Goodbye Depot

The old depot is no more.

Here are a few photos of the demolition of the trail depot/shop building earlier this week. They were taken by Camp Director Mat Klachefsky.

Mat says the plans for the new building aren't available just yet.

"I can tell you the new design is going to feel pretty familiar," he says. "A lot of the bold ideas that were being thrown around were abandoned in favour of something simpler."

A new depot has been in the works for about three years as the old building, known as the boathouse when it was built in 1966, was becoming overcrowded and no longer suitable for today's standards.

A new shop building was built between the dining hall and wellness centre about a year ago.

Here are three close-up photos of the old depot I took a year ago. . .

. . . and some more I've collected over the years.

A Memoir ~ YMCA Camp Stephens - Memories of the 1960s

Former camp director Hal Studholme says his memoir of camp in 1960s reflects a time in the world when so much was uncertain, but at camp you could find a temporary calm.

"I thought it was a very unique era in the world because we were talking about a nuclear war," Hal says. "And then you went down to Stephens and you were in a totally different world of kids and fun and the lake.

"It was so special that I thought I should write down about the people and the experience and share it with others."

Dedicated to camp cook Alfred "Davey" David, Memories of the 1960s focuses on the lives of young people touched by time on the island.

"There is such an opportunity to forget yourself and immerse yourself in a world that helps children grow and where you grow yourself," Hal says. "And it's that experience that is unique to camping - it doesn't just have to be YMCA camping, it can be any camping - where  you get the chance to live in the outdoors and experience that, and then at the same time work with children and each other for growth and development."

He also says despite the passage of time and the changes at camp, there is still much the same.

"It allows you to find out who you are in the present an allows you to explore the possibilities of becoming whatever you might be and watch others become themselves as well."

Memories of the 1960s

Hal's memoir is available for $12.50. Hal has several copies available. Send him an email at halmarrd@shaw.ca.

The book is also available online for $12.50 plus shipping. Click here to order.

For a selection of Hal's memoirs, see The History of Toilets.

"There is nowhere I'd rather be" - 1991 Girls Three Week Journal

The 1991 Girls Three Weeker: Left to right: Nicole, Heather, Shannon, Janice, Jessie, Lori, Jenny, Sophie and Cathy.

Here's the journal of the 1991 Girls Three-Week trip. 

Former camp director Bob Picken sent to me a couple of weeks ago. 

"I was cleaning out another filing cabinet and found the attached journal," Bob says. "I forgot I had it stashed away.  I thought it might make a good post on the alumni page.  I will have the original brought to camp this summer."

Our memories of these years on trail and at camp dims with the responsibilities of getting older, the challenges of being a parent  and our careers - and all the things life throws at us.

It puts a lot of distance from then to now. 



What doesn't change is the friendships.



"Trail is a chance for one to find oneself," Nicole Fenton writes on page 23. "It's also a chance to make the kind of friend you don't or almost never make in the city. A friend with whom you can be yourself, perfectly natural. They've seen you at your worst and at your very best."




Enjoy, Bruce

Trip "plaque" hanging in the depot.