Camp Week
There is a hum in the air as the College readies for next week’s Camp Week 2024. I remember the first time I went on camp. I was in Year 3 and was a first- year member of the Bunya Park Cubs in Toowoomba. We had one night in Jubilee Park on the edge of the Great Dividing Range near my friend’s house in a paddock where his pet goat, ducks and chooks lived. It was brilliant!
I recall being nervous, worried about the older boys and practicing my knot tying, tent pitching and back-pack packing with my Mum and Dad. This and other later experiences provided important ‘deeper water’ experiences for me. Over time, I have gone on lots of camps as a cub, a primary and secondary school student, Duke of Edinburgh program participant and teacher all over south- east Queensland, the north and south coasts and the Darling Downs. The excitement as ATC prepares for ‘Camp Week’ is palpable and infectious and brings back plenty of happy memories.
The breadth and depth of our camp programs, the creativity of our partnerships and the scope and sequence of the experiences on offer are impressive. Across the entire program, from school based, to our Year 6 journey to Canberra to our Year 12 fellows engaging in the rich experience that is our Claddagh program, there is an exemplary effort made to provide challenge, diversity, inclusivity and opportunity for learning about self, each other and elements of the broader world.
On behalf of the extended ATC community, I wish to acknowledge the extraordinary generosity and commitment of our entire staff who make this week possible. This is a very special element of an Ambrose Treacy College formation experience and the contribution of our staff, with the support of their own families, is a blessing to our community and in my experience, certainly unique. I thank our staff most sincerely.
The undertaking of this week-long program which engages all year levels bar Year 11 who enjoy a Leadership Camp and Retreat later in the year, is huge now that we have grown to full size. The College reviewed the model and programs last in 2021 and will do so again after this year’s programs with a view to meeting our present and future needs, structures and resources.
Thank you and congratulations to Mr Jason Sepetauc and Mrs Georgie Ingham-Myers for their leadership, oversight and coordination and to all staff who are leaders and facilitators of particular programs. Thank you to our parent and caregiver body for your partnership with us and faith in us as we facilitate these programs. I wish all of our students a wonderful week which is safe, enjoyable and as rewarding as it was for an eight-year-old Cub who slept in his mate’s paddock back in 1978!
