WE CARE ABOUT TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN THE VALUES THAT MATTER.
The very heart of Camp Manitou lies in the importance of teaching kids respect, compassion and the extraordinary power of human kindness.
We’ve helped our campers believe that there is endless possibility for change when the gaze looks outward. The Manitoucamp Foundation was created to provide opportunities for our Manitou family to embrace this philosophy and give back to the world around them in meaningful ways.
Manitoucamp Foundation
We are very proud that as a result of our efforts we established an affiliate of Camp Manitou in 2014 – a Canadian registered charity under the name “MANITOUCAMP FOUNDATION”.
ManitouCamp Foundation was formed as an affiliate of Camp Manitou and is an independent Canadian Registered Charity (BN#: 819865189RR0001). ManitouCamp Foundation provides funds to various Canadian registered charities, many of which empower kids with the core values of outreach, community service and other charitable endeavours. Camp Manitou continues to run its ongoing Manitou Cares initiative to provide programs during the summer and throughout the year that teach children such values so that our children of today can become the philanthropic leaders of tomorrow.
Let’s continue to ‘lay the foundation’ for future generations of the Manitou family as we strengthen our resolve to come together with respect, empathy and outreach and pass these shared values on to each and every one of our children.
Since the Manitoucamp Foundation began in 2014, we have supported many Charities and Organizations including the following:
Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada
Dr Jay Children’s Grief Centre
Eva’s Initiatives for Homeless Youth
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation
Charitable Programming
By sending your child to Camp Manitou you will instill them in a culture where giving back to their world around them and having gratitude for their life will be a hallmark of every day. Our goal is to inculcate fundamental values that allow children to enjoy helping each other, and not only learning about each other’s differences but embracing such differences.
As a result, we have made it one of the core pillars of our camp focus to work on projects both during the summer as well as all year long that give back to the camp community, local community and global community. Parents choose Camp Manitou because they want their children to learn these values and norms. Such examples include our traditional Friday night service where we apply such values through campers and staff speaking on such themes and singing songs and presenting poems around a positive value or theme. We also have guest speakers that come up to Manitou to speak and inspire campers and then meet with our Leaders in Training and CIT’s to further teach them how they too can make a positive difference in the lives of others.
During the Friday Night service, we also teach about the importance of the indigenous history and culture in Canada as well as remind campers that the land we are living at was once part of their community. We discuss stereotypes of words and traditions and our responsibility to this group of people.
Camp Manitou has a special ‘Community Week” where all camper and staff actively participate in repairing the world and giving back to the world around them. The campers learn about a specific charity and raise money for this charity. For example, we cook soup for a local women’s shelter, visit a senior home, assist at a camp for visually impaired, and conduct so many other charitable activities. The week culminates in a Walk of Hope where all campers and staff in unison think about what matters most to them and our how we can benefit our community and reach out to make the world a better place.
During the year the Camp Manitou hosts many activities of a charitable nature which engages camper families locally and around the world. We serve community meals at local shelters, collect gift boxes for women during the Holidays, make sandwiches in our homes for drop-in centres, make soup as a group to donate, make cookies for a youth transitional housing organization, clean up local parks around the world, create planter pots for a hospital focused on mental health for youth, and pack pills for developing countries.
The Manitoucamp Foundation has supported many charities financially that we have recognized to be aligned with the values we teach at camp. If you have a charity or know of one that would be a good fit with this mandate, please contact Jen in the camp office at jen@manitoucamp.com
