Making Camp a More Inclusive Environment

Making Camp a More Inclusive Environment - theHumm April 2023

By Bruce Patterson

Last summer, Intermediate Co-Ed camp directors Jennifer McLaren and Nikki Nel mixed up the designation of boys’ and girls’ cabins. Historically there has been a girls’ side and a boys’ side at Camp Lau-Ren, but last year at the July Co-Ed A Camp, two cabins were designated as female and one male on the East side. On the West side, two cabins were designated male and one cabin as female.

The washrooms on each side were designated gender-neutral. At the start, Jennifer says that campers defaulted to a girls’ or a boys’ side of each washroom building. After a while, campers were heard telling each other, “It’s okay, this bathroom is for everyone.”

Jennifer and Nikki reminded campers that they needed to be welcoming to everyone. It seemed to work. A couple of the counsellors approached them to say they appreciated the change. During bedtime routine, boys and girls were brushing their teeth together.

Why mix up the boys’ and girls’ cabins and designate washrooms as gender-neutral? Nikki and Jennifer felt this was an important shift towards making Camp Lau-Ren a more inclusive environment for non-binary (non-binary people have a gender identity that does not fit into the male/female binary) and transgender campers and staff.

“We are trying to establish a new comfort level,” says Jennifer. She thinks some parents with non-binary or transgender children would be more inclined to send their kids if they knew this was a possibility.

In fact, it was the hiring of two counsellors who identified as non-binary that pushed Jennifer and Nikki forward with this initiative. “Our Camp family is widely diverse with members of the LGBTQ2S+ community,” Jennifer says.

One former counsellor has since come out as transgender. They commented that if washrooms had been gender-neutral when they were at Camp, it would have brought them a lot of comfort when they were younger and not yet out. Bathrooms are one of the most difficult obstacles for trans youth.

“Given the percentage of trans and non-binary people who are out in the general public and the number of people we have pass through Camp each year, we can be sure there are many other campers and staff over the years who have needed a safe place to express their true gender,” says Jennifer. “I hope we can continue to make these important changes to make Camp Lau-Ren a safe place for all.”

Jill Halliday — The Art of Recovery - theHumm April 2023

By Sally Hansen

Art… and Soul

For more than twenty years, Almonte artist Jill Halliday pursued her first love as a classically trained animator, working for international film agencies and contributing to celebrated shows such as The Ren & Stimpy Show and the Emmy-winning Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?.

Today Jill is a proud and grateful member of The Ten Collective, founded in 2017 by Almonte artist Eileen Hennemann. Halliday’s strikingly original creations are perfectly aligned with the André Malr......

Making Camp a More Inclusive Environment - theHumm April 2023