by Ian McTavish – Camper, Staff, Board member
I was eight years old when I was a camper for the first time. At campfire my counselor taught us the Aardvark song. Singing in front of the camp was terrifying but over the years I grew more confident to the point where I was leading campfire songs.
Tom Hill was the Director back then. When I was turning 13 Camp Big Canoe was starting a tripping camp program. My parents told me there was no way that we could afford this so I volunteered to work as a dishwasher at camp to reduce the price. Thankfully Tom agreed!
The tripping camp was awesome, 7 days in the depths of Algonquin park.
The next year they started the Outdoor Skills program. Once again I worked as a dishwasher for part of the summer and got to go on a fantastic trip – this time down the Spanish River.
Over the years I worked at Camp Big Canoe in a number of roles, counselor, canoe instructor, head tripper. The people I met became close friends – everyone in my wedding party worked at Camp Big Canoe. Now that I have children of my own I love sharing the Camp Big Canoe experience with them and I still catch myself humming the Aardvark song!
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