‘Camp allowed me to come out of my shell’
Longtime attendee of Winnipeg Beach Jewish camp now program and planning director
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/08/2021 (1733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It’s difficult for Drew McGillawee to pinpoint just one favourite part of his 18 summers at Camp Massad, but his biggest takeaway is that attending camp shaped him into the person he is today.
“Camp is the place that allowed me to be myself and allowed me to come out of my shell,” the 25-year-old Winnipegger said.
“Any job that I’ve had outside of camp is because of all the skills that I gained at camp, and all of my best friends are from my experiences at camp.”
This summer, McGillawee acted as director of planning and programming at the Jewish summer camp in Winnipeg Beach. The job allowed him to help attendees have the same formative experiences that he did.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere without my experiences at camp,” he said.
This year, however, was “definitely different than normal.”
Though not every session ran this summer, the camp was able to rent out cabins out to families, and run leadership training for the two oldest age groups. That will prepare the campers for potential roles on staff next summer when the rest of the overnight sessions run again.
McGillawee said summer camp is a “vital experience” to help young people grow by fostering creativity, teamwork and problem-solving help them become future leaders. Many of Camp Massad’s campers rely on the Sunshine Fund.
This summer, the Sunshine Fund received $30,000 and was able to send 140 kids to camp.
Though attendance is significantly lower than in past years — in which the fund would typically send 600 kids to one of the 36 Manitoba camps — program manager Dana Moroz said she hopes they’ll surpass that number next year when overnight camps should be allowed to reopen.
While day camps created the opportunity for many kids to continue to go to camp, it also meant families who lived farther away were excluded because they couldn’t pick up and drop off children each day.
Moroz is thankful donors have continued to be generous even camps adjusted to restrictions.
“We are super grateful for them seeing us through, and we hope that in 2022 things will resume, and we’ll be back to our normal numbers.”
gillian.brown@freepress.mb.ca