Summer might be over, but a Tim Hortons Foundation camp in St. George is well into their fall programming, welcoming school groups for team and skill building experiences.
Onondaga Farms is nestled in the back roads of Brant County, about 10 km south of Cambridge. With swans at the entrance, grand brick buildings and an observatory, it looks more like a private school than a traditional summer camp.
But the location is one of seven in the foundation creating free experiences for kids from low-income backgrounds.
Whether visiting for an eight-day summer session or a few days of condensed school programming, the emphasis is on “important life skills that are going to set young people up for success in their future,” Victoria Povilaitis, the foundation’s director of program innovation, told The Hamilton Spectator.
It’s also about offering a safe, stable, and positive space for kids to get outside their comfort zones and blossom.
A highlight of the Onondaga grounds is the eco-centre, a bright and modern building where kids can explore their interests in a computer lab, creative arts and music rooms, and a living lab with several resident reptiles.
Upstairs, an observatory with a telescope offers views of the sprawling grounds.
The 400 acres of land was donated by Brant County farmer Gil Henderson, who raised award-winning Hereford cattle.
Corn still grows on the premises, and a working barn and agricultural classroom pay homage to its roots, while giving campers an opportunity to interact with a menagerie of friendly animals that includes goats, donkeys, alpacas and bunnies.
When it opened in 2002, Ron Joyce, chair of the foundation and co-founder of Tim Hortons, proclaimed Onondaga Farms the foundation’s “most unique camp to date,” in a press release.
The free programming is funded by year-round fundraising activities, including Tim Hortons campaigns like “Camp Day,” “Holiday Smile Cookies” and “Round Up.”
All costs — including travel — are covered. “We’ll book buses, we’ll book flights, whatever we need to do to get kids to camp,” Povilaitis said.
The franchise owners have also played a big part, donating projects like a basketball court and an octagonal pit for gaga ball, a camper-favourite similar to dodge ball, Povilaitis said.
Campers are referred by community partners like Big Brothers or Sisters, or a social worker.
When Laura Champion’s principal invited her to go to Tims Camp in 1997, “my path was reoriented,” she said.
“For a segment of the population, summer can mean food insecurity, and more time around the folks who maybe are less kind to you than a lot of people would assume your family is,” Champion said.
Her summer vacations typically consisted of “reading books or doing chores,” alone in the house, she said.
She had “no conception” that going away to camp was a “normal experience” for some kids.
When the Ontario resident pulled into the Tims Camp she attended in Alberta, she remembers thinking “Wow, this is how rich people live.”
The experience showed her “there were good people out there who could believe in a kid like me,” and she realized “life didn’t have to be as hard as it was,” she said.
Champion became the first of her family to graduate university and, understanding the power of “a single dollar donated,” she now works as a professional fundraiser.
“When folks donate to the foundation, they get those kids out, even if it’s just for a week at a time, to be able to see something else and to believe that they are worth it,” she said.
Celeste Percy-Beauregard’s reporting for The Hamilton Spectator is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. The funding allows her to report on stories about Brant County. Reach her at [email protected].
