As the end of summer approaches, our Learn to Camp: Book an Ambassador program is coming to a close for the season.
Whether you’ve learned how to make campfires, gotten acquainted with Ontario wildlife, or participated in another of our educational programs, our ambassadors look forward to seeing you at our park next summer to master the skills you just learned.
Reach campers in a new way
This season, we offered a new webinar series through our Learn to Camp website in collaboration with the Toronto Public Library.
We reached a large audience of park visitors who had a wide range of camping skills!
Participants learned a lot of important information about Ontario parks and campgrounds. We answered many questions from our participants and helped them ease their camping nerves before their big trip!
Thank you to the Toronto Public Library for hosting two of these online webinars.
This summer we partnered with Subaru and had several demo days at Sibbald Point Provincial Park to showcase the Subaru Wilderness Forester!
Visitors were able to view the car and see how it fit into their camping experience.
With the help of our friends at Parkbus, park ambassadors welcomed Ukrainian refugee children and a Pride group to our parks!
These groups enjoyed a day outdoors, walking and in the water.
Keep up to date with park ambassadors
Starting this year, we added seven new parks offering our Reserve an Ambassador program!
Our park ambassadors welcome visitors to their parks, help campers learn new skills, and support them no matter their experience level!
Our 18 ambassadors worked very hard this season teaching important skills to new and experienced campers.
We asked our ambassadors to share some of their favorite moments from this season. This is what they had to say:
Stephanie – Voyageur Provincial Park
“My first Book an Ambassador group session was about building the perfect campfire.
Campfires are my favorite part of camping and I was excited to get approval from my superintendent to light a real fire for my session.
All participants were extremely friendly and eager to participate. Seeing the children’s faces light up with pride when they gave an answer was my most memorable moment.
As well as spending time with our campers, talking about our shared interests and cooking marshmallows with them, which always makes everyone smile.”
emilio – Peninsula Provincial Park
“This August, I was doing a booked one-on-one session as well as a drop-in session here at Presqu’ile.
Both programs were attended by children who belonged to separate groups of campers. The programs were a couple of days apart, but each one had kids asking about the elephants in the park.
I had never been asked about elephants all summer, probably because it’s not something located near this area, but suddenly, several kids started asking about them!
“It was very random, but also adorable and slightly comical.”
megan – Earl Rowe Provincial Park
“This summer I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and help some new campers develop their love for the outdoors.
One of the most memorable moments I had during this season was with a couple attending a workshop. This was their second time camping and the first at Earl Rowe.
They were very excited to learn more about how to cook while camping, specifically how to cook over the fire. I loved being able to share some of my favorite campfire recipes and help you learn some different techniques for starting a campfire.
Thank you to everyone who attended one of my workshops or drop-in sessions! You all made this season memorable!
Ethan – Darlington Provincial Park
“One of my most memorable moments was when I led my first Learn To Camp program: a group session on “How to Build the Perfect Campfire.”
There were three young children in the group who asked questions throughout the session. – They were fascinated by the whole thing.
At the end of the session, these little ones were so excited about the new knowledge they had acquired, saying “we have to go tell our parents to bring firewood so we can make our campfire!”
This was a magical experience. “Now I had just given these families, both children and adults, the skills and motivation needed to create memories for themselves.”
harrison — Killarney Provincial Park
“My favorite Learn to Camp experience occurred during a “How to Build the Perfect Campfire” group session.
We set up an interactive component where campers had to separate wood, kindling, and tinder from a pile of firewood. As we progressed, it was a pleasure to see the children take the lead in creating the log cabin for the base structure of the fire.
To top off the session, a couple who were experienced campers approached us and mentioned that they never knew about the log cabin technique.
This just goes to show that no matter how old you are or how many times you’ve been camping, you can always learn something new!
Sophie – Killarney Provincial Park
“My favorite memory from Learn to Camp this summer was a time when I did the “How to Build the Perfect Campfire” session to book an ambassador.
It was with a family with a couple of kids, and the kids got to light the fire for the first time.
It was fun and rewarding to help a new generation of campers learn this skill and see their pride in being able to make a campfire for themselves.
It was also great to meet this family, swap camping stories, and then see them on other shows throughout the week.”
Tom – Sibbald Point Provincial Park
“In one of the first sessions we did, we had a family book on how to set up the site group session.
They had never camped before and borrowed their friend’s tent to try it out. Because our tent was so different from theirs, they simply asked us for tips and other information about camping.
We stopped by their site later to see how they were doing and ended up helping them set up their store. “They had such a good experience that they ended up staying one more night.”
Kylee – Sibbald Point Provincial Park
“One of my most memorable moments this season is when a mother and daughter signed up for a “How to Set Up Camp” session.
They came to the session ready to learn and were very engaged throughout the session! Each of them took turns setting up the tent poles and setting it up.
The best part? They returned to the park a week later and came to talk to us!
They told us how the tent setup went and that they have booked more camping trips in the future!”
Kristina – Turkey Point Provincial Park
“My favorite memory was one of my camp visits that was about cooking while camping.
I had a group of about 20 people come to the program. We had fun going over the different tabletop equipment used for cooking and completing some kitchen equipment matching games.
After that we moved on to the best part of the program: making s’mores!
Many of the kids had a great time making their s’mores and when asked what they remembered from the show, they were able to answer about fire safety and cooking, as well as share some stories from their own camping experiences.”
See you next year, campers!
Our Learn to Camp team will return next season, ready to teach new and experienced campers skills and create even longer-lasting memories!
Stay tuned in early 2023 for updates on our program.
These exciting Learn to Camp stories and memories would not be possible without the help of our sponsors.
Thank you to Coleman Canada, Qwick Wick Fire Starter and Subaru Canada for your continued support of our program!