Mi-a-kon-da Mira

The start of a new era is in the works.

Mira is 6 and will be 7 years old shortly after the summer. As you know, my parents own and direct an all girls residential camp up in Parry Sound. My stepmother has been going to this camp and involved in some capacity in the Camp Mi-a-kon-da experience since she was a little girl and eventually came to own it and take over camp operations from the previous owners.

I started going when I was 11 or 12 years of age and continued until university life took over.

When I found out that I was pregnant with a girl, I was immediately thrilled at the thought of my daughter going to camp like I did. I spent years there, enjoy the tranquility of being in the middle of a lake on our own private island. I learned to appreciate nature. I learned to appreciate hot showers and electricity (we bathed in the lake and had no electricity). I loved the new friends that I made and the friendships I maintained every summer over the next several years. Even now, I am still friends will some of the girls from camp. One even lives in Georgetown and our kids are in the same class together!

This isn't just a camp, it's like a family of girls all living together on this little birch island. The girls get to just be girls without the pressure of trying to impress boys. No makeup, no hair salons, no malls. Just enjoying everything natural with some really good, down to earth girls.

I cannot wait for this summer as Mira spends her first session at camp. I have waited years for this and come August, as I send little Mira away on the camp bus, I will be so proud of her and the journey she will take with other girls her age who are just setting out on the path to camp. Ah the memories she will have and the things she will learn.