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Bringing back a family tradition: St. Pat’s Camp to open |
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St. Pat’s high school may have gone the way of the do-do bird back in 1969, but an alumni says the quality education and genuine family atmosphere still lives on in the hearts of many, and is soon to be instilled in the hearts of many more young people as the St. Pat’s summer camp makes a comeback.
“A group of us are reactivating the St. Pat’s Camp at Lake Stoke. It hasn’t been active for 30 years. The Old Boys were getting older, and it fell asleep, but this year we have a big enough group to start offering the camp to boys again,” said camp director David Turgeon.
“I went to it when I was a boy in the ’50s, my son (Mark) went there in 1978, and now my grandson (Olivier) will be going this year. We had a terrific education and upbringing and we want to give a little bit of that to other youngsters in the region.”
The 200-acre spot on Stoke Lake was purchased by a group of St. Pat’s Old Boys back in 1948, and come September the association (with 125 members), formed completely of the high school alumni, will celebrate its 60-year anniversary.
“A group of Old Boys found the old farm site and wanted to buy it to have a camp, but they didn’t have the money. At the time an older Old Boy gave the group $5,000 and it was paid back slowly over the years.”
St. Pat’s high school, situated on Belvedere Street in Sherbrooke, ceased to be when Alexander Galt Regional High School was built.
Turgeon says the camp will once again impart traditional Irish values taught by who else but one of the school’s old teachers, Father Paul Brault.
“He was my teacher and he has been working non-stop for the camp. He’s been taking care of all the emails and working hard to help us get it off the ground,” Turgeon said. “Myself, Richard Butterfield, and Father Brault will be at the camp (along with a handful of others), making them bacon and eggs every morning, and lighting the campfires every night.
“We’ll take care of them. It’ll be early to bed and early to rise because they will be busy all day long.”
The Supreme Court of Canada put an end to the legal saga surrounding the ownership of the St-Pat’s Old Boys camp in Stoke in April 2007. That’s when the court turned down an application by Excavation Charles Grenier to appeal a series of lower court rulings that annulled the sale of the 250-acre camp to the Stoke entrepreneur. That decision returned ownership of the camp to the St-Patrick’s Academy Old Boys Association once and for all.
Before the controversy over the 2002 sale, it had been rented out to Scouts and other groups, but the Old Boys had not themselves run a summer camp for decades.
This year, emphasis will be placed on sports, including water sports, and Turgeon says the 8- to 11-year-old boys will stay in newly renovated cabins where eight will be lodging nightly for the five day adventure.
This year the camp is only for boys, but plans are already being made for next year when girls will be encouraged to attend, after the new girls’ cabins are built of course. Volunteers also plan on creating activities for youth between the ages of 12 to 14 years.
The $300 per child camp, which includes meals, will be open for business on July 20th, but Turgeon said proceeds all go back to the budget.
“It’s all non-profit. We will use that money for maintenance, like the dining hall needs a new roof, and will help subsidize for children whose parents can’t afford to send them. We aren’t using the site only for the camp. It is open to the public (to rent). Big groups can come and take advantage of the cabins, or even a small family can rent out cabins. All of that money is used for the kids.”
Call Father Brault at 819-563-4587, or visit www.campstpats.
By Jen Young
June 17, 2008 |
Montreal Canadiens
