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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1986-07-09, Page 171A. • Students study their world at Camp Sylvan Learning is fun in Learning can be fun. Just ask any student who has spent time in one of the world's largest classrooms, the Camp Sylvan Conservation Program operated by the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority on 200 acres of nature within The 620 -acre Camp Sylvan Boy Scout Camp near Parkhill. Each May, June, September and October classes of grade seven and eight students within or close to the area covered by the Ausable Bayfield watershed spend a week finding out at first hand how they fit into the ecology system of our planet. For the past 22 years, the ABCA and the London Boy Scouts have had a mutually beneficial arrangement which makes the unique residential program possible. The Authority rents the site and the facilities for the four school months and the Scouts use their camp in July and August. AB - CA charges the schools the same ren- tal the Authority pays, to the Scouts. The pupils who attend the Camp Sylvan program are In turn charged a nominal sum by their school, and the rest of the money is usually rais- EXPLANATION — Camp Sylvan supervisor Kathie Mon exp Gins the animal -man food pyramid to students from Hensall Public School. INSPECTION Vbiunteer'assistant Mary Ducharme (left end Camp Sylvan supervisor Kathie Monk inspect one of the Conestoga wagons that are sleeping quarters for school students attending the ABCA Camp Sylvan conservation program. CLEAN-UP � Oneofthe ast requirements or students attending the conservation program at Camp Sylvan is to leave everything clean and tidy for the next course. $AVING$ Continue On Footwear for the Entire Family in our Summer Sale Children's Sandals Assorted Colours 19"&s1299 Women's Casual Sandals Dozens to choose from Priced to sell $9" 14" 19" Men's Sandals What's Left of Them At Least 20% Off All remaining summer sandals, bone and white, dress shoes, bone and white purses. Many other bargains at less than half price All sales final SHOE m h S LT STORED. �.; MAIN ST. EXETER PHONE 235-1933 r • ed through school projects. ABCA is responsible for staff salaries. Students, teachers and a high school volunteer live in a rustic set-- ting et- 'ting right out of a western movie, have lectures and slide presentations in the Barn, eat in Frontier Town, and bed down at night on hard wooden benches within replicas of Conestoga wagons. Most of their time is spent in living classroom containing deciduous and coniferous trees, plants of all kinds, a pond, a number of streams, and birds, turtles, tadpoles, frogs, chip - MIMICS, squirrels, raccoons and a deer yard. Conservation coordinator Kathie Monk starts each new group out with a hike of the area, walking them through each part of the ecological system they will be studying. The children are encouraged to use all five senses to hear, smell, look, taste and touch the world around them. Signs remind them to "take nothing but pic- tures; leave nothing but footprints.".' The children practice orienteering with a compass; watch an animated film called SPLASH (See Pond, Lake and Stream Headwaters) depicting what happens to a group of water droplets from the time they fall as rain until they reach a lake; net some of the aquatic life in stream and pond; study soil samples, erosion and the ef- fects of pollution on land and water. The students learn how soil, water, vegetation, climate and wildlife work together in a natural community, and how man affects the delicate balance. Everything comes together during '. the highlight of the visit, the Survival Game. Some students are tagged as her- bivores. They are allotted eight lives, and sent out first to find three green wooden blocks (some artfully hidden) marked water, and three red ones standing for food. Next more students taking the part of predators, equipped with four lives, set out to find water. Their food will be the little herbivores! 24$0 -acre classroom respect the students show for the Camp Sylvan environment. Monk especially enjoys the night - Ulnas around the campfire, when students entertain both adults and fellow students with songs and skits. Though not part of the formal cur- riculum, the students are also learn- ing tolerance, and how to get along together. She hopes the experience leaves a life-long impression on all who attend. Tom Prout was in one Of the classes to take part in the Camp Sylvan pro- gram when it first started. He return- ed ss a junior leader, again as a coor- dinator while attending university, and was hired by ABCA after gradua- tion. He is now the Authority's general manager. Prout credits his Camp Sylvan ex- perience for giving the,young person who had always enjoyed the outdoors the broader perspective that deter- mined his future direction. He hopes the program will do the same for others. MIN IDENTIFICATION — John'Bell (left) and Bevan Moir get help from junior leader Mary Ducharme in iden- tifying the frogs they caught in the pond at Camp Sylvan. July 9, 1986 • Ames INN Serving South Huron, North Middlesex EMBEISIMMISOWNOr dvoca & North Lambton Since 1173 3.: x T,:::?. 'C : l.:i r 1:./•-. -'.YiYv ...