Monthly Archives: January 2012

Camp Staff, Events

Qwanoes at Missions Fest Vancouver

The Qwanoes display at Missions Fest in Vancouver. Alicia (Camp Registrar) and Bethany (Staffing Assistant) in the front saying hello!

What a great weekend of connecting with so many wonderful people! It was awesome to see all the familiar faces and meet some new ones too. Thanks to all those that came by and said hello – it was great to see you! We truly enjoyed pinning on more “Live It Up” buttons than we could count! I even put on a few tattoos too!

Did you know there were about 250 ministries represented at Missions Fest!? It was incredible to walk into the convention room where all the  booths were set up. Everywhere I turned I saw displays and people who represented all the various ministries… I saw Bible colleges, other camps, ministries for youth, children, adults, homeless people, Christian radio stations, other country focuses, and the list could go on and on! If you ever get a chance to walk under the big white sails of Canada Place during Missions Fest you should definitely do it. It was so cool to see all the incredible things that God is doing around the world and for Qwanoes to be right in the middle!

Our Qwanoes students were at Missions Fest too taking it all in, from great speakers to topical sessions. Word has it that they even fit in a bike ride in Stanley park on tandem bikes!

Building the team one person at a time!

Camp counselor from summer 2011 giving a great big hug to some campers!

We are out and about all over the countryside looking for our summer team 2012! In fact just this last week we had staff in Alberta, Saskatchewan and of course right here in the Vancouver area inviting others to consider Qwanoes this summer. Slowly the team is coming together and starting to take shape one by one. It is exciting to see how it happens and how different people feel called to join up with us. Often people hear about Qwanoes through their friends, so if you know of anyone that you think would love joining the staff team, let me encourage you to share Qwanoes with them! We are looking for people who are excited about helping kids this summer discover, live and share life like no other!

Our Qwanoes display was set up in a giant room under the big white sails of Canada Place.

 

~ Written by Jay Kennedy, Qwanoes Assistant Director

 

Events, Leadership Training, Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

Qwanoes is covered with snow! But summer sun is coming soon!

Now that's a little different look of the qrok Tower! The Squirrel is hibernating coming up with all new songs!

We woke up Wednesday morning like many of you around Vancouver Island and Greater Vancouver area to a blanket of fresh snow! From our entrance sign all the way to the end of the dock, there was snow everywhere. The year-round staff gathered together in Club Coco for our Wednesday staff meeting and shared stories of how we all got to camp. I live close by, so I put on my snow boarding boots and followed Stevie-G’s trail all the way to Club Coco. Thanks Stevie-G for breaking the path! Check out more Qwanoes winter pictures on our Facebook page.

Snow is here now, but summer sun is coming soon!! We have had many campers reserve their spot for a week at Qwanoes. Every day now registrations are coming in of past campers, and brand-new kids who have never been here before. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to Qwanoes this summer!

Here’s an update for you on the new full length CD that the Squirrel is working on. He last reported writing 6 brand-new songs, and there are only 4 to go! I love the new theme song “Live It Up”, but another new favorite one of mine is a new song called “At Last I’m Home.” It is an awesome song and you will be able to listen to the song and watch our new video online real soon! Stand by on FB and Twitter for when it goes live! You’re going to love it! For now take a listen to the new theme song and watch a brand new mini slide show!

Qwanoes students heading up the chair lift at Mt. Washington!

Our students in our Kaléo program can’t wait for the summer too, but they are all loving the snow right now on Mt Washington. They headed up to the mountain bright and early on Monday morning at 5:00 am! You really have to love snowboarding and skiing to do that. They all stayed together in a mountain chalet right at the base of the ski hill. It’s been an awesome time of hanging out together, chapels in the evening, and just enjoying God’s creation. They are coming back to camp tonight, and heading out to the youth groups they help out with. You can go online to learn more about our Kaléo program for college-age students and follow the journey through the program blog. We are now accepting registrations for next year’s program.

We hope to see you at Missions Fest in Vancouver next weekend! We will have our camp booth up in the same spot as last year. Stop on by, we would love to see you!

Summer sun will soon be here at Qwanoes! We can't wait for giant water fights once again!

 

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Camp Staff, Events, Summer Camp

Qwanoes is coming to Vancouver!

Just a few days ago the Qwanoes year-round staff headed to a Parksville hotel for our annual staff retreat. We sure started the retreat in Qwanoes style! We broke up into teams, made our team mascots, came up with a team name/chant, and we were off and running. We quickly turned the conference room into a battle zone with tables, boxes, balloons, and a whole lot of nerf guns!

There were nerf bullets flying everywhere, staff dodging, and shooting to protect our kingdom from other kingdoms…. yes, I know what you are thinking… and yes we are just like campers… sometimes :). When we weren’t competing in our own style of All Star Games, we were slowing down and taking time to reflect on all that God is doing in our lives personally and at Qwanoes. We took time together, to pray and look forward to all that God has in store for our new theme “Live It Up!” It was an awesome weekend to be together as a full-time staff team.

