How Arowhon Supports
The Environment
"We believe that interest in nature leads to knowledge, which is followed by understanding, and later, appreciation. Once respect is gained, it is a short step to responsibility, and ultimately action to preserve the Earth."
- Ian Player
Arowhon has a dual commitment to the environment: To inspire children to become environmental stewards, and to live lightly on the earth.
In camp we teach our campers to avoid food waste, to separate recycling and garbage in their cabins, and turn out the lights when they leave the cabin. We "gamify" environmental stewardship by awarding cabins for these activities as part of our Cabin Clean Up Competition.
In the dining hall, and around camp, our campers are challenged to reduce their food waste, and to leave camp cleaner than they found it, through our "Food Waste Challenge" in the ML, and "Schmutz Patrol" after meals. By producing less food waste, and consistently having the cleanest section in camp, campers (and staff!) can earn sleep ins, extra candy tuck, and even dinner cooked by Joanne in her cabin.
Our Nature program fosters understanding and respect for the ecology of our beloved Algonquin Park home. Living in Algonquin is its own lesson in cherishing wilderness. Kids work in camp’s organic vegetable garden, plant trees to protect the Tepee Lake shoreline from erosion, and get up close and personal with Algonquin's plants and animals.
On canoe trips we practice leave no trace camping. Our trip leaders are trained to awaken children’s excitement about the natural world, and their enthusiasm for protecting it. Trip leaders teach campers to leave nothing behind but their footprints, and to take nothing with them but photographs.
Our Facility
To lighten our carbon footprint, we have two separate solar collectors, one to heat the water for our dining hall/kitchen, and the other to generate electricity. All the light bulbs in camp are the latest generation energy efficient LEDs, and the lights in our public, shared spaces are on timers, so that we don't waste unnecessary electricity.
Our water filtration and waste water systems are state of the art; our water is drawn from the lake, and treated using sand filters and UV light - no chemicals required! Once it's been used, our lagoon system uses bacteria and natural processes to treat our sewage until it can be returned to the environment, where again natural processes in the top soil and ground filter it again before it returns to the lake.
We recycle and compost throughout camp, and unlike many other camps, we do not use disposable tableware. All camp’s toilets and showers are low-flow, to minimize water and energy use.
"A business behaves well if it treats natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value. Conservation means development, as much as it does protection."
-Theodore Roosevelt