The Boys and Girls Club of Yukon (BGCY) has received funding for the upcoming Haines Junction Summer Camp from the Yukon Government’s Youth Investment Fund.

$4000 in funding will be used to pay for staff wages, food and program supplies to help support the program (a new name created by youth is pending).

The camp takes place in and around Haines Junction from June 22-Aug. 12.

It is open to children five to 13 years old.

According to BGCY Communities and Communications Director Isabelle Piché, this will be the second year of delivering a summer recreation camp in The Junction.

“We’re going to offer outdoor land-based activities, community engagement, arts and crafts, sports and most important is we’re going to have a whole lot of fun inside the community of Haines Junction.”

“Where we’re going to try to do a lot this summer will be the initiation to archery – would be a big, big thing. There is a lot of sports teams already involved in the community but we really want to just provide opportunities for young people to try everything that’s possible. So in the sports we may play some baseball, we may play some soccer, some kickball, we’re really going to try to bring a lot of opportunities.”

BGCY Executive Director Lindsay Cornell added “it includes a lot from the land-based side, like hiking, trying to get paddling and engaging some of the cultural components too, so where recreation is not just defined as active, there’s also going to be the arts and cultural side development through fires and beading and again, food and other things.

“We also have a relationship with Creative House, through Youth of Today’s Society, so hopefully getting young people engaged there virtually or rather to help share their narrative and do this more in terms of like, music and clogging and other kinds of things. This is our dream. We know that it doesn’t always happen that way.”

“And I think it’s important to recognize the goal that Isabelle and the team have put out, is to make sure we can highlight and celebrate the great things and awesome skills and expertise that exist in Haines Junction, so all of the facilitators are local and also to inspire a positive future for young people in Haines Junction so they can work with these people and get inspired about their life.”

Cornell expanded on the goals of the program.

“Healthy young people engagement, connecting with the community, building self-confidence and inspiring them to see their own positive future as well as providing a safe, quality high-care place for families to have their young people cared for over the summer.”

“It’s an ongoing intake, so young people can join for one week or all the weeks and they will have what we call a developed experience. So if you come one week, you have an experience, and if you come all weeks, your experience will grow. It’s never going to feel boring.”

Piché added “this camp is also a big youth employment opportunities, so we’re creating a program where youth are going to embark on internship and going to grow employment skills throughout the summer and really going to be building up their employability skills. They’re going to get trained, first aid, hopefully food-safe, really tangible training for them to be ready to go on the labour market.”

Cornell added “just a huge gratitude to the municipality of Haines Junction who has formally and officially supported us (including financially), with more information to come and a huge thank you to the greater Haines Junction community itself, all the peoples, for supporting us.

“And also if we could just highlight the work of Isabelle out there to do this; she’s really been a champion here.”

BGCY engages in many other sporting activities including on-the land activities like camping, fishing, canoeing, and paintball, archery tag, bowling, curling, swimming and many other activities.

To learn more about the camp or to volunteer with BGCY, please visit their website at https://www.bgcyukon.com/