Cadet Camporee Evacuated

More than 1,300 teenage boys and youth leaders from churches across the United States and Canada had to be evacuated this week from a park in northern Ontario due to heavy rain that turned the ground at their remote campsite into a sea of mud.

The youth, ages 11 to 16, were camping in Burk's Falls, Ontario, north of Toronto, as part of the Camp Northern Lights Cadet International Camporee, an event of the Calvinist Cadet Corps. Held every three years since 1966, the camporee was cut short this year for the first time. Many of the cadets attending the event are members of Christian Reformed congregations.

"It was unfortunate," said Bob DeJonge, promotions chairman for the camporee, which began Aug. 6 and was supposed to run through Aug. 13. "You wonder why the good Lord allows something like this to happen. But a lot of positive things came out of it."

Instead of spending sunny days swimming, playing soccer, climbing rocks and shooting bows and arrows, the young people needed to band together to deal with the unrelenting rain. In the process, they forged friendships that they might otherwise have missed.

At the same time, said DeJonge, they had a chance to see how hard adults and youth leaders worked to keep them safe. "It was just too cold and wet for the health of the kids to stay in the woods," he said. "Many of them had no dry clothes left."

Some of the youth, however, reveled in the mud. They slid down hills and sloshed through puddles.

Despite the soggy conditions and the need to evacuate the site on foot, no one was seriously injured, said DeJonge.

Starting Saturday, it took two days to evacuate the entire area. Many of the teens and adults stayed in an ice arena in nearby Sundridge, Ontario, on Saturday. A service was held in the ice arena on Sunday morning. By Sunday afternoon, most of the campers and the adults had left, either in church vans or in individual vehicles.

Some campers, awaiting flights home to California, were staying with members of CRC congregations in the area.

Especially disappointing, said DeJonge, was the fact that many men put in countless hours over the last three years preparing the campsite to accommodate the campers.

The Calvinist Cadet Corps is an independent nondenominational youth ministry organization whose purpose is to provide the local church with a ministry program that will enable them to effectively share Christ's love with boys from their church and community.

Founded in 1952, the Corps has more than 600 clubs throughout North America. Although youth from various denominations are members of the organization, many of them attend CRC congregations.