After the pandemic caused summer camps across the country to close, two Guelph students created a virtual camp experience for children in their city.
Childhood friends and now colleagues, 19-year-old Aden Morton-Ferguson and 20-year-old Evan Holmes created Virtually Together Camp, a camp experience for kids from ages eight to 12 where they can participate in six interactive activities that are creating art, playing hockey, dancing, conducting science experiments, singing and even learn magic tricks.
“We know that kids don't like sitting in front of computers for more than an hour or even less so then we decided to pick a bunch of activities that we decided would be cool,” said Morton-Ferguson.
“Part of our model is providing kids with engaging camp leaders to have but also the camp leaders are specialized in that activity that they’re running.”
With all camp leaders under the age of 25, Morton-Ferguson said an important part of this initiative is young people helping another young generation.
Both the creators of the camp met through camp activities as children and have a passion for helping people develop their skills. Currently in his third year studying international development at the University of Guelph, Morton-Ferguson has been volunteering and working as a counsellor at Gryphons Hockey Camp for six years, the same camp he participated in as a child.
Holmes is studying fitness and health promotion at Fanshawe College and works at Community Living Cambridge, an agency that supports adults with disabilities.
Morton-Ferguson said their experience in camp at an early age helped them understand the importance of the activities available.
“I think it sprouted from us obviously having a passion for being camp counsellors, and engaging with kids and giving kids the best opportunities we can during the summer but then it also came from like ‘Wow. aren’t we glad that we’re old enough that we can do something like this’ but imagine how much it might suck if we were young and we weren’t able to do these kinds of things,’” said Morton-Ferguson.
“It also sprouts from us knowing as young adults that ‘I can’t imagine eight, nine, or 10-year-old in this situation where all you want to do is go outside and hang out with your buddies and play soccer and play hockey and run around and this pandemic is not allowing you to do that.”
Currently, there is no end date for the virtual camp. Morton-Ferguson says he sees no reason to stop providing these activities once school begins in September.
“We provide a platform where people can be those fun and engaging camp leaders for kids from home and there are zero risks and it provides parents with a little bit of a break and kids with some engagement and that's our main goal,” said Morton-Ferguson.
Virtually Together Camp also has a free session every week called Mood Booster Monday’ hosted by two University of Guelph students specialized in health promotion and wellness to give children an outlet to open up.
Each session costs $20 and $75 can buy five 45-min sessions. One-on-one sessions available for $25.
“We’ve had a few kids sign up and the response has been awesome and the platform now works,” said Morton-Ferguson.
