Urban Promise

August 2010

This summer, Camp Peace was blessed with Lindsay Vander Hoek, who came once a week in the afternoons to do gardening with some of the kids. We had a group of about ten kids sign up and they continued throughout the summer to go with her either to the garden in the backyard of the UrbanPromise office, or out front to the garden plot, and learn things about gardening.  One day they got out some magnifying glasses and became “scientists,” observing and discovering things in the garden; many of them were quite enamored with different bugs, and, much to the bugs’ dismay, trying to scorch them with their magnifying glasses!

Another cool thing they did was they learned about bees and the positive effect they have on plants and gardens, and Lindsay made little “bee houses” for the kids to paint.  It was a really neat and creative learning experience for the kids, and they enjoyed telling me what they had learned about bees while they were painting the bee houses.
Of course they also got to enjoy planting seeds, watering the garden, and even picking things from the garden to make a salad.

May 2010

As many of you know, I will be leaving UrbanPromise at the end of ASP on June 4. My husband and I will be moving back to Michigan in the summer to be closer to family and friends. I have been with UrbanPromise now for two years and it’s been great to get to know so many kids and families. When I first started as Camp Joy Director, I never thought that I would end up at Camp Peace, and although it was sad to leave Camp Joy kids, it has also been a blessing to get to know Camp Peace kids and their families. 

After I leave, Camp Peace will go back to having only one Director, Jenny, but we have also hired Katrina, to be her new Assistant Site Director. (If you would like to get to know her a bit more, check out the Leader’s Speak Up page this month.) This gives Camp Peace the chance to continue to split up into younger and older groups. Katrina started at Camp Peace on Wed. May 12, so the kids have had a chance to get to know her before the summer begins.

Thanks for all the memories!

~Daina Kraai, Outgoing Camp Peace Director

April 2010

At Camp Peace this semester we have been encouraging our many StreetLeaders to get more involved with the kids in our program and take more leadership, so they have been taking turns leading activities for the kids, either for the older class, younger class, or for the whole group.  We’ve had a variety of fun activities, including play-doh animals, learning card tricks, making “flubber” (which ended up being ridiculously messy, but the kids loved it!), piecing together a big puzzle that turned out to be in the shape of a Paralympics medal, and most recently, a paper airplane contest.

It has been fun watching StreetLeaders take more ownership while at camp and seeing the kids really engaged in the various activities. It is a good opportunity for the StreetLeaders to learn and practise leadership and get to know the kids better, and it’s a great way to have a lot of different things for the kids to do at camp.

Check out our photo album for pictures - Photos > Camp Peace > SL Activities.

March 2010

Since coming to Camp Peace from Camp Grace, it has been really fun and special for me having some combined activities with the two camps. Last month we had our “sock hop” dance party, and this month we had a Formal Lunch. We had a work group from Columbia Bible College come and shop, prepare the food, and serve the kids’ lunch.

The kids and staff all dressed up and came in to a decorated Camp Grace - complete with classical music, table numbers, name cards and plate service - for appetizers, salad, spaghetti and meatballs. They also preformed skits for each other in order to get their dessert – ice cream sundaes.

It has been really great not only being able to stay connected with Camp Grace kids, but to see Camp Grace and Peace kids hang out together. There has been ongoing rivalry between the two camps for some time and I like the idea of improving the relationship between them, especially since they are so close to each other; of course, I am biased because I’ve invested in both camps and just love to see them both!

You can see photos of our Luncheon at Photos > Camp Peace > Formal Luncheon.

~ Jenny Toews, Camp Peace Director

February 2010

In an effort to be more united with Camp Grace, Camp Peace kids have been getting together once a month on a Friday to enjoy a special event together. Last semester we had a few talent shows together, which the kids really loved showing off their talents! Just a few weeks ago, we had our first ever Sock Hop Dance Party at Camp Grace. Some of the kids were a little nervous about dancing, but most of them were pretty excited. In order to shake off the nervousness, we started with some stretching and marching to music. Once everyone was limbered up, we went straight into the dancing.

With our DJ Jenny and MC Daina, we started with the Cha-Cha slide, a popular dance set to music, with the instructions right in the lyrics. We then formed a circle and put on some Michael Jackson- a favorite at Camp Peace. The floor was open for kids to show off their dancing skills. This lasted for a song or two and then we got back into the group dances with the Macarena and the Electric Slide. The Electric Slide proved to be a little too difficult to teach some of the kids, so we quickly put on the Chicken Dance and the kids transformed into chickens. Then we had a limbo contest which was very popular and then ended the day with a dance-off, which the kids kept begging to have. Not knowing exactly what a dance off was, we quickly decided to let all participate and have only one rule: If you stop dancing, you’re out! All the kids danced for the last twenty minutes straight without stopping. It was a blast, along with a 10 way tie!

You can see some photos our Sock Hop at Photos > Camp Peace > Dance Off & Torch Relay.

