Thirty-five girls from the Quinte region spent four days at summer camp, but it’s a camp with a twist.
Camp Molly Quinte, organized and run by the Belleville and Quinte West fire departments is aimed at introducing young women between the ages of 15 and 18 to a possible career in firefighting.
The camp wrapped up Sunday, July 17 with a graduation ceremony for the young women and their proud families.
Belleville Fire Department Chief Monique Belair started the Camp Molly program in 2019 when she was part of the Oakville fire service.
Belair says women are underrepresented in the firefighting field.
“Internationally-wise we are less than four to seven per cent firefighters,” said Belair.
Lena Hemus, 15, from Brighton said she enjoyed the camp and was glad she participated.
“We had to go through an obstacle course, we used hoses and how to hook them up to hydrants and that was pretty cool as well,” said Hemus.
The camp also gave the 35 campers a glimpse of the varied fields firefighting has to offer, including fire prevention and public education.
“We also did investigations so, like, where the fire started in a room or a house, and then we also did communication, how when someone calls into 911, they get to dispatch either fire trucks, police, ambulance,” said 17-year-old camp participant Desiree Dracup.
Belair says the camp is a recruiting tool but adds there is a second goal to the program as well.
“The Canadian Women’s Foundation did a survey of young women and in Grade 6 they were asked about their self-esteem levels and 37 per cent said they had good self-esteem,” said Belair. “By the time they got to Grade 10 that number had dropped to 13 per cent,” said Belair.
Belair believes the challenges offered in the program help young girls maintain or build on their self-esteem.
In the few years that Camp Molly has been in existence, the program has grown and spread to other regions.
Roughly half a dozen fire departments in Ontario offer Camp Molly and Belair says discussions are underway to form a provincial committee to offer the firefighting summer camp to smaller fire services that don’t have the resources to offer the program on their own.
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