Another summer season has come to a close! It was an amazing summer at Camp Mini-Yo-We, and we hosted more individual campers than ever before. We love the families who make the pilgrimage to Mary Lake every summer to send their kids to Mini-Yo-We! It is an honour that so many families trust us to care for their children during their time at Camp.
Recently, I was reflecting with some members of our team about things our camper parents often say to us, and we came across a funny trend. We noticed that many parents asked us a similar question. It comes from a place of love and support, but we chuckled a little bit when we thought about it. What’s this funny question that our summer camp parents ask? It’s usually some variation of the following:
- So, what do you do for the rest of the year?
- Does anything else happen here during the rest of year?
- What happens during the “off-season” at Camp?
- What do you do for the other 10 months of the year?
These questions make us chuckle because we are incredibly busy the rest of the year! We realized we must not be doing a good job of showing our camper parents what goes on at Camp during the fall, winter, and spring!
At Camp Mini-Yo-We there is no “off-season”. After our summer campers go home, we continue to host school trips and group retreats year-round. Here are just a few examples of the types of groups we host:
- School Groups // Lots of school groups come to Camp in the fall and spring to kick off or close out their school year with a great field trip for their classes. Year after year, these schools give their students the gift of time away in Muskoka.
- Church Retreats // All year long, we have many church or youth group retreats that we love hosting. Whether it’s a 15-person leadership team retreat or a full ministry getaway of 100 plus people, our team loves serving these groups!
- Women’s and Men’s Groups // We have a number of adult groups that love to come to Mini-Yo-We because of our unique location and incredible service! These groups enjoy the focused time that we provide away from the distraction of the city.
- Our Winter Camps // This year Boys Camp and Girls Camp are running winter camps at Mini-Yo-We! We’re excited for this brand-new offering for our guests!
- And So Many More // It’s hard to narrow down the types of groups that come to Mini-Yo-We because so many different kinds come to Camp all year long!
Do you know a group that is looking for a Muskoka getaway? Is your kid’s school interested in a class trip that might be something new? Are you aware of a group at your church that does a winter retreat? We would love to host them this year at Camp Mini-Yo-We!
However, we’re turning groups away because we’re filling up quickly! In the last week, we had two groups that we couldn’t accommodate on the weekend they were looking for because they hesitated to book ahead of time. While our summer camp is growing, our year-round rentals are also busier than ever! In fact, we have twice as many groups booked at this time of year than we ever have before. We want to talk to your group leaders today to see if we can accommodate them!
3 “Next Steps” Our Summer Camp Parents Can Take to Help our Year-round Rentals
- Drop by the year-round section on our website
- Brainstorm three groups you think might be interested in visiting Mini-Yo-We this year
- Email Rich (rich@miniyowe.com) and the leaders from the organization so we can talk!
Thanks for being so supportive of Camp Mini-Yo-We all year long! We love serving our community and we’re thankful for our summer camp parents. Not just because you send your kids to Mini-Yo-We, but also when you help us connect with groups that might want to rent our facility year round!
We still have some space available for the winter of 2018/2019, and we’d love to host groups connected with our summer camp parents!