We spent our March Break outside!

March 26, 2014 · 0 Comments

From March 10 to March 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 was spent exploring everything from the art of fire building to the art of mixed media wax painting to the art of duct tape. The creativity flowed and the results of the combined initiative were enormously satisfying.

At the very first planning meeting for this project, representatives from the Dufferin Arts Council and Camp Mansfield found common ground and settled on 2 goals. First: provide the campers with artistic experiences that they don’t typically encounter in school. Second: immerse the campers in a natural environment where they can be inspired.

To achieve the first goal, we turned to two local artists – both members of the Dufferin Arts Council. Jordan Eveland, a resident of Creemore, ran a 2 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 very flexible medium offering artists the opportunity to carve designs, pictures, and patterns into their work and layer their creations with paint, collage, and natural materials. Steve Baker, a resident of Melancthon, ran an afternoon of magic for the program. Campers learned about the history of magic, had the chance to practice their slight of hand, and developed at least one trick that they could take home with them.

To achieve the second goal, we ventured out into the 300+ acres of forest and field available for exploring at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. Every child who attended the camp was given a cross country ski lesson and, by the end of the week, kids who had never skied before had traveled over 35km on cross country ski trails. On the Wednesday of March Break, the snow returned in a big way and provided us with the perfect snowshoeing conditions for our day hike. We traveled 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!

Children from Creemore-Nottawasaga Public School, Centennial Highlands Public School, Hyland Heights Public School, and Primrose Elementary School all participated in, and thoroughly enjoyed, the week of camp. Camp Mansfield has 6 weeks of day and overnight camp programs running in the summer of 2014 and more information about Camp Mansfield’s programs can be found at www.mansfieldoutdoorcentre.ca