For some, a canoe trip is a chance to spend time relaxing in the great outdoors. For volunteers with Camp Outlook, it’s an opportunity to change someone’s life.
The camp, which started at Queen’s more than 50 years ago, is a volunteer organization run mainly by students and alumni. It gives troubled youth the opportunity to develop inner strength and self-confidence by taking them on free, multi-day canoe expeditions.
“Many of the campers have difficult home situations and it’s all negative,” says former expedition leader Deryck Williams, Com’77. “Accomplishing a 10-day canoe trip through Algonquin Park is a serious achievement. They are learning portaging, how to paddle a canoe, how to cook food – it’s not easy. And they see that they are good at it.”
Camp Outlook was started in 1970 by the late Ron Kimberley, MD’73, BA’74, a camping enthusiast who believed in the therapeutic value of nature. His vision has lasted more than 50 years and today the camp is still run completely by volunteers and funded by donors. Using only volunteers keeps costs to a minimum and allows the camp to organize up to 22 trips a year for about 130 campers.
Camp Outlook is the type of experience people call life-changing – for both the young campers and the student/alumni volunteers.
Ask any expedition leader and they will tell a story about a teen who struggled at the beginning of the trip but was beaming with pride by the end after finding the perseverance to successfully overcome a physically and mentally demanding canoe trip.
One of the more dramatic changes Williams heard was about a camper who came from a troubled home who has been able to overcome challenges and become a doctor. Camp Outlook can’t take all the credit, but it’s common to hear stories about former campers who go on to change their trajectory and lead happier lives.
Danielle Skinner, Artsci/PHE’03, Ed’05, became a teacher because of her time volunteering as an expedition leader with Camp Outlook. She was a biology major at Queen’s and was thinking about a career in health care. Her Camp Outlook trips showed her that she loved making a positive impact on young people’s lives.
“I had never considered getting into teaching before Camp Outlook. Not once,” says Skinner, who has been a teacher for 18 years. “I thought about how special it was to see (the campers’) growth through the trips and how special it was to be able to connect with somebody on such a personal level and help them.”
Camp Outlook officials are organizing a 50th reunion Aug. 25-27 with a weekend of activities in the Kingston area. (The camp has been around 53 years, but the pandemic forced them to postpone the original reunion.)
Former trip leader Jim Firstbrook, Sc’82, is part of the reunion committee and is planning to travel from his home in B.C. to Kingston to share campfire and canoe stories with new and old Camp Outlook veterans.
“It’s been 40 years since Camp Outlook and some of these people are still my best friends,” says Firstbrook.
