The Insider

We’ll use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know about your Our Kids membership, such as new profile updates. We’ll also use it to highlight items of more general interest, including what we and our members are involved in, projects we’re working on, developments in the marketplace, and ideas we think you’ll be interested in.


  • October 2022
    With more than 25 years of experience working with 2.6 million families annually, we have a deep understanding of how families search for camps and programs ...
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  • August 2022
    I’d like to “introduce” you to Camps.ca—and myself. I’m the architect (for better or worse) of much of Our Kids Media’s camp content ...
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  • February 2022
    The 2022 Camp and Program Guide is delivering now. It’s a big year for the guide–this is our 25th edition” ...
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  • January 2022
    The idea for Our Kids grew out of a simple, unremarkable moment: one night at the dinner table Agnes Stawicki asked, “Why do we always go to the same camp?” ...
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  • December 2021
    “People see outdoor education as lying within the tourism industry or the adventure industry,” says Dr. Robert Wallis. “But we’ve always been focused on that education piece ...
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  • November 2021
    In celebration of our 25th anniversary, Our Kids is launching a Looking Back feature to run in our print guide and online ...
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  • October 2021 (Overnight)
    We’ve launched a new photo essay to communicate some of the value associated with the overnight camp experience. Activities are important, though, as we profiled in our last print guide...
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  • August 2021
    It’s been a year! Not back to normal, not by a long shot, but camps rose to the challenge of the grey area, the one between fully closed and fully opened. What hasn’t wavered is a dedication to getting people together...
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  • July 2021
    “Overall, it’s been 35 summers or more at Camp Nominingue,” says director Grant McKenna. “So it’s a place I know pretty well.” McKenna said that during the camp director video...
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  • June 2021
    Our Kids was founded by award-winning photojournalist Andrew Stawicki. As a long-time photographer with the Toronto Star, he’s taken some images that have literally entered the national consciousness...
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  • May 2021
    Over the past two years we’ve been working to strengthen our position as a home base for families. To not only be a source of qualified information, but also to be a tool that families can use to plan their year...
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  • February 2021
    We’re happy to say that the magazine is back from the printers and we’ll begin distributing next week. Here’s a first look at the cover of the 24th annual Our Kids Camp and Program Guide...
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  • January 2021
    I’ve been prepping the content for the annual Camp and Program Guide, and while we say this every year, it’s true every year: this is our best issue yet...
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  • December 2020
    Last year was a rout for the camping industry, to put it mildly. But what about 2021? While it’s early days yet, if our web traffic is any indication, it promises to be brisk...
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  • November 2020
    It’s easy for families to think of camp as a place to have fun, which of course it is, though too often they don’t see beyond that. This is particularly true of parents/families who are new to the camp concept or haven’t experienced it first hand....
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  • October 2020
    To understate it entirely, it was a challenging year for the camp industry. Certainly, no one is going to forget 2020 anytime soon. When the country locked down, we went into immediate action...
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  • September 2020
    We make too much of the “keep calm and carry on” adage. There are times when it’s important not just to endure, but to raise voices, demand change, and advocate for others. This is one of those times...
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  • August 2020
    It’s as true as it is worth repeating: kids need camp. As the editor of the annual guide, that’s a message that I work to include in each edition: camp is fun, but it’s more than that. It’s fun that you can take seriously....
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  • July 2020
    It’s true that online programming provides families with diversions, fun things to do, new things to learn. What’s perhaps not as obvious is that it offers much more than that...
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  • June 2020
    While it’s easy to recognise character—we know it when we see it—it’s famously more difficult to define. Harder still is to describe how character arises. In his recent book, The Second Mountain, David Brooks struggles with the concept...
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  • May 2020
    The first line of this letter has been written dozens of times,” writes Jeff Bradshaw at the top of the Camp Wenonah facebook post this week announcing the closure...
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  • April 2020
    During an online campfire from Camp Wenonah last week, Jason Monteith said that “one of the things I love about camp—and I bet you’ve found the last couple weeks that one way that this has been a lot like camp...
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  • March 2020
    Many camps are offering programming online, and for perhaps a majority, it’s a first foray into making real use of remote platforms. The value is clear: kids need things to do, and parents welcome productive, engaging activities...
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  • February 2020
    The 23rd annual edition of the Our Kids Camp and Program guide is currently being distributed. It’s our biggest edition ever, including profiles of more than 360 camps and programs, delivering, by far, the most complete resource of its kind in Canada...
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  • January 2020
    There’s a different look to our report this month, which marks a slight shift in focus. We’ll still use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know, such as the note below about the profiles going live to the site...
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