Cairn's Rock Talk Electronic Newsletter - May 2007
zoic
Editor's Note:
Rock Talk is the e-newsletter of Cairn and all its programmes.
For the online version, please click here.
Rock Talk Video Edition!
The Video will be available shortly. Watch the website for details!
Each Spring, Cairn hosts a celebration of music in Baysville called "Circle of Song". Choirs from across the Synod are invited to spend a Saturday at camp, share some favourite music and learn some great, new camp songs. Saturday, June 9th is Cairn's 3rd Annual Circle of Song – and it's sure to be great.
If you would like to register your choir, or get more information about this event, please call the camp office. 705.767.3300
Calling all Jr. High Youth Groups!
We are so thrilled to offer a Jr. High Retreat again this year. Camp is always most alive when it is filled with young people having fun. The Jr. High Retreat runs from Friday evening, June 15th – Sunday afternoon, June 17th, and is open those in grades 6-8. Bring your Jr. High Youth Group to camp and enjoy all the fantastic summer activities. Leaders who accompany the groups will get to watch their young people take risks, get to know each other, learn about God and experience the great outdoors in Muskoka. There will also be some networking and relaxation opportunities for the Youth Group Leaders when our great camp leaders offer programming for all the young people. This event is filling quickly, so please call camp to register your group and reserve your spots.
Here's a quick rundown of some of the unique and exciting programmes we're offering this year.
Jr. Co-Ed. – This 1-week Glen Mhor Programme is for children ages 7-9, and is designed to give campers a well-rounded camp experience. Campers will have an opportunity to try all the camp activities, make new friends, spend time learning about God and explore some of Cairn's amazing wilderness through camp games. Jr. Co-Ed is a great introduction to camping at Glen Mhor and is always a popular programme.
Wilderness Specialty – This Iona Programme (1-week, ages 9-14) will offer the campers a chance to get up-close-and-personal with God's creation. There will be an emphasis placed on outdoor living skills, nature education and environmental protection. Campers will learn how to make shelters, build fires, and cook food using solar power and many more wilderness tricks. There will be an opportunity to try all camp activities during this week long session.
White Water Canoe Trips – There are 2 White Water trips offered this year! The first trip, aimed at beginner and intermediate-level canoers, will follow the French River. The second trip, for experienced and advanced canoers, will follow the mighty Magnetawan River. Each trip will be led by experienced Cairn Trippers who will challenge, inspire and encourage campers along the river. Cairn provides White Water Canoes (specially outfitted), helmets and lifejackets for these trips, as well as all tripping gear.
Adventure Camp – This is a 2-week Glen Mhor programme for Teens that is designed to teach skills (in canoeing, kayaking, belaying, etc.) as well as teamwork, communication, leadership and self-esteem. Campers will have the opportunity to take a 3-day canoe trip, learn to belay using a rope safety system, rappel, paddle a kayak and master many other "adventure" skills. Many Adventure Campers go on to be staff members at Cairn and they are well-equipped for the job!
Intro. To Tripping – FULL
There are many, many more programme opportunities at Cairn this summer. There are standard on-site programmes at Glen Mhor and Iona as well as other trips and special programmes not highlighted above.
For a complete list of programmes, and to register, visit www.ilovecamp.org and click on "Summer Schedule".
We would like to thank and recognize the following congregations for all their hard work in sending campers to Cairn. Many of them hold an annual fund raiser or have an amount set aside in their yearly budgets to ensure that children, teens and families have an opportunity for a camp experience. We salute their continued support:
- Beaverton and Gamebridge
- Knox Agincourt
- St. Andrew's Bowmanville
- St. Andrew's Port Credit
- Patterson
- Knox Bracebridge
- First Collingwood
- Calvin, North Bay
- Knox, Sundridge
- Thornbury
- St. Andrew's Brampton
- St. John's Toronto
- Faith Community Presbyterian Church
If you are a congregation who also assists with funding, please let me know. We'd love to add you to the list!
Great Moments for this month:
- Wonk is doing some amazing photography.
- Matchy is a newly minted University of Waterloo Grad.
- Lami is getting married in August!
- Kiwi and Keeg graduated from Niagara College.
- T-Ba is off to New Zealand for Teacher's College in June.
- Chayko is also going to Teacher's College.
