At Amsted and our sister company Promus, we love to give back and one of the biggest ways we do that is our annual weekend helping out at Camp Smitty. For 14 years now, we have volunteered for a weekend in September to go up to the camp, which is a Boys & Girls Club of Ottawa initiative that ensures kids of all means have access to the summer camp experience, and tackle a variety of projects to help spruce things up. The work that we do to improve the camp’s infrastructure means that more of the necessary funds can be used to send underprivileged kids to camp.
This year was no exception. The team consisted of nearly 100 people, including staff from both Amsted and Promus Ottawa Region, family, extended family, and partners, including Dumont Foundations & Interlock, ATR Insulation, Kelly Santini and Kelly Huibers McNeely, who continue to join us and give back their time as the great partners and community-minded companies that they are!
This year we built on to a few projects that we worked on last year, including:
- Adding a deck to the outdoor kitchen for more convenient usage,
- Filled in the remaining space for the entrance fence and created a hedge fence with reclaimed trees from on the property to hide the new entrance,
- Finished insulating all of the cabins and installed ceilings to cover the insulation,
- Winterized the plumbing for the bathroom we installed in the staff cabin,
- And cleaned up the garden, which had become overgrown.
We also:
- Reclaimed wood previously used elsewhere and made benches for around a campfire,
- Spiffed up the fire pit so it could be used for cooking,
- Added ice and water shields to buildings,
- Cut down dead and hazardous trees,
- And cleared brush to make more space for the campers to play!
Whew! It was a busy weekend, but there was also time to have a little fun, including a few brave souls who tried out a dip in the lake!
As always, our deepest thanks to everyone who gave of their time to help make Camp Smitty shine.
We’ll see you next year!
