Political Attack Ad Screw Up

Sometimes I get angry at stuff I see on TV. I’ve even been known to shout at contestants on programs, even though I know they can’t hear me. This DSC_0214week the Federal Conservative government of Canada put out an attack ad against Justin Trudeau as the new leader of the Liberal party of Canada. This one offended me. While I have never been a Liberal and don’t plan to become a Liberal or vote for one, someone in the PMO screwed this one up; suggesting that the experience of being a camp counsellor is something at which to be scoffed. It’s NOT! You can see the media here if you haven’t already seen it on your TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWuN3ZVuxU

I don’t know what camp Justin attended, but it’s pretty clear that the Conservatives have no idea the level of responsibility that a camp counsellor (or cabin leader) takes on. For the week that a camper is at camp, the camp counsellor becomes the parent, mentor, leader, guide, motivator, confidant, friend, supervisor, advisor, teacher, supporter, organizer, chief, trail blazer, spiritual role model and big brother/sister. AND, it’s a 24 hour a day job with huge responsibility for the campers in their care. At many camps the camp counsellors are also the activity leaders. These brave people take on leading 6-8 campers in the cabin and teaching 10-15 each activity period. For so many it’s a way to give back for all the role models they had growing up at camp.

I tweeted the following out to our Prime Minster, Stephen Harper and my local MP, Tony Clement: “@pmharper @TonyclementCPC why would you malign Justin being a camp counsellor? That’s an honourable job to have done!” No response yet.

Fifty

Fifty, the BIG 5-O. I made it! It’s been a great birthday. As far as the big milestones, I guess this is one of those, but I don’t really feel like I’ve crossed some great divide. Thursday was dinner with my beautiful wife for wings at Kelsey’s. Friday was dinner at East Side Mario’s followed by coffee at Tim’s with friends that don’t get together often enough. Many laughs were had by all.

Saturday was lunch in Barrie at William’s Coffee Pub with my family followed by an hour at the Goodwill store. Then it was on to Medieval Times in Toronto for a feast and a show. We got our picture taken with the princess, met up with some camp staff, planned how we could use their ideas for a themed week at camp, I was knighted so that’ll be Sir Mike or Sir Moose if you prefer. You just can’t go wrong with dinner that you’re supposed to eat with your hands, horses, a tournament, knights, sword fights and jousting. Our champion didn’t win, but the evil interloper was defeated and the princess saved.

I have a treasure box in front of me filled with letters from friends (staff, family, co-workers & old friends). Carolyn collected these and put them together with some pictures in a treasure box. It is truly a treasure to me. As I have read the letters from people I have had to stop many times as my tears and the lump in my throat have made it impossible to continue. Some of you are just discovering that I have emotions. I appreciated the funny ones as they gave me some reprieve. One of my favourite sayings is that you can count the seeds in an apple, but not the number of apples in a seed. I have told this to decades of staff explaining that they will never know the full impact of their actions/ministry on others. I have been given a glimpse into the seeds that are now spreading seeds of their own. I have read all the notes and feel very blessed. Thank you all.

Today I’m relaxing after church, reading through my treasure box and reflecting. Time for a nap! I hear its part of the 50+ club daily routine. It’s been a great birthday.

Welcome to our new Widji website

Welcome to the new website.

I’m glad you have joined us. For a while now our old website has been malfunctioning, getting tired and the program was no longer supported so we re-branded and relaunched here at www.widjiitiwin.ca.

I’m excited to unveil to you this new site which is much improved with all new and updated content. Thanks to Chad and his team at Rhubarb Media for all their work!!

