Young people gather for first youth camp held in British Columbia’s Southern Interior region

bahaicanada | 2023/08/30

The camp, which took place during the second week of August, created a space for participants to consider their contributions to the advancement of their communities.

Participants of the first B.C. Interior region youth camp. Photo: Daniel Leslie

On the weekend of August 11^th to 13^th, we held our first youth camp in the Interior region of British Columbia with 43 participants, including 24 youth, 13 adults, three junior youth and three children. The facility was at the acreage of an isolated Bahá’í in Barriere, B.C. Our host shared with us that she felt this camp had answered her heartfelt prayers for service.

The youth had fun tie-dyeing T-shirts, playing soccer, going swimming, doing Tai chi, and singing around a campfire.

The camp was a means for youth to connect, initiate and build friendships, and help “overcome the habits of isolation.”[i] Participants came from communities across the region, including Williams Lake, Clearwater, Lillooet, Kamloops, Vernon, Lake Country, and Kelowna.

The organizing team hoped that participants would gain tools from this camp to be able to go back to their communities, “read their own reality and ask: what, in light of the possibilities and requirements at hand, would be fitting objectives to pursue in the coming cycle or series of cycles?”[ii] For this reason, our camp was strategically located in a cluster in the region that has been recently generating momentum and learning about intensifying growth of the institute process.

During sessions, the 2013 Youth Conference materials guided our conversations about the potency of the period of youth and the importance of mutual support and friendship. We explored these themes through poetry, drawing, and drama. We also had fun tie-dyeing T-shirts, playing soccer, going swimming, doing Tai chi, and singing around a campfire.

Indigenous elder and Bahá’í Gail Kreiser Leach did a smudging ceremony, taught the youth how to make “Indian Ice Cream,” and led them in song. She also spoke with them about their important role in the world.

The gathering was blessed by Indigenous elder and Bahá’í Gail Kreiser Leach, who performed a smudging ceremony, taught us to make “Indian Ice Cream”—a treat made by Indigenous peoples in the Interior Salish region[iii]—and led us in song. She also spoke with the youth about their important role in the world.

For the service component of our camp, we volunteered at the local food bank. We built food hampers, washed the exterior of the building, did yard work, and beautified the outdoor space with painted rocks and flowers. This amounted to a whopping 77.5 hours of volunteer work for the food bank in one day! A beautiful act of reciprocity occurred when Food Bank volunteers, in turn, helped us cook for the camp.

In a sweet moment, the youth and children broke into song, singing “I think you’re wonderful”[iv] for the camp volunteers.

We are already planning to bring the youth of the region together again in the Fall, and we hope to make the Interior B.C. Youth Camp an annual family camp with rotating hosts across the region.

During sessions, the 2013 Youth Conference materials guided conversations about the potency of the period of youth and the importance of mutual support and friendship.