Mira Pines United Church Camp - Mike Sidney's Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Way should be found for churches
to save summer camp for kids

It was with great sadness and a profound sense of loss that I learned about the closure of Mira Pines Summer Camp. Mira Pines has been run for a decade and a half by the Sydney Presbytery of the United Church of Canada. The land, owned by Knox United Church, was leased to the Sydney Presbytery for $1 a year for 99 years.

It is extremely unfortunate for Mira Pines that no written proof can be found that the $1 fee was not going to be collected because now the lease is being broken and the camp cancelled indefinitely.

The camp has always been an open and welcoming community for all youth. In my seven years of varied staff experience at Mira Pines - as volunteer, counsellor, and director 1999 to 2006 - I have seen kids from all walks of life arrive and become part of something larger - a community that welcomed them for who they were, not for what they wore or what they owned.

In our computer-driven, instantaccess world, Mira Pines was an unplugged haven from everyday life. Kids came without cell phones, the Internet or television and had a positive, active, outdoor, community-driven experience.

In a time when all faiths are seeing a decline in church attendance, here vanishes a valuable youth ministry that is helping kids of various faiths deal with many aspects of their own beliefs.

I ask of Knox United where has the sense of community and fellowship gone if churches of the same faith cannot come to amicable agreement? Can no way be found to save Mira Pines? Can't Knox and the presbytery come together to help us keep such a valuable community resource?

What about the eight summer jobs the camp created for high school and university students? Why was the $1 a year never asked for before it became leverage for closing the camp? Where are nearly 200 youth in our community going to spend their summer?

Michael Sidney, Sydney River