“Back when we were building it, we had no equipment, no tractor, no forklift just hands, hammers and saws. We had to carry the plywood onto the boats, ferry it across, then carry it up to the building site,” says Pastor Rene.
“It was all done with free labour, people just volunteered.”
They then built the dining hall which for more than a decade doubled as their church so every day after breakfast was served the 72 foot long hall was emptied of campers, volunteers would push the tables against the walls, roll out the seats and prepare for morning psalms.
A dedicated place of prayer came 11 years later when the Roddickton church underwent renovation. In a bid to re-use whatever they could, the volunteers saved the stain glass windows and roof trusses for the camp.
“Before winter we used a tractor and trailer to get the trusses down to the edge of the pond then when winter came and the pond froze over, we tied them to the back of the skidoos and took them across the pond. It would have been some sight; some of them had a span of 30 feet,” he says.
“Then in the spring we came out and built it.”
This year 68 campers from as far as Alberta’s Fort McMurray, Kitchener in Ontario and even Norway have joined local campers and more than 30 volunteers to spend a week along the edge of the pond.
“It’s a bit different to when we first started,” says Pastor Rene, “when we would swim and wash in the pond because we didn’t have showers. We didn’t have a water pump either so part of our duties was to bring five gallon pales of water up to the washrooms.”
“It’s been a learning process over the years, a lot has changed over the years and you have to adapt and change with that.
“The campers now are certainly different to the ones 20 years ago.”
For instance, the original cooks had at their disposal just one propane stove to feed the 60 campers — no easy task.
But now kitchen volunteers like Lorretta Canning have far better facilities to accommodate pizza and poutine, which have made it onto the dinner plates as a special treat for weary campers.
Ms. Canning, of Englee, is a 15-year veteran of the camp, volunteering long after her three children stopped attending.
“I love it,” she said.
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