introducing ... kristy

Kristy probably doesn't need an introduction; she's been here for the past two years. But, I'm going to introduce her to you anyway, just in case you haven't met her yet. Kristy is much-loved, especially by our staff kids. It's pretty cute how they flock to her!


hometown | Calgary

favourite band | Rubber (wait for it).

favourite book | The Bible and Green Eggs and Ham.



favourite movie or tv show | Kristy's been on staff through the winter and we've been doing a girls' movie night once a week. We seem to go for a lot of movies that were made before Kristy's time, and that might, by most standards, be considered terrible (cheesy, lame plot, bad acting, etc.), but she's a been a pretty good sport about it. I'm thinking that 9 to 5 was probably her favourite to date.

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Catching run away horses." (Okay, seriously, Kristy's had some experience with this, this winter. Duke, Diamond, Munchkin and the other one who lives in the front pasture recently made a break for the neighbour's house.)

favourite skill to teach | Horsemanship ("... because I like working with the horses") and the wall ("... because I like being able to visit with the groups").

i can't make it through the day without ... | "Hanging out with Lisa and finding out what Wanda has to say." (Wanda is the fish on Lisa's computer.)

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Ten!

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Hang out with my [camp] 'family'."

anything else you'd like to say, kristy? | "Lisa, Colleen, Janelle and Kerry answered these questions on my behalf."

camp profile: adventure classic

The conclusion of our out-tripping fun blog post series! We've posted profiles of our three super cool out trips: Outback Adventure, Roughin' It and Adventure Classic over the last three weeks -- check the blog archives to see OA and RI, if you missed 'em. (If you click on the names of the camps, you'll hop right over to the info page on our website, which tells you how to register!)

[Note: I've tried to fix the spacing and fonts four times now, and they refuse to be consistent. Grrr.]

Adventure Classic

I asked Ben* to write something about his Adventure Classic adventures. Following is Ben's Adventure Classic story (with help from Jesse).

It was as much an adventure for the leaders as the kids (what a cliché).

Playing Mafia around the fire one night, we were all laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe. Another night started cutting wood at five, and did nothing but cook and eat hobos until it was totally dark and we could barely pack up the coolers, from lack of light and too much delicious food.


There were times of peace, when early in the morning before the sun had made it over the mountains, bleary eyed we watched the mist on the river and between the trees slowly fade.


There were times when in a moment of either insanity or inspiration, a camper vowed to chop, against the grain, through a stump too large for him to get his arms around. In any spare time for the rest of the week we would all gather around and watch him hack away at that stubborn thing, chanting “ONE MORE SWING! ONE MORE SWING!” until the night before we had to leave, with great ceremony and fanfare, he finished it off. Or when, trembling and sweating, a camper who was terrified of heights fought her way up a fifty foot cliff and rappelled back down. Her grin shone through exhaustion: she had left her fear behind to do that. Or when the rafts were dragged out of the river and we walked upstream a hundred metres or so to swim through the rapids. Fighting to think of anything other than the cold piercing our skin and minds and swimming like mad to make it back to the rafts.


So do you believe me yet? Is it starting to sound like a real adventure for everyone? I got to be a councillor for the three weeks it ran last summer and in those 20 odd days, I grew more than I had during all the time I spent at university the year before. I regret nothing from the experience. I was shown the proper technique for building and anchor when belaying, and I learned that kids have so much courage than I ever believed, that they can show when they are tested. I was taught how to build an A-frame out of a tarp not much else, and I was taught that kids can be tremendously resourceful when pushed. I was awed by the terrifying beauty of nature and I think some of the campers were too.

There were the most random things. Someone coined the title “Fire Whisperer” for the person who was followed around the campfire by the smoke. No matter where the poor kid sat, the smoke would find him or her."

I should probably be plugging the featured activities too. They were, after all, honestly amazing. Top roping on real rock with the real life Superman, Rolf. Hiking to the natural waterslides. Climbing around Bighorn Falls. And of course the white-water rafting, cliff jumping, and rapid swimming with the totally insane Mukwah guides.

Intense, rad, stoked, awesome, sweet. We throw these words around a lot here, partly because we like the idea of sounding like surfers, and partly because camp can quite often be those things. The problem is that it makes it hard to emphasize how good the Adventure weeks were for me, the other councillors and, I absolutely believe, the campers. Maybe I’ll try the word elevating. I’m going to be tempted to jokingly use it for the climbing wall and high ropes course on the main site, but I’ll try not to and save it for the unique experience those weeks were for me.

