JoanneKates
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Sep 26, 2006, 1:10 PM
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The History of Camp Arowhon – The Second & Third Generation
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By Joanne Kates, Director of Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park
In the first article on the History of Arowhon, I wrote about by grandparents and the founding of the camp. This installment describes the next period when my father, Eugene, directed the camp, and later, when I became camp director.
Granny Builds Arowhon Pines hotel
Granny had depended on her son (my dad Eugene) as her right hand man the first years of camp; but the war came and my dad enlisted. The last thing he did before shipping overseas was to get in a small motorboat with Granny and visit every lake near camp on Tepee Lake, looking for a place to build a hotel. This was important because in the 1940’s (unlike today) the roads were so rough that parents couldn’t get to camp and back from nearby cities, to visit their children. They picked Little Joe Lake, three lakes away from camp. The point on Little Joe was beautiful, and nicely windswept which would keep the bugs away.
My Dad Eugene and his Mission for Learning
Once overseas, my dad became an intelligence officer working with the British army. There, among officers who’d been educated in the finest schools, he was like a sponge soaking up their philosophy about the pursuit of excellence. He came home from the war in 1946 to find his mother divided between Camp Arowhon and Arowhon Pines, the hotel she’d built while he was overseas. Granny left camp to run the hotel, and my dad threw himself into directing camp, inspired by his newfound philosophy. He believed it was crucial for children to be active and learning, and that teaching skills at a high level of excellence would allow them to develop perseverance, commitment, and a lifelong love of learning and challenge. My dad put all his energy into that project, building Arowhon’s activity program so that campers learned skills – and felt great about themselves for it.
Arowhon Under My Dad – The Pursuit of Excellence
My dad also believed in free choice within a structured environment. He invented Arowhon’s unique system of campers choosing their program every day. He believed in requiring everyone to participate, and that children would be more motivated to learn skills if they had some choice about which activities they did. Hence our program today, where every camper picks from a “menu” of three or four activities every period of the day. Under my dad’s leadership Arowhon kept the promise he made to himself – to infect children with the pursuit of excellence.
The Third Generation
I am the third Kates generation to direct Arowhon. I grew up at camp, but when I was 21 my dad told me that no man would ever follow me to camp. I left, and was a full-time journalist from 1972 till 1989. (I’m still restaurant critic for The Globe and Mail.) In 1989, when I was pregnant with my second child, I realized that, more than anything in the world, I wanted to go home. Home to me has always been one place: camp. My partner Leon Muszynski supported me completely, so I came home to camp in 1989, with Leon and our two children.
Adding the Nurturance
I was struck by two things that first summer back at camp: First, the skills program was as valid and important for child development as it had been when I left in 1971. Second, perhaps because of being sensitized by being a mother, camp needed an injection of “nurturance training.” My passion is the well-being of children, both individually and in relationships, so I set about making camp the safest place in the world.
The Arowhon Social Safety Tool Kit
Since becoming Camp Director in 1989 I have developed a ground-breaking method for ensuring everyone’s “safety on the inside.” The Camp Arowhon Social Safety Tool Kit is in every Arowhon staff’s “kit bag.” It includes active listening, validations, positive behaviour management, conflict mediation, talking circles, bully interventions and other tools. Staff know what’s really going on in the bunks, and intervene promptly to change behaviours that aren’t positive. The social safety project has resulted in a camp where kids say: “People accept you for who you are here. Kids don’t get bullied at our camp, and if they do it gets stopped right away.”
My partner Leon Muszynski becomes a Director
My partner Leon Muszynski had been, for 20 years, a leader in social policy in Canada and a known and respected voice for employment and social equity. And he had been spending summers at camp to support me. In 1996 Leon gave in to his love for camp and became the other full time Director. Leon has revitalized camp’s physical site in too many ways to count – All new camp kitchen, new fleet of sailboats and windsurfers, new tennis and basketball courts, enough generators to power everything camp needs when the power is out, environmentally friendly motorboats and lighting, recycling depots all over camp, new cabins in the senior boys and senior girls sections, a fabulous new CIT cabin and staff lounge, state-of-the-art water filtration system, climbing walls, and more.
Leon: Camp Dad
By teaching male staff to lead Boys Circles, Leon has led them to work with boys in a new way, to give boys permission to be exactly who they are, rather than having to live up to an outmoded ideal of men as hyper-masculine jocks with no feelings. As camp dad, Leon brings his sweet caring nature and his ability to find the positive in every person.
Joanne Kates is a highly successful freelance writer in Canada and the US and is the Director of Camp Arowhon in Algonquin Park, Ontario
She is the author of Exploring Algonquin Park: The Personal and Complete Guide
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(This post was edited by JoanneKates on Sep 26, 2006, 1:24 PM)
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