Silver Lake Camp
Image Credit: YMCA Okanagan
February 23, 2016 - 2:30 PM
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN – The cabin doors will be closed on a fourth Southern Interior summer camp this year.
The Kelowna YMCA recently announced their decision to shut down the Silver Lake Camp, a camp which has provided camping experiences to more than 10,000 children and adults over the last five years.
According to their website, the YMCA has managed and operated the camp since 2011 but after a review in 2014 decided to discontinue as of Dec. 31, 2015.
“Throughout 2015, the Silver Lake Forest Education Society has worked hard to find a new operator, and while these efforts continue, it does not seem likely at this time that Silver Lake Camp will be in operation through the 2016 season,” the group says, adding they remain hopeful another operator can be found.
That isn’t likely, however, as this is the fourth summer camp to close down in recent months. Last month Trinity United Church announced Camp Hurlburt had been sold to the North Okanagan Regional District following a decline in attendance and the Okanagan Boys and Girls Club also announced they would be closing Camp Arrowflight due to rising costs.
Operations director Jeremy Welder says he hopes the new owners will continue to run the Camp Arrowflight property as a camp but so far no buyer has been found.
“It became too much and we were subsidizing the camp to a level that wasn’t feasible for us,” Welder says. “It was a very difficult decision for our management team and board of directors.”
The Clearwater Bible Camp recently announced it too would be selling its property on Old Thompson Highway north of Kamloops. The listing realtor says the decision to put the property up for sale came when no one could be found to manage the camp.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016