* Ben's our Assistant Program Director this summer and Jesse's our Outtrips Coordinator; last summer, with Becca, they led Adventure Classic. Jesse will be leading Adventure again this summer. Ben and Jesse will together be featured in a future "introducing ..." blog post.

posted by kerry.

introducing ... emily

Emily is amazing. She's our French Roughin' It girls leader and she's funny and super and has superior outdoors skillz and is a ridiculously hard worker. We love Emily (and so will you)!


hometown | Wentworth, Quebec

favourite band | "Don't have one ... I just love music."

favourite book | Rush of Wings

favourite move or tv show | Gone in 60 Seconds, NCIS, the Unit

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Dream about jumping into mud puddles and watch the stars."

favourite skill to teach | "Fires, because there are so many ways, and fun ways, to [safely!] light them and rock climbing because it's such a good analogy for how my faith looks."

i can't make it through the day without ... | "London Fog and a smile."

favourite bits in the Bible | "Undecided as I really just like a lot of them."

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | "This is my first year in the making."

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Laughing with my twin and chilling, talking about gear [climbing gear] and driving."

introducing ... jenny

Jenny is our Chapel Coordinator ... she's working with Ben on a crazy, wacky theme and skits for summer and she's overseeing the chapel content and providing support to our Roughin' It leaders, Jasper and Emily, and she's trying to relearn what it's like to be at camp because she hails from Camp Homewood in BC. Jenny's here to mix it up for a summer or two and she's bringing lots of cool ideas with her, and will be probably be taking stuff back to Homewood.


hometown | Papau New Guinea (just north of Australia -- click here for a map!)

favourite band | "Everything from Coldplay to Jeremy Camp to the Fray to Dala ... a nice variety to keep things interesting."

favourite book | Secret Life of Bees and the Poisonwood Bible

favourite move or tv show | The Office, Planet Earth and the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

best camp memory | "Finding out the truth about Jug 'n Jog ... and my favourite future memory will be inventing Jug 'n Jog: the Next Generation."

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Chilling by the creek, making fires [except right now because there's a fire ban], and exploring the climbing world/sub-culture."

favourite skill to teach | Nature/pond study.

i can't make it through the day without ... | "Coffee and some good laughs."

favourite bits in the Bible | "Love the minor prophets, but right now I'm really enjoying Deuteronomy. And I love the books written by John."

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Three weeks!

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Play any musical instrument, win at speed scrabble and be outside."

anything else you'd like to say, jenny? | "I miss the ocean but I really love the mountains and think they are the most beautiful ... I do! I think the mountains here are gorgeous!"

introducing ... aimee

Aimee is our super sweet 2009 Staff Team Leader. That means she's responsible for making sure that our staff - and especially our cabin leaders and activity staff - are happy, healthy, focused on God and on their campers, and ready for all kinds of fun.


hometown | Calgary

favourite band | Bob Dylan

favourite book | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

favourite move or tv show | Peter Pan

best camp memory | "My entire two weeks of CIT." [CIT is now called Arise and you can find out more about it RIGHT HERE.]
favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | Yodel 'n Hum

favourite skill to teach | "Climbing, because I am secretly a monkey."

i can't make it through the day without ... | Earl Grey tea.

favourite bits in the Bible | 2 Timothy 1:7-10

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Nine!

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Relax with classic literature or movies."

camp profile: roughin' it

Part two in our awesome out-trips blog series. We're profiling our three super cool out-trips: Outback Adventure, Roughin' It and Adventure Classic. (If you click on the names of the camps, you'll hop right over to the info page on our website, which tells you how to register!)

Roughin' It

Roughin' It comes in two versions: Roughin' It boys and Roughin' It girls. Roughin' It camps happen out at our tipi site and they're wild and muddy and oh-so-much fun. Roughin' It camps are guys only or girls only, and they fill up at 12 campers. We have three to four leaders at the site with the campers.


The great Cody, last summer's Roughin' It boys leader, tells me that his favourite parts of tipi living were cooking food over a fire, playing it by ear with the schedule, playing in the creek, running around like crazy men with no shirts on and spending lots and lots of time in the sun (and he made sure to include that everyone always wore sunscreen, which is what I like to hear!).

Jasper's our Roughin' It boys leader for 2009. Jasper's a very fun guy (campers, you'll love him!) and he tells me he's looking forward to the night-time chapels and sharing what he knows about basic survival techniques (Jasper's just finished his first year with Prairie Bible Institute's Explore program). He's excited the spontenaiety that happens out at the tipis, and about each camp group bonding through games, initiative tasks and more! Jasper's guessing this year's Roughin' It boys will be filling their free time with lots of swimming, touch football and games like counsellor hunt.


Emily is our Roughin' It girls leader for 2009 and she's also coming to us from Prairie Bible Institute's Explore program. Emily's finished two years with Explore, and that means she's a hardcore outdoors person. Emily tells me she's really excited to play and teach in a relaxed setting and apply all the camping out, roughin' it kind of skills she's learned in the last couple of years. One of the things Emily loves best about camping out is being in God's creation because it's always revealing just how awesome God is.

Roughin' It campers get to do all the same activities as the on site campers: you get to sneak up onto site for trail rides, to use the challenge course and climbing wall (if you're over 8 years old), to canoe (like Alex, in the picture above) and to shoot targets at our archery range. But you also get to splash around the creek, learn how to cook over a camp fire (with the help of your Roughin' It leaders, of course), play crazy games you make up on the spur of the moment and rough it like you've never roughed it before.

