Charitable No 85521 5471 RR0001
FAQs
How did Camp Ten Oaks get started?
Where did the name Ten Oaks Project/Camp Ten Oaks come from?
Who are children and youth of LGBTQ communities?
Are there other camps like this?
What is the relationship between Mountain Meadow and Camp Ten Oaks?
What are JACs, MACs, IACs, SACs and LACs?
What's the difference between unit and choice activities?
When will Camp Ten Oaks be longer than one week?
How can I find out more about Camp Ten Oaks?
How did Camp Ten Oaks get started?
In April of 2004, the Ten Oaks Project was co-founded by Holly Wagg and Julia Alarie, who together noticed a huge gap in services for the children and youth of the LGBTQ community (there was nothing in Ottawa at the time) and decided to take action.
Holly and Julia, along with their dog Gus, started a not-for-profit charitable organization called the Ten Oaks Project to develop programming for children of LGBTQ and/or non-traditional families, youth who identify as LGBTQ, and their allies. Camp Ten Oaks is one of the programs to grow out of this vision.
Where did the name Ten Oaks Project/Camp Ten Oaks come from?
When conducting a community-wide survey between April and August 2004 to see if there was a need for a camp program for the LGBTQ community, the name Ten Oaks Project was whipped up:
TEN (a number that plays with the idea that 1 in 10 people are LGBTQ)
+ OAKS (a strong tree that hints at the idea of camp and outdoors)
+ PROJECT (if the organization ever wants to run something besides a camp, it wouldn't be good to have the word ‘camp' stuck in the name)
Since camp is a program of the Ten Oaks Project, we call it Camp Ten Oaks.
Who are children and youth of LGBTQ communities?
The Ten Oaks Project defines children and youth of LGBTQ communities as individuals who have a(n) LGBTQ parent and/or guardian, identify as LGBTQ, and broadly speaking, are connected in someway to the LGBTQ community such as having a sibling or relative that identifies as LGBTQ.
Are there other camps like this?
Camp Ten Oaks is the first summer, residential camp of its kind in Canada for both the children and youth of LGBTQ families and LGBTQ-identified youth. Our program is also for kids from non-traditional families and for allies of the queer community. There are also a few similar camps offered in the United States.
What is the relationship between Mountain Meadow and Camp Ten Oaks?
Mountain Meadow (MM) is a two-week summer camp for the children of LGBTQ families that has been running since the early 1990s. Holly Wagg worked at MM for several summers and was inspired by the campers there to start a similar camp in Canada. The MM office is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the summer camp is run at a site in New Jersey.
In September 2004, MM partnered with the Ten Oaks Project and has helped to set up this camp program. MM has provided invaluable advice and support to our project. Much of our organizational tools and programming models are drawn from MM, which has shared the benefits of its experience.
Camp Ten Oaks is located approximately 45 minutes north of Ottawa along Lac Notre Dame in the Gatineau Hills. We rent our facility from Camp Kalalla, which is accredited by the Ontario Camping Association.
The majority of campers who come to Camp Ten Oaks live in Ontario. Our two main catchment areas are the National Capital Region and the Greater Toronto Area. Campers do come from as far away as Niagara Falls, Thunder Bay and rural communities across Ontario and Quebec.
What are JACs, MACs, IACs, SACs and LACs?
These are the names of the different cabin groups that we have at camp. Sometimes when it comes to naming groups, it's not all that easy!
The camp planning committee sat around for many meetings trying to decide what to call our different cabin groups. Until we could come up with something, we divided campers by ‘junior', ‘middle,' ‘intermediate' and ‘senior.' And then at our first ever staff orientation, we began to refer to our campers as ‘acorns.' Combine all of that together, and, presto! You get the JACs (junior acorn campers, ages 8-9), MACs (middle acorn campers, ages 10-11), IACs (intermediate acorn campers, ages 12-13), SACs (senior acorn campers, ages 14-15) and LACs (leadership acorn campers, ages 16-17).
At night, campers will rest up in one of five cabin circles for each of our age groups: JACs, MACs, IACs, SACs, and LACs. Within each circle for campers ages 8-15, there is one cabin for female-identified campers and one cabin for male-identified campers. The JACs and LACs sleep in age specific mixed-gender cabins. A minimum of two counselors sleep in each cabin circle with the campers on Cabin Row.
What's the difference between unit and choice activities?
Unit activities are activities scheduled to be done with a whole cabin group and choice activities are those that campers get to choose. When campers arrive for the week, they will be given an activity sheet and the opportunity to pick what they want to do.
Since programming is run by our staff, and the skill sets of our staff changes from year to year, we're able to guarantee old favourites and fresh programming each summer.
A campout is where all campers in a cabin group leave their comfy cabins and take a hike or a canoe ride to sleep overnight in a tent! We set up camp, cook dinner over a fire, sing songs and look at the stars. Campouts provide a real outdoor adventure experience.
Social justice promotes human equality by recognizing the underlying conditions in our everyday lives that foster inequalities, a lack of opportunity or discrimination. Our social justice program comprises a series of age-appropriate activities that allow campers to explore one or two key issues while at camp. In order to promote understanding and respect across different groups, we acknowledge the dynamics of power and privilege and the role these play in creating attitudes, behaviors, and practices that support systems of exclusion and oppression.
When will Camp Ten Oaks be longer than one week?
We've had a lot of feedback from campers and families that they'd like camp to be two-weeks in length. While we, too, would love camp to be longer, it not a possibility in the immediate future. This is for the following reasons:
(1) The majority of our camp staff use their vacation time from full-time employment to volunteer at camp. To give you the best possible camp experience, we need to hire the best staff we can, and our staff have indicated that it's not possible to volunteer for two weeks.
(2) Camp Ten Oaks rents the site from Camp Kalalla and our location is only available for one week in the summer before campers who reside in Quebec return to school.
(3) Camper fees currently cover less than 1/4 of the costs of operating Camp Ten Oaks. As a charity, we rely on our community to invest in making Camp Ten Oaks happen each summer. At this time, it is not financially feasible to expand the program.
How can I find out more about Camp Ten Oaks?
If you want to find out more about camp, please feel free to give us a call or drop us an e-mail. We would be happy to speak with you to answer specific questions that you or your child may have and to learn more about your child's needs and desires for their summer experience. In some cases, we will even make a visit to your home!
