Theme Days

(Back Row, L-R: Anita Pilgrim, Christine Plank, Shelley Oseil, Cheryl Young, Cynthia Eden, Sue Haskell. Front Row, L-R: Lynn Haskell, Cheryl Randall, Sharon Jones).

Many camps seemed to have theme days, or a theme for the entire week.

Here are a few of the girls staff members from 1988, participating in "Backwards Day" for the camp that was in. (Sorry for the pre-digital photo quality). Oh the things we'd do at camp that we wouldn't do anywhere else!

What theme day memories do you have from your time at camp?

From on high

The first of these pictures was taken from the roof of Cedar Lodge. Not sure why I was on the roof but it seemed a good idea to take a picture while I was there.

You can identify those in the second picture...


This third picture is from July 1994 around the time we re-0pened the camp after building the new cabins. I recognize Ted Williams but pray tell who is with him? My guess is this is the first day of Jr. Music Camp.

Men in trees, ladies too

These photos don't do this justice, but here are the early days of the ropes course. It was paid for by two lawyers in Hamilton who wanted to make a difference for teens in the area. The idea of it came from the need to do something more challenging with the inner city kids who were increasingly more demanding in their personal needs. Glenn became the natural choice to train on this and the potential of such a course seemed endless. If I'm not mistaken Sharon Avery even took the Bible program for Senior Music Camp one year and wove it around the use of the ropes course. Here's a few pictures from the early days as it was being finished and Glenn trained.

From the kitchen

Okay - so what is going on here? More pictures I've been sent. You will have to fill in the details! What is Bev doing?

Is it all about the boys?

We have posted many, many pictures of the girls but the guys deserve a post too. After all the guys had fun too! Any stories that you can think of?

And of course - name the people!

Behind the scenes

Those girls on staff they loved each other! Well I think they did! What is she doing?

I remember that hair dying got to be a regular event in the girls dorm - sometimes even on the DYS's deck! More photos from Christine...

Welcome to Camp Selkirk Days blog!

We are pulling people in from all across Canada and now Bermuda! (Hello Major Betty Ann Lewis) Since beginning this blog on February 4th we have had over a thousand hits and almost 7000 page views. Today our total was 86 hits alone. Word is out on Camp Selkirk Days blog!

Hello to all the former DYS's as well as those who worked at Selkirk! People are forwarding photos at an alarming rate, but I will try and get them up as we go. Keep putting out the word on Camp Selkirk Days blog!

Oh - one more thing for those of you who are looking and haven't commented yet - hit the comment button below and let us know you are out there!

Here's a few that came from Christine (Morrison) Gedcke.

Once again we issue the challenge: can you name the faces below? can you put a year to them?

1995 Girls Staff pictures

So from Janine Elvin come these pictures of days gone by...lots of recognizable faces here, but it isn't up to me to name them. So let's here from you. Start from the top and work your way down! Got to love those blue uniforms! I hope someone kept them when the camp was sold!

About the DYS

(1987 Kitchen Staff)

Love them or loathe them, the role of the DYS was an extremely important one at camp. For those of us on camp staff, leaving our parents for the whole summer usually for the first time, the DYS's became surrogate parents for us. As campers, they were part of the whole picture that made camp fun.

I remember several DYS's throughout my time at Selkirk, the Piercey's, the Young's, the Waters's (although I didn't spend much time at camp in their day), it was Captains Doug and Betty Ann Lewis who had the biggest impact on my life.

My sister and I had applied for and been turned down for jobs at camp in the summer of 1987. Captain and Mrs. Lewis couldn't find enough workers for their early weekend camps and they heard that because of construction at our school, our school year had ended in May, so we we were available for work. We were hired for the weekend camps and both ended up getting hired for the whole summer. We were pretty excited.

I remember at the beginning of the summer, Mrs. Lewis told us that if we were ever in trouble we should buy her a Diet Coke from the canteen and come and talk to her about it. I'd hate to guess how much money I spent on Diet Coke that summer.

Several years ago, as I was working as the Youth Director at my corps here in Windsor and was on faculty at Camp Glenhuron music camp, now Majors Doug and Betty Ann Lewis came to visit Camp Glenhuron in their new roles at Ontario West DHQ (before the amalgamation). I was one of the first people Mrs. Lewis saw when she got to camp. At least 12 years had gone by since we had seen each other, but she still greeted me with a warm hug. She introduced me to whoever she was with and said, "This girl worked really hard for me at camp, but her sister caused me all kinds of trouble!" Now, I could have let that go, but in respect of my sister's honour, I had to correct her and say she had gotten us confused.

No matter what I did, or how many consecutive early curfews I had, I knew that the Lewis's loved me. I was surprised when they hired me back the next summer and they were surprised when I got there the second summer and worked really hard for them! They are great people of God who loved all of us on their staff and every camper who came through the gates.

Who was your DYS and what memories do you have?

