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JFAO Leadership Camp 2010
By Claire Bunnik – York President, LC Committee
Leadership Camp 2010: another exciting annual JFAO event that took place on the weekend of June 11-13th, 2010 and is open to all Junior Farmer and Senior 4-H members. This year, Leadership Camp was held in Goderich, located on the shores of Lake Huron in western Ontario. The beautiful Camp Kintail, had shore front property, comfortable cabins for us to reside in, a large main lodge for dining and activities, as well as acres of outdoor space for team challenges, leadership training, and much more!
“You’ve Gotta Kick a Little” was the theme of our camp this year, encouraging delegates to kick back and learn some leadership skills, in order to learn how to kick start our clubs!
Delegates of Leadership Camp arrived on site Friday evening in various spouts. After everyone arrived and our (bright orange!) t-shirts were handed out, we toured the grounds, found our cabins, played some ice breaking games, and settled down around a bonfire to enjoy roasted marshmallows and smores.
Saturday morning began in the dining hall. Following breakfast, we started our awesome team work challenges. Everyone was split up into three large groups and rotated to various stations around the camp property. Each station, run by the LC Committee, was different and required members to use leadership skills to work as a group to complete a task. Games such as Bullrings, Helium Stick, and Water Works were played. One station in particular had members using large pool noodles to build shapes. For this, people were blindfolded during the majority of the activity. Individuals had to work as a team to create flat and 3-D shapes. Groups had to include all members’ ideas, delegate tasks, and organize the group to keep safety a priority. Communication is key when doing activities like this and it was clearly important to have one person talking at a time.
After group debriefing, a small break, and a great lunch, we moved on to rock climbing, kick boxing, low ropes and other balancing activities. Nadine VandenHeuvel, from NV Fitness Conditioning, was invited to the camp to teach us various kick boxing moves, making us work up a sweat! Also, the camp staff spent time with each group doing activities that required extreme cooperation from group members. With considerable concentration and friendly competition, all activities were well liked by the Junior Farmer and 4-H members that attended camp. To conclude our day of group challenges, everyone benefitted from the free time, where individuals were able to spend time getting to know one another in an unorganized fashion down at the beach, as well as better acquaint ourselves with the 2010 international delegates visiting Canada for the spring and summer. At the beach the LC delegates and camp staff were able to canoe, kayak, swim, lay on the beach, and simply relax together, which is important for team cohesion.
There sure was a lot of kickin’ of boots on Saturday evening during the Leadership Camp dance! Members joined together in the main lodge to enjoy friendly conversation, share line dancing steps, learn how to square dance, and take part in two steppin’ around the dance floor. Well into the night people continued to dance, play cards, and learn new moves!
Sunday morning came too fast. After our last breakfast at Camp Kintail, we sat in the main lodge, coffee and tea in hand, anxiously awaiting our guest speaker, Lorna Wilson from OAFE. Ontario Agri-Food Education is our provincial charity for the year 2010. Lorna explained OAFE to members who were unaware of the organization, then continued to educate us on leadership. She put together a fine PowerPoint presentation and included interaction and discussion throughout the hour.
With a few more concluding group challenges and a fantastic lunch prepared using all local produce, our Leadership Camp weekend came to and end. Tired members packed their bags, tidied their cabins, and said final goodbyes - until the next event…
All in all, Leadership Camp was a success! It helped individuals to expand on leadership and team building skills that they will continue to use in Junior Farmers, 4-H, and outside of these organizations, in whatever comes across their path! A big thank you goes out to the Committee for another great Leadership Camp.
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