Now that summer has officially ended, we’d like to take some time and highlight some of our favourite moments from our most recently concluded Summer Camp program.

This week, we take a trip back to July, when some of our camp leaders turned an ordinary stroll through the woods into a magical adventure for their children.

“Get ready for the cutest pictures yet,” Brooke, our Halton Co-Pilot, told us over email. Suffice to say, we still were not prepared.

The Royal Botanical Gardens is a staple for all of our camp programs, and it’s easy to see why: the wide open spaces, the wooded trails, and large gardens make for excellent camp excursions. One of the  trails has recently been spruced up, with the addition of “Fairy Houses” carved into tree stumps along the path.

Having seen these little dwellings before, Camp Leader Mhairi hatched a plan. Along with her fellow Today’s Family staff, Mhairi wrote notes for each child on the walk – and hid them inside the houses for the children to discover.

These “notes from the fairies and gnomes” were a huge success, leading the children to eagerly search along the trail looking for more hiding holes. We applaud Mhairi and her fellow leaders for her great idea: anything that gets children excited to spend time outdoors is a success in our book.