Mike (Moose) Greenfield

www.mycamp.ca
www.facebook.com/CampWidjiitiwin
@WidjiMoose

Being ambassadors for Christ to children and youth

2013 Widji Themes

Lego
Brick, brick, brick, window, brick, brick, brick, brick, wheels, brick, brick, brick, door, brick, brick, brick, brick… What is it you may ask? To find out you’ll have to come to our Lego week and discover the adventure at Camp Widjiitiwin.
Destination: Australia
WIDJI: the land down under, home of kangaroos, koalas, big snakes and crocs of course. Plus you’ll discover boomerangs, didgeridoos and chicken on the “barbie”. We’ll head deep into the outback to search for the elusive ten foot high Kangaroo beast that lives in the forest.
Survivor Widji
Outplay, Outcamp, Outlast… This week at Widji will test your metal against other tribes in challenge after challenge. Win some, lose some, get the reward, but who will win the “immunity trophy” and avoid tribal council? Which tribe will be the ultimate survivor? Who will survive tribal council where someone WILL be voted into the river?
Western Town
Go ahead, make my week… cowboys and cowgirls will enjoy this week where the sheriff is the law, the wranglers will lead great activities and we’ll enjoy some awesome chow in the Longhouse. Plus there’s great treats at the General Store. Grab your cowboy hat and boots and mosey on over to Widji for a fun western week. Try yer hand at lassoing, target shootin’, bronco riding, and stop by the sheriff’s office to see who’s in jail. Y’all come to camp now.
1990’s
Take chances, make mistakes, get messy! In the 90’s Magic School Bus and Miss Frizzle ruled the airwaves. Bill Nye the science guy intrigued us, Arthur ruled the playground, no one knew where in the world was Carmen Sandiego and we collected beanie babies, Tomagotchi & Pogs. Come to Widji and be ready when the “bus does its stuff” and you’re “Saved by the Bell!”

Excited for a Headache

As I lay in bed feeling the rhythmic drumming of my pulse inside my head, I realize that I have woken up this morning with a headache and I’m kind of excited about it. While that likely sounds crazy to you, let me tell you why. Almost a year ago I woke up with double vision for no apparent reason. That began about an eight month journey with a low grade headache almost every day that medications wouldn’t take away. Then in late November I got a plastic film that bent the sight in my right eye six degrees towards the left. The headaches were almost instantly gone as my eyes and brain no longer struggled to make me see what was really there with no extra parts on the right side.A few weeks ago I got new glasses. That in and of itself is nothing remarkable, it’s even commonplace. But, these particular glasses bend my vision straight. It turns out that in my struggle with double vision that my right eye has a sixth nerve palsy and is out by six degrees. So my new glasses have a three degree bend in each lens, bending towards the middle. Above and below the glasses is way out, so I avoid looking over or under my glasses. The new glasses have eliminated 90% of the headaches that started in March when the double vision came on.

It’s like the light bending experiments in physics class or like looking through a glass bottle of water and seeing an out of place image on the other side. I have also discovered that this is more common than I expected.
Several extra strength Advil, two cups of coffee and an Excedrin later I’m still feeling the pounding. I’m starting to be a little less excited now. More coffee…

Reminiscing

I drove by my old house in Mississauga recently. And my old grade and middle schools in the same trip. It got me reminiscing about people and events and brought all kinds of emotions and memories to my mind. The house is similar, but with new paint and different trees. The old apple trees are gone and so was the TV antenna. My first thought was don’t they know that the kids will need it to climb down off the roof when they sneak out a window after bedtime and over the roof? It worked on several occasions and was always Tom’s idea.

I pictured each house around our old one and who lived there in my memory. There was even an older man working the in garage where I remember Mr. Sevren working. Across the road was where Max and Susie lived. Down the road was Christies where my younger brother was dared into eating dog food. Greg and I were born on the same day, same year and used to have birthday parties together. Around the corner was where Bobby Maxwell and I smoked a pack of his dad’s Colt cigars in his tree house and made ourselves sick. Begg’s lived on the other side of us from Sevren’s and she did a lot of knitting if my memory serves me well.
Molters were between Lakes and Christies and I remember spending hours listening to music in the basement. Todd was a year older and we played a lot of baseball in the school field behind our houses. The older boys taught me to catch a baseball by throwing the ball at my head. The Nicholls were on the corner and on the way to Bobby’s house. They recently moved in to the senior’s complex where Elaine runs the salon. Fortunately for me she recalls that I was pretty much an angel. Guess she didn’t know about the cigars.
I sat in the truck in front of the old house so long that I expected Mrs. Lake to come out and run me off. Mrs. Lake was that lady in the neighbourhood who scared all the kids, and maybe a few of the adults. Eventually it was time to head for my next meeting. There were so many more memories that came to me then and as I finished my drive to Hamilton. Until the next visit…

Cooking with Moose: Bend for Your Elves

I’m not sure this happens at your house, but it sure does at ours. That is sometimes you just don’t want to cook supper and it is preferred to tell your family to fend for themselves. We had this one day, but in a noisy house it was done as charades so that “fend for yourselves” came out as “bend for your elves”.  Now it has become a “house classic” and even made it in to our family cookbook. Enjoy this many optioned meal from the kitchen of the Greenfields.

