Season made bright for 400 campers

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This article was published 02/09/2022 (1331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven-year-old Hazel arrived home a little older and wiser after a two-night stay at Camp Assiniboia.

“She honestly loved it. She’s been to sleepovers but she’s never been to camp before,” said her mom, Keila Anobis. “She got to go and be on her own, so it’s all kind of an independent thing for her.”

A few days of petting animals, swimming and navigating the rope course brought her daughter noticeably out of her shell, she said.

Anobis was also a Camp Assiniboia camper when she was a child, so she knew the experience would serve Hazel well.

“I liked the getaway, and I always just found it therapeutic. It was really good growing up with that independence and figuring out who I was,” Anobis said, adding Hazel reaped the same rewards and is already talking about returning next summer.

To help cover the registration fee, Anobis accessed support from the Sunshine Fund, a Manitoba Camping Association initiative that subsidizes the cost of summer camps for children and families with financial barriers.

“Being a single mom on social assistance, everything is kind of expensive, so the financial definitely helps,” she said.” (The Sunshine Fund) is definitely there to help people and give kids the experience that they deserve.”

For more than four decades, the camping association and Free Press have collaborated to maintain and promote the fund, which relies heavily on donor support. During that time, the joint efforts have sent upwards of 22,000 children to camp.

This year, the Sunshine Fund can proudly add 403 new children to its list, said Dana Moroz, MCA program manager.

“Thanks to our generous supporters, we have given Manitoba children the opportunity to experience summer camp, some for the very first time,” she said, adding the fund provided more than $183,000 in subsidies this summer.

Without donor support, it would not be possible.

“Their generosity is truly appreciated, and the benefits of their gift extend well beyond the week they spend at summer camp. The skills (children) learn and the friends they make often remain with them for their lifetime,” Moroz said.

The MCA team had previously set a goal of sending 400 children to camp, a step toward its pre-pandemic numbers, which reached upwards of 600 annually.

“It has been a long, difficult two years for children and parents. When children wait all year long to have their week away in the great outdoors, it’s been so encouraging to finally be able to fulfill their hope to attend summer camp again,” Moroz said

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

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