Camp Caroline test drives new experience at Whitecourt Baptist Church

The Whitecourt Baptist Church hosted Camp Caroline’s City Camp from August 14 to18 and was one of only two Alberta Baptist churches to have such an opportunity with the second being Brentview Baptist Church in Calgary. Over the course of five days, 26 to 30 local children enjoyed activities including laser tag, tie dyeing, and outdoor games.

Camp Caroline is stationed in Caroline, Alberta and is a popular destination for kids and their families. It offers summer, fall, and winter camps as well as other opportunities throughout the year. City Camp is a new adventure as they look to reach more kids throughout the province. “The overnight format doesn’t work for all campers so we are now looking into a day camp format. This is our first trial summer to see how it goes,” explains Tony Engeler, Director of Summer Camps at Camp Caroline.

Two locations were selected, Whitecourt and Calgary, to test out both markets with one being a big city and the other a smaller community. “We hope to bring a bigger experience than a church or other small camp would be able to offer such as the $30,000 worth of laser tag guns that we brought with us. We also brought fiddles from Edmonton,” said Tony.

Dwayne Dibben, senior pastor at Whitecourt Baptist, said he heard laughter and squeals throughout the week as the kids enjoyed themselves. “We were quite privileged to be approached by Camp Caroline to partner with them and host one of its first ever city camps. They came in with a staff of six summer counsellors and a plethora of activities for the kids. It’s been lots of fun.”

Whitecourt Baptist recently finished adding a large addition to the church building making it much easier to host an event such as City Camp. “We have this new facility and this new space and it was just a perfect time for us. The whole idea of the facility is to serve the community, so here we had this opportunity to have all these kids truly run throughout it all week and enjoy it and that’s exactly why we built it,” said Dwayne with a smile.

Other activities that took place during City Camp included safe archery, bouncy castles, a water slide, and capture the flag at a nearby park. “We’ve had a great time here in Whitecourt. It’s been fun hanging out with the kids,” said Tony, adding that he and his summer counsellors are very thankful for the support they’ve received. “A big thank you to all the families and the billets. Whitecourt has been a great host and we are very thankful that we could try this out here.”

To learn more visit www.campcaroline.ab.ca.