“Are you doing the camp again?”

Yes. Of course. Producing the inaugural Make.Do.Camp. in 2016 was like seeing a sunrise for the first time. The lasting impression of feeling like the world was a much bigger and brighter place than it felt like before ensured that I would put my heart and soul into this event once again. So the dates are booked September 7-10, 2017 at Big Cove YMCA in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.

Is it a professional development course? Is it personal growth? Is it for yourself? Or is it to connect with others? It’s all of these things. Because all of these things are intertwined at all times of your life.

When you understand how someone solves a problem professionally, in a way you can apply to your own world, you level up. When you have breakthroughs in understanding your own heart and mind, you get along better with others. When you give yourself the solitude and space to be alone with your thoughts, you will find peace. When you take away crutches of technology and booze to interact with other people, you will discover the deep and lasting connections that can be made.

Brave Space is the secret sauce to our event. They facilitate and hold the space in a way that is so open, caring and calm that you barely notice the seamlessness until you arrive back home and wonder how you carried through with such ease, awareness and understanding. Brave Space will be with us again this coming year to help develop content and the schedule.

We also seek out workshop leaders who are: innovators, creators and creative professionals who are pushing the boundaries in whatever discipline they operate. We ask our leaders to not just be teachers, but to facilitate, interact and be students themselves. We have a unique way of creating our workshop content this year, so stay tuned to find out how you can be a leader!

The camp, Big Cove YMCA in Pictou County, has responded so beautifully to our event. They tell me they’ve been trying to get more grown-ups to the kid’s camp for a while, so it is a perfect match. They are continuously trying to improve the conditions and structures of the camp and we will be looking for more active partnerships with them to support their Strong Kids Campaign, which is explicitly to help kids reach their potential, which is what we hope for our own adult campers.

I still endeavour to do this event without applying for funding because I never want to be constricted in our planning. We want to do what is right at the time. I do seek out sponsors and donors to support those who cannot pay the full amount of registration and help us deliver excellent services to our campers.

This camp is open to all adults (18+) who are up for a challenge of disconnecting from their world in order to reconnect with a sense of purpose and meaning. Hope to see you there in 2017.