Campers at Wellman Lake United Church Camp canoeing in July 2025. The camp's summer 2026 season has been cancelled after floods in Manitoba. (Photo by Wellman Lake United Church Camp)
Two of our grandchildren will be attending nearby United Church camp Quin-mo-lac again this summer. They really enjoyed it last year and both of them were able to paddle out to an island where there is a bald eagles' nest.
Their involvement in this particular came pleases me. My parents farmed me out to friends when I was ten months old so they could provide leadership at Quin-mo-lac and I have a postcard to prove it -- was I a precocious reader? I was a camper there as a child and taught swimming as a teen.
Our three children all attended church camps and son Isaac taught canoeing at one north of Sudbury, also as a teen. These outdoor opportunities to experience Creation are so important and romance is a possibility. I met Ruth at a non-denominational camp 50+ years ago and that turned out rather well.
Christian camping in mainline churches has suffered in recent years as our membership ages and declines so I was surprised to learn through Broadview Magazine that the United Church is hanging in there:
The United Church runs the largest faith-based camping organization in Canada, founded in the 1930s. In its heyday, it boasted 75 camps and more than 20,000 annual campers. Though the numbers have dropped in recent years, there are still 54 camps hosting about 15,000 youth each year. They are led by thousands of paid and volunteer counsellors.
While this is relatively encouraging news the same article reported that one of those United Church camps, Wellman Lake, has been forced to cancel its entire season due to extreme flooding in the region. I wrote about flying into Winnipeg in June on the day that a massive storm swept across the province creating havoc and putting a crimp in our vacation plans because of flooding. Three weeks later another devastating storm occurred, ruining crops, flooding homes, and closing this camp.
We probably don't consider the effects of the climate emergency as a threat to the future of organized camping but it is real. Camp Mystic, a Christian camp in Texas experienced an unprecedented flood last summer and more than two dozen kids and staff perished in the night. Often camps are near bodies of water and in Ontario a number of camps are in areas subject to more violent storms.
I hope Wellman Lake camp will recover and continue to offer faith-based opportunities to children and youth.
Chapel Service at Quin-mo-lac in days of yore -- check out the clergy clerical collars!
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