Ingredients
  • Use whatever you can find in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, pantry, on the counter, or other places food is stored in your house.

Directions

  • Combine several ingredients together to make a new dish or an old favourite.
  • Use as many ingredients as possible
  • You can choose to eat it cold or hot
  • Cooking options include microwaving, baking, frying, BBQing, steaming, toasting, searing, boiling, sautéing, etc.
  • Condiments are always popular so try a new one or just hot sauce

Notes:

  • Each portion is an individual serving
  • Some favourites include 12 kinds of cereal in one bowl
  • Grilled cheese with various additional ingredients
  • Nachos loaded with lots of cheese (this is especially excellent on Sunday nights and is one of my favourites)

An HR Review of Jesus’ Disciples

TO:
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM:
Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 26544

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them.

As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comment, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
– Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
– Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.
– The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.
– Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
– We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
– James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of great ability and resourcefulness, interacts with people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

Cooking with Moose: Seafood Chowder

This isn’t my usual blog post, but I just finished making a pot of this seafood chowder and decided to share. I have been looking for a seafood chowder recipe for a while and couldn’t find one I liked. SO, I set out to put together a list of ingredients that I liked and it turned out quite well. Sometimes food experiments can turn out as a terrible disaster, but my family tells me this one is good. I’m sure if you are on the east cost of just about anywhere this won’t compare to the fare you are used to, but we enjoy it. On a cold snowy afternoon in Muskoka, its just the thing to have with some pull-apart buns or toast.
Enjoy…

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter
2 tsp minced garlic,
1 stalk celery, minced (I skip this one)
1 onions, minced
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
½ teaspoon dried parsley
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons flour
3 ½ cups milk
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 cup whole kernel corn
1 ½ cups chopped potatoes
½ pound shrimp
½ pound small scallops
½ pound crab meat
1 small can chopped clams
Directions

Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat
Sauté onion until tender
Add cayenne pepper, thyme, marjoram, pepper, parsley and flour and stir until smooth
Add milk and condensed soup and stir until piping hot
When soup is piping hot, add seafood, corn and potatoes and stir on medium heat until seafood is cooked through

Widji Fall 2012 Update

Camp is very quiet this week as we head into the fall season. The campers and staff all left on the Labour Day weekend, a small group helped clean camp, prepare for and run a youth retreat for 77 youth we hosted and now it’s just me on property closing up after a great season of ministry and God’s faithfulness. We had a GREAT summer of ministry including seeing 33 campers who became new Christians. We had the best staff this summer and all were dedicated to being ambassadors for Christ to the campers and each other. It was certainly a summer of personal and spiritual growth. My health made the long days difficult, but I knew I had a leadership team who were capable, dependable and reliable. There was a great spirit amongst the staff this year.

We finished the waterslide and it was a big hit with campers and staff alike. We build a large 20’ by 24’ gate and painted it to be part of the various theme weeks. Other big props included a 10.5’ Widjisaurus, turning the tower into the eye of Sauron and the Longhouse castle.
Our four year partnership with Toronto Police to bring at-risk-youth to Camp Widjiitiwin from Malvern and other communities within 42 Division in Toronto was a great success. In 2011 we had 67 campers in this program and this year we had 85. On the Monday prior to the group arriving on property we had raised just 25% of the funds needed for the week and no money in sight from our major funding partner. The officer called me and was considering cancelling the week. After careful consideration we decided to go ahead with our mandate to reach kids for Christ and trust God to deliver the much needed funding. Within the week we went up by $22,000 and completed our total funding goals two weeks before the end of the summer. Nine campers gave their lives to Christ that week. Two of the previous campers from this program were on summer staff this summer, one as a cabin leader. Next summer the target is 100 campers, making it our largest week of the summer. We are hearing about change happening back in the community from the kids experiences at camp. Very exciting!
Escape, our new partnership week with Hughson Street Church in Hamilton, also went very well. We had 33 campers with us for the first week. So many of them had never been out of Hamilton before. They had so many firsts, like swimming, archery, seeing stars, and hearing God’s Word. These campers came from families that are in the working poor category who just could never think about sending their kids to camp. We had three campers give their lives to Christ this week. Next year we’re planning for 60 campers to Escape to Camp Widjiitiwin.
From just 35 sponsored campers in 2009 we’re targeting 200 sponsored campers in 2013. More details to come in the new year, BIG things are coming.