Finally a point of debate: should we go with tipis, teepees or tepees? Actually, I can strikes tepees out right away; I just don't like that spelling. I want to spell it teepees, but I've been reprimanded for using that spelling, so I started using tipis. But now Jasper says, "no way, man. Teepees all the way." What do YOU think?

posted by kerry.

introducing ... erin

Erin's been here since October [edit: since SEPTEMBER. Erin has reminded me of this many times now but I never remember], hosting groups and leading activities and he's also become an expert bunk bed builder this winter. Courtney likes to call Erin "Beouf", in reference to former child star Shia LaBeouf, because she thinks Shia and Erin look alike. I'm not so sure.



hometown | Rosemary, Alberta

favourite band | Demon Hunter

favourite book | A series called "the Legend of Drizzt Do'Urden"

favourite move or tv show | Gilmore Girls

best camp memory | [Before I even share Erin's best camp memory, I should say that I can't quite figure out why this is a fond memory, but ... ] Erin says, "Sledding and hitting a tree, resulting in a minor concussion ... or my first time here." [I should also add that extreme sledding is not on our list of offered activities. And that I think the lighthouse skit at Rise 'n Shine 2008 should be on Erin's list of faves.]

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | Talking with other staff.

favourite skill to teach | Archery.

i can't make it through the day without ... | Praying.

favourite bits in the Bible | Romans 1:16.

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Either three or four.

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | Reading, studying God's word. [I, Kerry, will add that Erin is also a big fan of video games and, apparently, extreme sledding.]

anything else you'd like to say, erin? | "I miss people back home ..."

introducing ... courtney

I'm all about the blog post series right now, and I'm going to introduce you to all of our spring staff over the next two months. There are sixteen of them and they come to us from as near as Calgary and as far as California and Quebec. I've handed out a set of questions to them and I'm going to share their answers with you, faithful readers. I, of course, have comments and those will be contained in square brackets [just like this].

I'm going to start with Courtney. Courtney isn't actually spring staff, so this is a bonus post. Courtney is our illustrious Program Director, which means she's here at Evergreen year-round. She's also responsible for our spring staff team, which is why I'm including her in this "introducing ..." series.


hometown | Spruce View, Alberta

favourite band | the Fray, U2

favourite book | Scaredy Squirrel

favourite move or tv show | Bones and the Man from Snowy River

best camp memory | Being out on Trails Away [which, btw, is very similar to our current Outback Adventure camp] and coming across a herd of wild horses in the mountains. I don't know if I will ever get to see wild horses, free and in their element, again.

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | Bible Smugglers or the Killer Beam.

favourite skill to teach | Initiative tasks [Courtney's all about the team building sorts of things].

i can't make it through the day without ... | Devos ... and watching rugby.

favourite bits in the Bible | Hebrews 12:1-3 and Romans 12.

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Since 1999 (including two rugby hiatuses).

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | Play rugby.

anything else you'd like to say, courtney? | Come to camp! [Hey, that's a great idea, folks ... you can register RIGHT HERE.]

camp profile: outback adventure

A new blog post series! Over the next three weeks, we're going to post profiles of our three super cool out trips: Outback Adventure, Roughin' It and Adventure Classic. (If you click on the names of the camps, you'll hop right over to the info page on our website, which tells you how to register!)

Outback Adventure

Are you ready for adventure? Have you ever wanted to experience the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Alberta and ride into the sunset? Here's your chance! Outback Adventure is a week full of new experiences and a one of a kind camp. You'll step back in time as you journey to Barrier Mountain and ride out from a semi-rustic base camp into the Rockies. Breath-taking views, more horseback riding than your little tush can handle, and memories that will last a lifetime.


The Nitty-Gritty (Details) of the Camp
- Five days of riding among some of the most scenic and breath-taking views of the Canadian Rockies, west of Sundre, Alberta.
- Accommodations include a semi-rustic log cabin, a washhouse with toilets and a shower, a cook house, and full horse facilities.
- Personal instruction times with staff and guides.
- Home-cooked meals and chapel times around the campfire.
- Memories.
- Fully trained horses provided by a professional outfitter (Barrier Mountain Outfitters).



A Typical Day
Each morning, our Outback Adventurers will get up and prepare breakfast and pack their lunch for the day. They'll saddle their horses and spend some time working with their horses and getting instruction from their guides before heading out on the trail. Every day they will explore a different area, riding into the mountains, crossing creeks and small rivers, and riding through some of the more untouched regions of our province. Returning late afternoon, campers will untack and care for the horses that they have been riding. Supper is prepared and games are played. In the evenings, the staff will lead chapel (singing and sharing by our staff) around the campfire.


This camp offers a completely fresh and new experience for anyone looking for the "Cowboy Way". It completely removes campers from the business of the city and ordinary life and places them in the extraordinary!

Out here, great things can happen. Cowboys and cowgirls wanted! Sign up today!

posted by courtney.