The Toc H Winter Camp was held from Friday 15 to Monday 18 July at the campsite in Victor Harbor. The children we have on camp have all experienced some kind of disadvantage and the camp gives the children experiences they would otherwise miss out on and gives them and their parents valuable respite over the school holidays. We had a great bunch of children and volunteer leaders who all thoroughly enjoyed the camp. The children were having so much fun it was hard to get some of them on bus to take them home!
While the weather was a bit chilly, we were blessed with plenty of sunshine over the weekend and we were able to do a range of indoor and outdoor activities. All the leaders helped out in designing, preparing and running various activities. We had a dragons and magic theme this camp - the children were divided into groups represented by different types of dragons.
We went for a walk down the boardwalk to the oval and playground at Victor Harbor Primary School. The children had fun sliding down the slippery dip, playing ball games on the oval and exploring the play equipment. Back at the campsite there was always a long queue for the trampoline, bicycles and scooters.
We ran lots of arts and crafts activities including making funny faces from biscuits and lollies, drawing and staining treasure maps, making juggling balls from bird seed and balloons, painting paper bags with potato stamps, creating magic wands out of sticks, making spooky decorations for the main hall, making dragon masks and painting photo frames.
On Saturday night we had a 'Night of Horrors'. We decorated the hall with our spooky decorations, played some spooky games, got really creeped out putting our hands in mystery boxes (which contained a stuffed toy, lychees, baked beans and spaghetti in tomato sauce) and watched a spooky movie.
On Sunday night we had drama performances and a disco. Each group created their own 'fractured fairytale' to perform in front of everyone. The children had to take a well known fairytale or fairytale characters and put an interesting twist on it! We had versions of Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, princesses meeting up for a school reunion in space and a fairytale wedding interuppted by King Kong! After that we had the big farewell disco in the main hall which was set up with disco lights and a fog machine and we all had a really great time dancing the night away.
We had an exceptional group of volunteer leaders, without whom the camp would not be possible. Thank you to Jessica Byrnes, Christopher Shiers, Tessa Chatterton, Jessica Halligan, Katie Wright, Caitlin Chehade, Morgan Faulkner, Timothy Hoare, Alice Langsford, Claire Langsford, Teagan McCloud, Leigh Shiers, Justin McCredie, Corey Newcombe and Helen Wadham for their valuable time and effort. Thanks also to our caterer Jenny Mason, camp caretakers Roydon Ellison and Ashley Triffet and bus drivers from Genesis Tour and Charter.
We also appreciate the support of the following organisations who sponsored the camp:
Rotary Club of Henley Beach, Rotary Club of Coromandel Valley, Rotary Club of Flagstaff Hill and the Prospect Blair Athol Lions Club.
It was with some trepidation that we disembarked from the bus at the campsite on Monday (27 December) with 25 children and 19 leaders. There was some light rain we feared might ruin our well laid plans for the day. However, it quickly cleared and improved with each passing day until we enjoyed a relaxing ride home through the scorching weather on the New Year’s Eve.
As usual the summer camp was a thrilling, exhausting, challenging, fun and wild for both children and leaders. We packed in a lot of outdoor activities including a walk down to the playground and oval at Victor Harbor Primary School, many games of basketball, riding bicycles and scooters around the campsite, a walk down to the beach and a swim in the ocean, jumping on the trampoline and playing t-ball and cricket.
We also enjoyed some quieter time in shade doing arts and crafts activities including tie dying bits of material in lots of exciting colours, creating masks, making pet rocks and juggling balls, painting treasure boxes, playing dress up games and bingo and watching a couple of movies.
However, there were two stand out highlights of the camp! The water activities day organised and run by the volunteers of the Goolwa and Centennial Park Sea Scout Groups was a tremendous success as usual. The children got a chance to construct and row rafts, have a go at sailing, drive a power boat and have a canoeing adventure. These kids would not normally get a chance to do such fun activities and we’re sure the memories will last a lifetime. A very big thank you to John Hooper and all the scouts for their time and effort!
