By Christina Whittmire

We had a busy summer of planning, fundraising, and preparation for our Canyon Church Camp rebuild at Waterton Lakes National Park. We were hoping to break ground this fall, but once again things in a national park are taking longer than we had hoped. Our architect has put the finishing touches on our site plans and things are looking good! We have been attending weekly meetings with Parks Canada, including two indigenous consultations which were interesting to take part in.

In September we had a work bee with about 22 people in attendance. We were able to remove over 20 dead trees that were around the buildings, relocate around 90 saplings that were growing between cabins 2 and 3, and do some much-needed organizing and inventory of supplies. We had a fantastic work crew! As requested, the dead trees were cut into 8-foot lengths and are available for ceremonial use by the Piikani Nation. Hopefully, this is the beginning of many future collaborations.

Our fundraising team has been busy and with the surrounding communities have raised around one hundred thousand dollars! Amazing! However, much more is needed to replace all the buildings we lost, as well as rebuild our infrastructure. Watch our social media campaign on Facebook and Instagram for your chance to meet our next fundraising goal. (Hint: We need to be “flush” with cash to reach this one).

We are always looking for volunteers on our board as well as on our supporting committees (Rebuild, Promotions/Community Engagement, and Fundraising committees) and Community Connectors to update congregations on our progress. Do you want to run a fundraiser for camp? Great! Let us know how we can help. Do you know any corporate sponsors that might be willing to help? We can’t wait to hear about them!

Donations can be made by etransfer to campcanyon@gmail.com, by cheque, or on Canadahelps.org. If you send an e-transfer, be sure to put your name and mailing address in the “notes” section so we can mail you a tax receipt! If you have any other questions, please contact your Canyon representative or campcanyon@gmail.com.

Thanks for supporting Canyon Church Camp!

Christina Whittmire, Chair, Canyon Church Camp Board