January 2010

The new year is off to a great start at Camp Peace. We have a new co-director, Jenny Toews, who moved from Camp Grace to take Kurtis’ position. And while the older kids especially miss Kurtis, they have welcomed Jenny and all of her humor into Camp Peace with open arms.

On Wednesdays, the older kids (grades 4-7) have just begun a new Creative Arts Adventure: Cartooning! The kids enjoyed their first session learning how to draw single panels of cartoon strips and how to enlarge them into larger squares. They especially enjoyed it, because Kurtis was their instructor, which gives them all a chance to stay connected.

All of the kids are also busy studying for the upcoming Spelling Bee, which will take place between all three UP camps. On February 9, each grade will compete to see who is the top speller. The winners will receive trophies, and each child who competes will receive a book. In order to compete, the kids need to keep up on practicing their words, which some enjoy doing and others do not. In order to make it a little more fun, we played a spelling game where there are two teams. Each team races to one end of the room to pick up a letter and runs back to arrange the letters in the right order to spell out a word. This gets the kids improving their spelling and physical literacy without even realizing it!

You can see some photos of what we have been doing in Photos > Camp Peace > Typical Day.

December 2009

A Special Message from Kurtis:

Christmas is coming and I know that this is a time to be happy, but I’m afraid that I must share some sad news with you. At the end of this semester (December 18), my time at UrbanPromise will be coming to an end.

I have enjoyed my time with UP over the past three years, first as the director of GAP and Jr. StreetLeaders, then as co-director of Camp Peace. I have learned so much and formed some great relationships with the kids and parents. But now it is time for me to move on to a lifestyle that is more conducive to raising a family.

I appreciate all the support that I have seen from everyone!  You are a great group of people and I hope to be able to say goodbye to you all before I leave.

My replacement, Jenny Toews, will be beginning when Camp starts up again on January 11.  Jenny had been working at Camp Grace since September and Camp Hope the year before that.  She is no stranger to UrbanPromise and most the kids have already met her and have welcomed her in.

Farewell Camp Peace!  It has been an incredible journey with you!  I’ll be back to visit in the near future, you can count on it!

~Kurtis Findlay

November 2009

We have some exciting news at Camp Peace! After five months of Afterschool program without an intern, we now have a brand new full time intern at Camp Peace!

Meet Peter Chow, age 20, from Langley, BC.

Peter is an engineering major in his third year at UBC. As a part of his program, he was required to do an internship, which involved him working in Langley as a junior design engineer. Unfortunately, budget cuts led to him being laid off in October.  Throughout the last year Peter has been feeling a call to serve the poor, but wasn’t sure exactly what or where or how. After he lost his internship job, he started exploring different places to serve. He prayed that God would show him clearly where he was supposed to go. The internship at UrbanPromise ended up being the only place that worked out, and so here he is!

Peter will work with us full time until February when he will resume full time classes for 6 weeks, and then join us again until the end of the year. We are very excited to have him with us, and so are the kids!

October 2009

Camp Peace has been off to a great start this Fall! One of the most exciting days was a visit from Mike Battie, a professional juggler, who came to teach the kids his skills and put on a show. The routine began outside on a beautiful, sunny, 25 degree day. The kids piled out into the alley in the shade next to the church. Each child was given one juggling ball to start with in order to learn the technique of throwing the ball up to just the right height. The trick is to throw the ball up to the same place every time and catch it in the opposite hand. Soon a second ball was added. Mike told the kids if you can get the hang of the throwing action then everything after will fall into place, even if you can’t catch them yet. Balls were flying all over- some in the bushes, some under the stairs. Most kids stayed at two balls, but some of the older kids were able to add a third ball and got really close to juggling three balls.

After the lesson was over, we put our juggling balls away and Mike put on a show for us, complete with music, rubber chickens and, of course, fire. When the fire sticks were lit, all of the kids’ eyes grew really large and they scooted 5 feet back. It was really fun to watch their expressions. Mike also got the unicycle out and juggled while riding a 6 foot cycle. The kids got a kick out of it. As one grade one child summed up the experience,“I was so excited even my feet were clapping!”

You can check out more juggling (and other September photos) in:
Photos > Camp Peace > Juggling.

August 2009

Camp Peace re-opens for AfterSchool Program on September 9th. Kurtis and Daina will be at Laura Secord at 3PM that day to pick up the children. As always, Camp Peace will run until 6PM.

This year we will once again have the luxury of having 2 Site Directors at Camp Peace. This means that for certain parts of the day, like homework and Bible, we will be able to split the kids into two groups. Daina will be working with the children in Grades 1-3, and Kurtis will have those in Grades 4-7.

We are looking forward to an awesome fall together as we come up with new ideas over the next few weeks!

May 2009

Fridays are fun days at Camp Peace!  The whole camp gets together, both younger and older grades, and does a fun activity together.  The kids love that they don’t do homework on Fridays. 

