeme was probably building a paper airplane, or taking the first steps toward an engineering career by putting together a bridge made of popsticle sticks.
The junior Science Camp is but one of 20 day camp options being offered this summer by the Township of Uxbridge Parks and Recreation Department. There are 10 weeks in the school vacation this year, and many of the camps are offered for the majority of those weeks. If your parents had sufficient funds (and weren’t planning any other kind of holiday for you), you could spend your ten weeks pursuing art, drama, cooking, swimming, golf, camping and canoeing, going to the zoo, dancing, learning French, or even training to be a camp councillor yourself. When your teacher calls you up in the fall to tell your classmates what you did over the summer, you could go on for hours.
The Township’s summer camps have increased hugely in number and diversity over the years, and it’s safe to say that collectively, they represent the best PR the Township could possibly dream of creating. Both kids and parents love them - the kids because they’re fun, and rich with experiences that will last a lifetime (as well as skills they’ll use tomorrow), the parents because the Township does most of their vacation planning for them. And the price tag is very reasonable; Graeme’s parents will pay only $140 for his Science Camp (actually 80% of that, since this week’s camp is only four days long).
The camps, of course, don’t just benefit the family who signs up for them. They provide precious employment, and priceless leadership experience, for dozens of university and college students, many of whom come back every summer. These returning councillors are the most valuable, as they provide continuity in making the camps bigger and better every year.
Many of our readers, of course, know how great these summer day camps are because they’ve participated in them as students or councillors in their youth. There are many thousands of you graduates out there.
But if you’ve never had the good fortune to do so, we wish you could drop in to Elgin Park, to Uxpool, the Arena or the Historical Centre, and just be a fly on the wall for a couple of hours. You’d laugh - a lot, you’d cry a little (perhaps at the efforts of some kid who never thought she could do what she’s doing), you’d gasp in amazement at the creativity and brilliance of both the students and the councillors. You’d wish you were young again, even for a week, because they sure didn’t have programs like this when you were growing up.
On behalf of the community, we’d like to thank the Township staff who, with the continual input of the participants, create and manage these day camps every summer. For eight hours every week day, you run little communities which create marvellous citizens in the larger community.
Yours is arguably the most valuable service the municipality provides; be very proud of the work you do.
