A suspicious fire that led to the destruction of two buildings at a Scouts Canada camp in Nova Scotia has led to many people expressing their sadness and fond memories of Camp Nedooae online.
“It was the first place that I ever rode a horse, it was the first place that I learned how to shoot a bow and arrow, a lot of ‘firsts’ happened for us at Camp Nedooae,” Abby Tucker said, a former Girl Guide and Camp Nedooae participant.
Tucker is one of several people who took to online to share their thoughts on the Christmas night fires that Nova Scotia RCMP are investigating.
RCMP has deemed the fires suspicious and Tucker, along with others, is saddened to know the impact this will have on future campers.
“Something that holds such good memories for me and my friends from years ago has essentially disappeared overnight and it’s sad to think about all the exciting things we did as kids that other kids now won’t get the chance to do at this camp,” she said.
According to the Camp Nedooae Facebook page, the camp sits on 265 acres, including 10 open fields.
The camp also rests on the shoreline of Brown Lake.
It’s a place that Scouts Canada leader, Robert Chipman, has visited every year since 1984 to participate in Operation ALERT, a leadership camp for youth.
He says the camp attracted 5,500 youth from across the country when the Canadian Scout Jamboree was held there in 2017.
“What a loss to scouting. This is going to a hard rebuild, it would be insured but it’s still going to be a hard rebuild,” he said.
Scouts Canada declined an interview about the fires but a communications advisor says the organization is working with the RCMP.
“The site is currently in the process of being safely secured. In the coming weeks we will be evaluating the damage and determining next steps,” Kayleigh Kanoza, the director of organizational planning with Scouts Canada, wrote in an email.
Chipman says unfortunately Scouts Canada camps have been damaged before in Nova Scotia by vandals and other illegal activities.
Including Camp Harris that has been in operation since 1959 in Mineville, N.S.
“A lot of garbage dumping and we’ve had four, or five, different break and enter,” he said.
As for a rebuild at Camp Nedooae, Chipman feels it will take quite some time and costs thousands of dollars. He estimates this due to the value of the two buildings that burned down.
“One was the farmhouse which is a leader’s building and the other one was the complete dining hall and under the dining hall, the basement was full of new canoes they bought for the jamboree. So, there would have been 40, 50 canoes underneath. So, the youth are missing out on a lot of stuff now,” Chipman said.
Scouts Canada says the property was closed at the time of the fires and no activities were happening on the premises.
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