Girl Guide camps across the province are being closed and sold off because the Ontario Commissioner for Girl Guides says the operating and capital costs aren’t sustainable anymore.
The Point Carruthers camp behind Kingston’s Invista plant is closing at the end of October.
Tuesday was a bittersweet day for a number of former guide leaders who gathered at the camp for one last time.
Margie Power started out in Girl Guides at the age of seven and that tradition has been passed on in her family.
“I have many, many, many fond memories with my mother, with my daughter and just starting this year with my two granddaughters, and they’re not going to have the opportunity to come to this guide camp.”
The financial burden of the maintaining the camp year-round wasn’t the only reason it is one of the first camps in Ontario to close. Girl Guides was also faced with new city water regulations that would have meant costly upgrades to the water system on the property.
The Kingston camp has been around since 1927, that’s the year Guider Ruth Blacklock was born.
“To be guiding empowers girls and women that’s one of the most important things to me. Women and girls are empowered and that’s good,” Blacklock said.
The Carruthers Point Camp has been assessed and valued at more than $1 million. It’s not clear when it will go up for sale.
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