Life-changing camp

Joline Beauregard says her 10 years at Camp Quality Northwestern Ontario changed her life.

The 17-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie has battled cancer for nearly her lifetime; Doctors diagnosed her when she was two years old. She still remembered when she was seven-years-old and first stepped onto the bus to go to camp.  Her mother cried, but despite those emotions she said she was excited.

“Being at camp, you grow up with the same people and we’re really like a family,” Beauregard said. “Going through treatment, the appointments and the checkups and the follow ups, it can be really hard. You come to camp and you kind of forget all of that. You feel like a normal kid.”

Camp Quality is a year0round support program for children with cancer and their siblings. The Northwest Camp at Camp Duncan on Loon Lake has been operating as the highlight of the program for 10 years. The week-long camping adventure is a favourite of Beauregard and many others.

“Coming back every year to see everyone and see how everyone is growing up and maturing is really cool. Not to mention all the crazy activities that we get to do that we wouldn’t get to otherwise,” she said.

Beauregard joined about 15 other campers for at the 10th anniversary of Camp Quality. She and the campers went to the Terry Fox Memorial and Lookout on Monday before heading to the KOA Campgrounds.

Camp Quality spokeswoman Clara Butikofer said everyone looks forward to the camping trip but not much has changed over the past 10 years.

“It’s hard to believe that a commitment like this has been happening in my life for 10 years,” Butikofer said.

“For a lot of people, this is their passion. This is their way of giving back. They have had family members with cancer or they have worked with children in their positions and it is a healing process for all of us.”

Butikofer added that they would pay tribute to the memory of 16-year-old Claudia Gagalo who passed away in April.