Cowichan Valley Youth Night is happening at Qwanoes tonight! It’s going to be one fun-filled night with lots of youth from around the Cowichan Valley. We have a night game planned, Quixotic will be playing along with a band of students from our Kaléo program, a message by Andrew Macdonald, and of course  Mug-Up! This is the third year we have been partnering with Cowichan Valley youth groups to put this on, and it is always a great night. The theme for the night is “ONE” – one valley, one night, one God. Looking forward to it!

 

 

 

 

Missions Fest Vancouver is coming up fast and we will have a Qwanoes booth set up once again! We really hope you stop by to say hello. We will have our new video/slideshow playing with the “Live It Up” theme song! We also have another video just out today with a brand new song for summer 2012. Be sure to stop by!

Have you received your SUMMER 2012 brochure yet!? They have all been mailed out, maybe your picture is in it or one of your friends! If you haven’t received your free brochure or you want more, it’s quick and easy to order them online and we will send them to you right away!

The new 2012 brochures are ready! Maybe your picture is in it?

 

Q-Town & Music, Summer Camp

New theme, new song, new pictures, new video and more!

Alicia, our Registrar (in the back), and Keerstin, Admin Support, were busy in the Qwanoes office this morning!

At 9:00 this morning the phones started ringing, online applications started coming, and registration for 2012 programs began! It was an exciting time as we have been waiting for this day ever since last summer ended. Much planning and preparation has gone into our new theme and 2012 programs, and we can’t wait to have campers back once again!

For all your registration needs please visit our website. It only costs $150 for a deposit to reserve your spot for summer 2012 – LIVE IT UP!

We gave you a sneak peek at the live unveiling of our summer 2012 theme in the last blog post, but here is the rest of the story…

At our Staff Retreat this past weekend, Qwanoes Executive Director Scott Bayley kept sharing more and more of what summer 2012 has in store…. Okay, let me take you there to show you what it was like! The way we announced the theme is with the Squirrel (Russ Smith) at the back of Club Coco ready to press play on the new theme song. Then the big screen came down and part of the new poster could be seen… and then at the same time the new theme was heard in the song, the Squirrel revealed the new theme logo on the screen! Reading about it is just not the same as seeing it… is it? So how about we just show you on  Twitter!

What a great way to bring in the New Year with the excitement of knowing a whole new adventure called “LIVE IT UP” awaits all who will be part of Qwanoes this year! Here are a few pictures of what happened at the sneak peek of the new theme – go to our Facebook for even more photos.

Don’t miss watching the new LIVE IT UP video and hearing our new theme song! Way to go Squirrel (Russ Smith)…it’s another amazing creation!

Check out our new SUMMER 2012 page! Just click on the link and scroll down to find the LIVE IT UP logo. Be one of the first to share it with your friends!

Scott Bayley, sharing new LIVE IT UP 2012 theme!
The new posters are here and will be mailed to your house soon!
The new LIVE IT UP banner looks great outside of Club Coco!
Camp Staff, Summer Camp

Happy New Year!

A New Year is upon us! And that means a new summer theme is ready to launch!

January 3rd at 9:00 am is a very significant time and date around here at Qwanoes. That’s when registration begins and we’ll be standing by on our computers,  phones, fax machine and in person to hear from you! We can’t wait to have many campers register for a week at camp for what could be our greatest summer ever! (By the way, it only takes a $150 deposit to reserve your spot.) For more registration info please go to our website.

Smoke, lights, party hats, music and fireworks! It's hard to capture it all in one picture!

What a great weekend we just had celebrating the New Year with many of our summer 2011 staff team. I think the best word to describe this very special weekend is “appreciation.” Our summer staff are so important to us here at Qwanoes and we want them to know how much we and all our campers love them! There is something special about bringing in the New Year together in such a meaningful way. We pulled out all the stops and enjoyed a great speaker (Sid Koop) who helped us look back at our year and challenged us to look ahead to 2012. We had late mornings and late nights all weekend long!

During the mornings we turned the dining hall into a special Qwanoes restaurant where our summer staff were waited on by year-round staff. It was quite a menu! Fom french toast to waffles and mountains of whip-cream and eggs anyway they chose! We even had special room service in the morning! We love spoiling our summer staff and they are such a huge part of Qwanoes. It seemed like there was always food available…like special mug-ups including chicken wings and nachos and snack food at the back of Club Coco. Hot tub, SkyScraper, games, free long-distance phone calls to friends around the world, Quioxtic, a full evening banquet with an awesome slide show looking back at summer 2011 and all that God has done. Thank you summer staff 2011 for a great year and weekend!

Another big part of the weekend was the sneak preview of SUMMER 2012. You could just feel the anticipation in the room as everyone was on the edge of their seat waiting for the big announcement of what the theme would be! There we were on Saturday afternoon just moments away from hearing the new theme song and the announcement from Scott Bayley, Qwanoes Executive Director. Then it happened, the theme song started playing and everyone listened intently for any clues to what it could be! Come back January 3rd for the official launch to summer 2012 and discover the theme for yourself!

We hope to see you this summer! There was so much excitement in the room when the new 2012 announcements kept going and going with brochures, tattoos, buttons, posters, displays, banners, theme song, T-shirts and MORE! Come back on January 3rd to see more pictures of the sneak preview that took place at our staff retreat.

The NEW 2012 brochures are in and will be mailed to your house soon!

 

 

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