Brighter days ahead after Camp Arnes

Keishna Abenstein remembers what it was like to be a teenager who was stuck in her shell.

She also recalls how much going to summer camp at Camp Arnes helped her spread her wings.

Abenstein has watched her middle child, Teagen, go through a similar roller-coaster as a teenager. Teagen, described as a social butterfly in his childhood, has become a bit more reserved in his adolescence after many of his closest elementary school friends went to a different middle school, forcing him to make new friends as he began the next chapter of his education.

Abenstein saw an opportunity for a similar experience at Camp Arnes that could impact her son the same way it did for her.

The 13-year-old was naturally a bit apprehensive about the idea of going away for five days to camp with a group of strangers, but after a bit of convincing from mom, he was on board.

“For me, it was like a whole different experience. It’s taking you from inside of your regular peer group… and you go meet brand new people,” Abenstein said. “Like I remember, even when I was in camp, I left with two pen pals, just friends who were different from what you’re used to and it’s a different person you can talk to. And I think he made a couple of friends at camp that he’s still been talking to the same way. Now you can text.”

Teagen attended Camp Arnes, a little over an hour north of Winnipeg, earlier this month.

On the surface, there were a lot of mosquito bites from spending hours outdoors, but there was a deeper change that was also noticeable.

“He came back a little bit brighter and I would say even more relaxed. Not like he’d necessarily been on vacation, but like he’d had an experience. Because he’s always with me, right? So it’s like going off and making your own story and coming back to tell me about it,” Abenstein said.

“He had a great time — there’s an obstacle course and like water activities — and he came back brighter.”

Abenstein, a single mother of three, had the idea to send for her eldest, 16-year-old Shayne, to summer camp in the past, but that never gained any traction due to financial constraints.

With Teagen, however, it was different.

Abenstein had hoped to send Teagen to camp this summer, but was looking for help to make it happen. A stroke of luck befell her during a Google search, as she came across the Sunshine Fund, which set her plans in stone.

The Sunshine Fund aided 603 children in attending one of the 31 accredited camps across Manitoba and northwestern Ontario last summer, and the organization expects that number to eclipse 700 this year.

“It became definite when I heard about the fund,” said Abenstein. “I was really wanting him to do something fun this summer and I was really looking around, and seeing how much everything costs, and I was wondering if there was anything, so I just Googled it one day, and honestly, I was relieved.”

Teagen joined the Stokers group at Camp Arnes. He was thrown into a variety of outdoor activities and was challenged to socialize with others.

As he grows older, he can join the Crew group, where he will be tasked to develop leadership skills. It’s why Abenstein felt it was important to get her teenager in now, to lay the foundation for learning those qualities.

“There’s different age groups and I think it’s a really good in between because there’s the really young ones who it’s their first time and they don’t really know and they need a lot of guidance, I guess, and around 13 is where you get to have a really independent experience without the pressure of leadership,” she said. “That’s why I thought it was important.”

Abenstein hopes to send her two-year-old, Reaven, to camp one day. She also hopes Teagen will be interested in going again next summer.

She’s already seen what it’s done for her and now for her son.

“I just support kids going to camp,” she said. “I think it was a great overall experience, and the more people that know about the fun, the better.”

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