Last week, most members of our Senior Staff Team took time out from their regular year-round schedules to attend the Ontario Camps Association annual conference here in Toronto. We took workshops in everything from health and safety to mental health at summer camp, and from staff training and evaluation to leadership techniques. It was an 
inspiring day, and exciting to feel the summer is closer than ever. One of the highlights for all of us was a keynote speech delivered by Dr Debra Gilboa, a parenting expert. She spoke at length about the 3 Rs of good parenting – Respect, Responsibility and Resilience – and how residential camps are such a terrific way to deliver these essential life skills to kids. In fact, Dr. Gilboa’s goals for children and youth were very much in line with our own. She spoke about how young people learn to respect others around them when they perceive themselves to be respected and valued, and how essential it is that we expect contribution from young people – as families, camps and societies. In other words, young people are vital contributors to the world they live in, not just passive recipients of what it has to offer. She spoke of the resilience young people learn when they go away to camp and discover how to overcome small hurdles for themselves – making friends outside of the family circle, advocating for their own needs, growing through and beyond the little challenges they face away from home, developing their own interests. So much of what Gilboa had to say reflected our own philosophy as a camp, which begins with the belief that when they are nurtured, respected, supported and given responsibility, young people are capable of so much more than we may ever imagine.
We can’t wait for the summer now!
Julie
Director
Centauri Summer Arts Camp