To view more photos from camp, click the link to the gallery at the top of the page.
The other stand out was the disco run in the hall at the campsite featuring a dazzling array of colourful lights, an energetic soundtrack and even a fog machine. The kids and leaders got a chance to let their hair down and have a party to celebrate the last night of camp.
We had difficulty recruiting volunteer leaders for this camp, so we would especially like to thank all those who volunteered their time. These camps cannot run without the goodwill and efforts of these volunteers. Thank you to Tanya Brain, Tessa Chatterton, Timothy Hoare, Monica Hoare, Christopher Shiers, Ryan Hagemann, Toni Reynolds, Chuong Nguyen, Dean Farr, Natasha Watkins, Aaron Hassack, Caitlin Chehade, Aidan Sakovits, Caleb Lunt, Simon Crompton, Leigh Shiers and Justin McCredie. Well done to our large batch of first time leaders and a special thank you to our returning leaders.
Special thanks to our caterer Jenny Mason, camp caretakers Roydon Ellison and Ashley Triffet, and bus drivers Alan Bell and Genesis Tour and Charter.
Congratulations to Monica, Timothy and Chris for reaching the five camp milestone. (A special congratulations to my fellow coordinator Daniel for having volunteered for ten camps! – Patrick).
This camp would not have been possible without the support of the following organisations who sponsored the camp:
• Kiwanis Club of Gawler
• Kiwanis Club of Mitcham
• Kiwanis Club of Reedbeds
• Rotary Club of Brighton
• Rotary Club of Mt Barker
• Rotary Club of Adelaide
• Rotary Club of Modbury
• Rotary Club of Campbelltown
Daniel Roberts and Patrick Korbel (Camp Coordinators)
Toc H camp leaders are all volunteers committed to supporting children to form positive relationships with their peers, to make healthy choices, to build self-esteem, and to develop positive community attitudes. Our volunteer co-ordinators and leaders organise, plan and implement a creative range of activities for the children.
At Toc H Camp, we support kids to:
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Toc H Camps give kids:
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At Toc H, we believe that every child has the right to a happy and positive childhood. Toc H members and other community service organisations (such as Kiwanis and Rotary) sponsor the camps. We receive no government funding, and find it a continual battle to provide this service at a minimal cost to the families ($25 for a 3 or 5 day camp). This cost is often further subsidised for the family by the referring agency.
Toc H Victor Harbor Campsite & Camping Program
For the past 70 years, Toc H South Australia has provided camping programs for children in need. Our camps not only provide families with much needed respite, but just as importantly, provide children between 7 and 11 years with the chance to engage in activities that they would otherwise not have the chance to experience.
The children who attend our camps have experienced or continue to experience extreme hardship. They are referred to us by school counselors, and agencies such as Anglicare, and Families SA.
Most commonly their families have faced:
"We may think that needs exist only for those children growing up in war-torn, impoverished, countries where parents are too exhausted, too depressed, too deprived to provide their children with even the basics of food, clothing and shelter... even in the most privileged societies of the world, children are neglected, malnourished of body and soul, and abused... they miss out on a childhood full of adventure and experimentation and fun... many of today's children need to be re-introduced to the very concept of play".
- Christina Noble
"Of particular concern to us, is the increasing demand being placed on foster families in South Australia, who are becoming more and more stretched to meet the current demand. Caring (parenting, foster parenting etc) can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Breaks from caring can help to relieve the stress and exhaustion carers may feel. Adelaide is desperate for foster carers... Anglicare has recently advertised for foster carers due to the shortage... On any one night Anglicare has around 600 children in foster care situations... and has about 200 carers to cope with this... the families are becoming increasingly stretched to meet the demands".
- Liberal Human Services spokesman Dean Brown 23 Feb, 2004