District 5550 International Youth Camp

 

 

 

Rotary District 5550 and the Sioux Lookout Rotary Club offer an amazing, wilderness, canoeing experience to youth from all over the world. Each July for the last 28 years 12 – 16 youth have gathered in Sioux Lookout for 14 fun filled days of adventure.

 

Young people apply through their local Rotary Club/District. Each country is invited to send one participant. Overcoming the challenges of multiple languages and experience levels is guaranteed as the group becomes a team through their days of initial training and on the trip itself.

 

The participants arrive on Wednesday. They are billeted with Rotary families. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and spend training, learning about canoe techniques and wilderness camping and getting to know each other. Sunday through Sunday the young people and leaders paddle 200-kilometre through north-western Ontario, boreal forest in two-person, aluminum canoes. Everyone participates in all aspects of the camping/canoeing trip including cooking, setting up tents, paddling, and of course, carrying equipment and canoes over the seven portages (the longest being 2.0 km).  The scenery is spectacular; the group will travel through kilometre after kilometre of uninhabited (apart from moose, beavers, and eagles) lakes and forest.  Evenings around the campfire are memorable as stories are shared.

 

Monday and Tuesday are spent cleaning and repacking equipment and visiting some local sites of interest. Tuesday evening is an International Pot Luck dinner shared with camp participants, Rotarians and local leaders.