Last Friday, at Camp Peace we did a photo scavenger hunt.  The kids were divided up into five groups of five with a leader in charge of each group.  The leader held the camera and the kids were in charge of being creative!  A list of 25 different poses were given to each group, and they had a certain amount of time to come up with the most creative poses while checking them off on their list.  Some were easy, such as “Group with a fire hydrant” and “Group on the swings.”  And some required a little bit more creativity, such as “Group baking a cake” and “Group being really tall.” 

All the groups did an awesome job working together and having fun.  Check out the photo album  - Photos > Camp Peace > Scavenger Hunt - to see the kids' creativity!

April 2009

Camp Peace - Grades 1-3

This is my third week now as a Camp Peace Site Director, and I must say it has been very different from Camp Joy. Each site has its own unique flavor, and Camp Peace brings lots of fun and energy to the mix. On my first day, kids were running up to me and tagging me, yelling “You’re it!” and running off for me to catch them. They are a very friendly bunch, which has helped me with the transition from closing Joy to starting at Peace.

I will be working specifically with grades 1-3, which basically means I teach them bible and homework separate from the other grades. A typical day starts off together as a large group playing at the school. We generally walk back together as a group and have snack together. After snack we split off to separate classrooms (older and younger) for Bible and homework. Free time at the end of the day is also spent together as a large group, depending on the length of time that remains.

I am looking forward to getting to know the kids and parents at Camp Peace even better over the next few months as we finish the afterschool program in May.

Camp Peace - Grades 4-7

What exactly goes on during the older kids' class? I thought I would share a few of the activities that we do during the few hours that we are together every day.

• Games: We play a variety of group games such as the Two-On-A-Couch, Bopper and Dead Worms. If you have never heard of these games, maybe I'll explain them in a future article. We also have a weekly round of Capture the Flag which we play at the school.

• Bible: A few times a week we watch a clip of a movie and see how it relates to the Bible. How does Remember the Titans teach about leadership? What does faith have to do with Apollo 13? Can the love of Jesus be found in Toy Story?

• Word of the Week: Each week I pull out a new word and help the kids intrigrate it into their vocabulary. We practice by using the words in creative writing. Do you know the meanings of these words? Rankle, onus, conjecture, affable, parameter.

• Homework: Each day the kids have time to work on homework and school projects with aid from myself and the other leaders.

I hope this give you a little bit of an insight on what goes on during the older kids' class at Camp Peace!

March 2009

I know that Camp Peace has been through a few changes in the past few months, but here is one more and then everything should remain the same for a while.

Daina Kraai has officially joined the Camp Peace team as Co-Director. Daina comes to us from Camp Joy and brings her creative ideas and caring nature to the younger class (grades 1-3).

Daina will be replacing Sarah, whose position at Camp Peace was only temporary until Daina's arrival.

Spring Break is coming soon and Camp Peace will be taking part in the UrbanPromise Spring Break Trips! The younger kids will be enjoying a day trip around the Metro Vancouver area on March 18, while the older kids are taking an overnight trip to Agassiz from March 19-20!  Look for pictures soon after the trips!

That's it for this month!  Have a fun and safe Spring Break!

~ Kurtis Findlay, Camp Peace Co-Director

February 2009

What's happening? What's happening?!?

Well, I'll tell you what's happening! Kurtis and Sarah have taken over Camp Peace!

It's now been three weeks since we started and it has been a pleasure getting to know the kids! We've already had so much fun, including a Pirate Day (Photo Album > Camp Peace > Pirate Day),  and we are only getting started!

Later this month we will be saying goodbye to our intern, Sonja, who has been with us since September. It will be sad to see her go, but we will have a big party to celebrate her time with us.

Spring Break is coming up, and while there won't be a Spring Break Camp this year, preparations for a Spring Break Trip for grades 1-4 and a Spring Break Overnighter for grades 5-7 is in the works! Stay tuned for more details!

January 2009

At the end of 2008, we said good-bye to the Camp Peace Site Director Jon Wong, as he left UrbanPromise to finish his Master's degree thesis and begin work starting up a new ministry organization, Global Hope Canada. Jon spent 2.5 years with UrbanPromise, during which time he had a tremendous impact on the kids and families at Camp Peace. He will be missed!

We are happy to welcome Kurtis Findlay as the new Camp Peace Director. Kurtis has been with UrbanPromise for two years, during which time he directed our GAP and Jr. StreetLeader Programs. Due to the funding loss that led to the closure of GAP, Kurtis was available to make the move to Camp Peace.

Due to the size of Camp Peace and the ongoing waiting list, we also made a decision to have a second staff member work at Camp Peace, in order to allow us to separate the older and younger grades. For the moment, Sarah Dykman, our Ministry Director is filling this role until the end of February. Sarah is working with the younger children, while Kurtis, following up on his GAP role, is in charge of the older children.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with Kurtis or Sarah if you have any questions about Camp Peace!