Summer saved: Camp Misquah successful with last-minute hiring blitz

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The Misquah Moose is smiling.

Thanks to a flurry of last-minute hires, the summer season at the camp for people with intellectual delays will go ahead — at least in part.

“We have had an uptake on the counsellors, so we have to figure out how many campers we can support safely,” said Mark Wigmore, a member of Camp Misquah’s board of directors. “We’re still staffing counseller positions, but we feel we can run a camp that’s at 80 per cent capacity, but maybe not our full numbers.”

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Just a couple of weeks ago, organizers of the 50-year-old camp near Gracefield, Que., feared the entire season would have to be cancelled because of staff shortages, particularly medical staff for the high-needs campers. A go/no-go decision had to be made by a board of directors meeting on June 17.

But interest surged after media reports in this newspaper and elsewhere that Camp Misquah was in jeopardy. Wigmore said the response to the call for help was overwhelming.

“In short, it was ‘Wow!’ There were records in the number of shares on social media. It generated a lot of interest in Misquah and our story,” Wigmore said. “It gives you energy for what you do.”

Key hires for the season are two people with medical training who will manage health care at the camp. Wigmore said the camp would likely be able to accommodate about 240 campers this summer, with about 40 people in each of its six sessions. Typically, 300 campers would be accepted, some attending more than one session.

“It means we’ll have to say no to some people who were requesting to come for two sessions,” Wigmore said.

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The camp runs for six weeks over the summer, with one week devoted to children and five for adults. Some Misquah campers are now in their 70s and have been attending for a half-century.

Last weekend, when staff visited the site on Lake Bitobi, 90 minutes north of Ottawa, for pre-season preparations, Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel was on hand to present $25,000 from the federal New Horizons grant program. This fall, Misquah will use the money to begin building a new cabin geared for seniors: one that is close to the dining hall and shower facilities, is on level ground and has better climate control.

And Wigmore says board members will have to discuss what the future holds for Misquah, the only camp of its type in the capital region to serve campers with special needs.

“We can’t do this every year, so we’re thinking about what we need to do differently and how do we have to change things,” Wigmore said “That will be a discussion for the fall.”

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