Every year, St. George’s runs a grade 8 camp at the beginning of the school year to provide a fun and meaningful way for students entering high school to meet and bond with each other. This year, the camp was at Camp Squeah, located at a beautiful nature site just north of Hope, which was about two and a half hours drive from the school. Students stayed one night in a cabin and one night outside with their group members. It was a combination of outdoor education and grade 8 icebreakers.

As part of the grade 8 boys’ outdoor education, they learned all the essential knowledge of basic camp skills. For example, they received clear instruction on how to do basic food preparation, as well as how to use small knives. Students could also choose to try rock climbing, low ropes, high ropes, kayaking and swimming. While the camp was filled with activities and very little free time, it was not completely as planned. Students like Joel Goh spent two and a half hours hiking up to the campsite because they were lost on the way, not once, but twice. The entire hike ended up taking about two and a half hours. Nevertheless, the long hike gave students a chance to interact with others.

At Camp Squeah, students partook in many challenges so that they would have to initiate conversations and discussions with their peers. For instance, together as a group, students set up a camp fire and cooked communal meals. Through these activities, students also learned more about themselves and their peers. One of the activities that were quite well received was “True Colors.” True colors is a questionnaire that asks students a series of personality questions. At the end of the questionnaire, based on the responses, each student would be able to discover what his true color was. Similarly, by doing so, students were also able to find out what their peers’ true colors were. “Through True Colors activity, I learned that all my peers have all the colors in them, but the dominant color can change depending on different situations,” said Joel Goh.

Because the camp was filled with so many planned and scheduled activities, many students recommended that perhaps a little more free time would benefit everyone. The organizers will surely look at the students’ responses and make the camp next year even better. The camp is now over, but many friendships have just begun to grow and flourish.