Leon and I get up every morning around 6 something. Our routine rarely varies. We go for a dip in the lake and then sit on our cabin porch drinking tea. We’re lucky to live pretty much in the middle of camp, so the vantage point is ideal.

The first sound we hear in the early morning is paddles on canoe gunwhales. And shouts of PADDLE. These are the kids out training for marathon canoe trips with their counsellors. Every morning we watch them paddle across camp, pull their canoes up, throw them on their backs and portage at a fast jog through camp.

Down by the canoe dock we see the “canoe kids,” the ones who are passionate about canoeing, out for early morning style canoeing practice with a canoeing instructor.

Yesterday we saw a windsurfing instructor pile some kids into her motorboat and VERY slowly and quietly motor across the lakefront to a floating raft where the kids got off with paddles to execute a stealth exercise to move the raft….

And this is what camp is about – awakening passion. For what? Does it matter whether it’s for a particular activity… or a marathon canoe trip? Or a cool prank planned and executed by a cabin group? Not in the least, because what matters is the AGENCY. Children committing to something, choosing to do it, and then following through with the effort it requires.

Sometimes here at camp, we say: Fun isn’t the purpose of camp. Fun happens when we’re growing.

yours from where the mist is rising off the morning lake,

Joanne Kates