- Pryzm is in El Salvador and Guatemala doing Mission Work for the spring.
- Cheers will shortly be traveling in Europe.
- Plake just graduated as an RCMP Officer!
- Nam is heading back to Ontario after finishing her Ph. D studies in Arizona.
Send your Great Moments to: ta...@ilovecamp.org
The Glen Mhor Outdoor Centre still has spaces available to groups in May and June.
As a special offering, new schools in 2007 will get a 15% discount.
For more information about the Glen Mhor Outdoor Centre, please visit this link,
or
e-mail ta...@ilovecamp.org.
The Summer Staff of the Glen Mhor and Iona Programmes descended on St. Andrew's Port Credit over the last weekend in April to spend the weekend playing and laughing and getting to know one another. We slept at the Church overnight and led the worship service the next morning, which was a blast!
The theme of the service was "Hands", and many of the Cairn Staff members got to use their hands and share their talents during the service. Iscus played "Moses" (yes, that Moses) and talked about using his hands to wield his staff and lead his people out of Egypt. Abrigo, Zoic, Diz, Guyver and Dolce all used their hands to make fantastic music during the service. Fi-ra and Fhyllja both performed beautifully with a dance and a song, respectively. The rest of the staff was kept very busy with singing, clapping, reading scripture, passing the Peace of Christ and letting their awesome out.
We would like to thank St. Andrew's Port Credit for their amazing hospitality. We were welcomed to the Church with open arms, and treated to a home-cooked lunch after the service. We truly appreciate the congregations' willingness to allow 50 young people to take over their Church for a weekend.
In related news, a very large contingent of future Church leaders was discovered sleeping on the floor of a Church in Mississauga on April 28th. Anyone wishing to make use of these incredible people should speak with their local Cairn Staff Member (aka "Amazing Person").
You can have them back in September. We promise.
Cairn is part of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, a charity registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. For any donations that you make to Camp, we will issue a receipt for tax purposes.
Our Wish List can be found here.
Each month, Rock Talk will feature a great picture from the Cairn Flickr Group.
This photo was taken during the games on Saturday April 28th. Many of our staff members for 2007 gathered at St. Andrew's Port Credit in Mississauga for the annual "April Weekend". Thanks to Zoic for the shot, and the staff for their willingness to play.
Join the Cairn Flickr Group – and be eligible to win the Flickr Pic of the Month
If you have a Facebook account, come and join the Cairn groups online.
- CAIRN (Glen Mhor and Iona) Alumni
- Cairn Staff 2007
If you don't have a Facebook account, that's OK too. You can always join us in the Cairn Crossroads Online Forum. Facebook is a social networking site (like My Space, but with better privacy features).
In order to run 5 separate camping programmes all at the same time, the Cairn Directors use many resources on the internet. The internet is instant, inexpensive, good for the environment and world-wide.
Here are some tools we use and places we go online. All of these places are free to visit and use.
- Cairn website - www.ilovecamp.org
- Flickr – online photo storage – www.flickr.com
- AirSet – online group calendars – www.airset.com
- Gmail – a great e-mail client – www.gmail.com
- Google Docs – online word and spreadsheet manager – docs.google.com
- Google Reader – RSS Reader – reader.google.com
- Bloglines – RSS Reader – www.bloglines.com
- Jumpcut – online tool for editing videos and slideshows – www.jumpcut.com
- Firefox – web browser – www.firefox.com
Thank you to Harry de Valence (August 2007 LIT) for reminding us to include Firefox in this list. Firefox is a great web browser that we use on every camp computer.
If there's an internet service we should be using, let us know! We love to try to stay on the cutting edge.
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Travis "Zoic" Allison - zo...@ilovecamp.org
Co-Executive Director
Cairn: Presbyterian Camping and Retreat Centres
(Glen Mhor, Iona, Dorothy Lake Family Camp and Presbyterian Music Camps Muskoka & Quinte)
www.ilovecamp.org
705.767.3300
--
Travis "Zoic" Allison - zo...@ilovecamp.org
Co-Executive Director
Cairn: Presbyterian Camping and Retreat Centres
(Glen Mhor, Iona, Dorothy Lake Family Camp and Presbyterian Music Camps Muskoka & Quinte)
www.ilovecamp.org
705.767.3300