By Drew Gulyas
We spent our March Break outside.
From March 10 to 14, winter was at her best. The sun shone, the snow squalled, the campfires crackled and the kids explored.
During the 2014 March Break, Camp Mansfield partnered with the Dufferin Arts Council to run a March Break Arts Camp at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. It was an incredible week of winter activities that we spent exploring everything from the art of fire building to mixed media wax painting to duct taping. The creativity flowed!
Children from Nottawasaga and Creemore Public School, Centennial Highlands Public School, Hyland Heights Public School and Primrose Elementary School all participated in, and thoroughly enjoyed, the week of camp.
At the very first planning meeting for this project in January, representatives from the Dufferin Arts Council and Camp Mansfield settled on two goals: to provide campers with artistic experiences that they don’t typically encounter in school, and to immerse campers in a natural environment where they can be inspired.
To achieve the first goal, we turned to two local artists who are both members of the Dufferin Arts Council. Creemore resident Jordan Eveland ran a two-day program at the camp. Her mixed media wax painting project introduced campers to the array of possibilities available to artists when working with wax. Campers discovered that wax is a flexible medium that let them carve designs, pictures and patterns into their work and layer their creations with paint, collage and natural materials.
Steve Baker from Melancthon ran an afternoon of magic. Campers learned about the history of magic, practiced their slight of hand, and developed at least one trick that they could take home with them.
To achieve our second goal, we ventured out into the 300-plus acres of forest and field at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Every child who attended camp was given a cross country ski lesson and, by the end of the week, kids who had never skied before had travelled over 35 km on cross country ski trails. On the Wednesday, the snow returned in a big way and provided us with perfect snowshoeing conditions for our day hike. We travelled along the northern bank of the Pine River to a sheltered spot beneath some cedar trees where we set to work building with sticks and twine, cooking bannock over the open fire, and enjoying that bannock with generous helpings of butter and strawberry jam.
Camp Mansfield has six weeks of day and overnight camps running this summer.
For more information, visit www.mansfieldoutdoorcentre.ca.
Pictured on home page: Anna Camilleri and Sam Brendish.