Girls staff 1994

In 1994 we began to re-organize the buildings around the camp. The DC's cabin became the new hospital, the hospital became the new girls dorm, and of course the new cabins were built.
For a time, the girls had to exist in Cedar Lodge until we could make some changes to the ol' hospital. The advantage to putting the girls into the old hospital (in case you guys never figured it out) was that it would put them across from the DY's accomodation. (Not that we didn't trust you, it was for your own protection!)
At any rate, from the days in Cedar Lodge Carla has provided us with a picture of the staff girls skipping in the common area. I think I see Carla second from the left.

Camp Romances

Ahhhhhh yes this topic had to surface sooner or later didn't it ... camp romances! Natalie (Hann) Silke sort of alluded to this briefly in a previous comment.

If we're all honest with ourselves here folks, did we really work at camp to earn a bit of spending money or to gain some valuable "work experience"? Did we really go to Senior Music Camp to improve our theory, vocal, or instrumental skills?? Did we really go to camp to get more serious about our relationship with God??? Well of course not!!! Face it people ... we all just wanted to hook up! HAHA!

On a more serious note though, camp for some did end up being that place where a friendship developed into relationship, and that relationship later lead to marriage! For others (like me!) camp romances just turned out to be a dismal case of heartbreak hotel, LOL. There were even those who predicted that such and such a couple would never make it long term, and Sherri (Sturge) Lavender has a neat little example about this.

Did that exciting camp romance of yours eventually lead to a wonderful marriage?! Will your story of love keep us oozing for more? We want to hear about it!

Here is a picture of two friends from the summer of 1994 who became a happily married husband and wife! Who ever would have predicted this one?! Can you name the couple? Shout it out!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Camp Wedding

"I love the Camp Selkirk blog!

I found this picture that I thought would make a great addition to the site, if you're interested. The picture is of staff members from 1987-1988 and it was taken in July, 2002 at the wedding of Sharon Jones, now Captain Sharon Dannock serving in Australia.

Pictured are Cynthia Eden, Krista VanHiel, Sue Haskell Titcombe, Lynn Haskell Baker, Roger King, Sharon Jones Dannock, Majors Doug & Betty Ann Lewis, Debbie Oseil (not sure of her married name), Karen Hollman Allington and Shelley Oseil. I'm not sure of the spelling of all those names.
This was the first wedding ever conducted by Major Betty Ann Lewis and she dropped one of the wedding rings in the grass at the outdoor wedding! It was a great day and we loved all being together again."

God bless,
Sue Titcombe

Does anyone know of any other weddings that took place at Camp Selkirk?

Holiday Camps

After Junior Music Camp the schedule turned to five excellent outreach camps. First there were two "Mom's and Tot's" camps, then three Holiday Camps. During our time Ruth Teakle led the Program on these and did an outstanding job of providing care and counsel to some wonderful children.
There were some challenges too...but those we won't put into print today.
These children with their counsellors are back from the pool and getting ready for the next activity.
Can you name the counsellors?

From Charissa Shea

Thought I would send you this picture. I think it was in '97, I believe Captain Norman Garcia was the DYS.
I just wanted to say a big thank you for hiring me that first year, which I believe was your last year. I really enjoyed it that year as well as the next four years after that!!!
- Charissa Shea

Thanks Charissa!

Anyone else got a picture? Email it to me...

You'll never believe what happened in the kitchen

I'm not sure where Tim found the chicken...but he hung it in the walk-in fridge and it didn't take much prompting to get him to pose with the knife! So where is this young man now?

Which staff year is this?

I'm pretty sure this was from 1991 - the summer it only rained - but someone might confirm that. The flat bed trailer everyone is on was a great piece of equipment around the camp letting us haul people and stuff.
And there's Bev THE COOK! What would we have done without her?

The summer it only rained

You may need to help me with this, I think it was 1991, it rained most of the summer! That's what Roger is talking about - I wore a yellow rain coat and BIG boots most of the summer. Roger stayed indoors! After much teasing about the colour of my rain coat - I bought a new one. Roger seemed to prefer that one.

I wasn't the only one with a yellow coat! Hence Mark and James with their own yellow coats.

Early Days

We arrived the end of June (the 28th if I remember correctly) to discover that the camp's water supply had been deemed unfit for consumption by the health inspector - the chlorinator failed - and the pool was not approved to open.

Welcome to Camp Selkirk!

Welcome to being a camp director.

Philip was 2.5 years old, and Jason three years older. They loved the freedom and we loved the relative safety the campgrounds provided. We still had them watched by a sitter, but it was hard working 18 hours a day and making sure they weren't entirely bereft of our care.

The first summer Terry Murray looked after them...until we needed him for counselling and the second year Leanne Davies was their guardian!

The grounds were important to me, and I was always after the guys to keep the grass cut and trimmed. Here's Greg Eden riding on the mower. We had to send it into the shop for repairs each time he would run over a tree stump. Those darn tree stumps keep jumping out in front of the ride-on mower!