{ j f : PagelA e -man show whimsical delight Disease and fire go out next to cause more trouble. Any "animal" 1 tagged with rabies, for example, oses If you are a fan of the Stephen one of its lives. Leacock "Sunshine Sketches" type of Lastly the most powerful force, humour or perhapsthe down-home man, is let loose. The one so approach alMorleyCallahan then designated only has to catch an ou will surelyenjoy"Letter from animal's eye, and that 'player im you field Farm"yat mediately loses all his or her lives, •;pia house II until 12. running and is out of the game. Students'com- y July ments range from an appreciation of The cabaret style seating at the the struggle chipmunks, squirrels and*.smaller theatre of Huron Country other small animals go through to find Playhouse allows a much more in fog •- the unfairness of humans hav- ir.e, ..tch control over everything beneath them in the food pyramid. (This reporter visited the camp while 26 students from Hensat11 ublic . School_werether -Only a fq wolf were still "alive" at the end of the game.) Three resource people from a list of five come for each course to talk about their specialities. Meteorologist Jay Campbell has been a regular for the past nine years. He comes arm- ed with wet and dry thermometer, maps and charts, to show the students how observations are made and in- struments used to collect data which is then analysed to put a forecast together. He also leads walks to point out actual examples of the effect weather has on the environment. Part of Campbell's enthusiastic support of the Camp Sylvan Conser- vation Program comes from a sense of self-preservation, he jokes. "The more people know about weather, the more gentle they are go- `ing to be with me when the weather goes wrong," Campbell laughs. He has also been gratified to learn that some of his former students at the camp are now headed for a career in meteorology. Conservation agrologist Rob Traut is called on about once a week. He lec- tures on the way man has disturbed the natural order of the ecosystem by eliminating predators, clearing wildlife habitat, adding chemicals to farmland and water, and causing ero- sion by poor farming practices. The students are shbwn how to take soil samples, and informed that one inch of topsoil takes 2,000 years to form, and can be lost in a day. Con- servation methods such • as wind- breaks, berms, grassways and other measures are demonstrated on the site. Traut terms his time at Camp Sylvan as "very rewarding". The dedicated conservationist considers this an ideal time to instill in future farmers the advantages of being good stewards of the land. He also recalls a group of students who drove in from Port Huron, Michigan, during the hot ger in May fully equipped to 'he rigors of the Canadian ,i with longjohns and I f:) n,, only learned about con - set ation but added to their knowledge of Canada," Traut observed wryly Other resource people on call are water quality technician Tracy Ryan, trapper Al Willer and Indian artifacts expert Frank Wight. Teachers learn from their Camp Sylvan experience too. Hensall teacher Eunice Taylor noted that students were more free to express themselves in the Camp Sylvan at- mosphere, and she was delighted to see a sense of humour blossoming in unexpected places. "When learning is fun, the students remembet," she added. Even principals can add to their knowledge. One who shall remain anonymous learned what can be done with a pair of socks and an undershirt when one has forgotten to pack one's washcloth and towel. Kathie Monk had been supervising the program since last summer. She has been very impressed with the timate rapport between performer and audience. This one-man comedy by Dan Needles, starring Rod Beat- tie ill perfectly suited to the space. It ifiore an evening of humorous to -telling than a stage perfor- ce. The easy relaxed atmosphere created by actor Red Beattie makes you feel like swapping your best "horse" stories with the others. The stage is set witha bale of hay against a rail fence, a bard door, and off to the right, a simple wood table and chair. Not much, except to in- dicate a rural setting. About the only lighting effect used at all is the dim- ming of the wash of light to comply with a night scene. Costuming is a typical pair of bibbed blue jeans, a Korean plaid shirt and green forage cap. So why is a shirt made in Korea funny? Therein is the tone of the Dispensation on parking Although a decision on revisions to Exeter's controversial parking bylaws has been delayed by council, it appears that some homeowners may get special dispensation to allow them to Dark on their boulevards. The police committee has recom- mended that parking on boulevards would be allowed by a special permit for owners of property on streets where construction is taking place as well as those whose property is not large enough to allow them to install a driveway. Parking on boulevards for all others would be prohibited from the hours of 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. and also on a neighbor's boulevard unless the latter had given permission. In making the recommendation, police committee chairman Dorothy Chapman suggested council may wish to consider the matter until the next meeting as the committee report was not available until Monday's council session. Mayor Bruce Shaw said that during his tenure, the boulevard parking issue had been one of the five most controversial he had encountered. "There is a lot of concern out there," he said, adding that "those concerns will be looked after." Comedy classic at Playhouse The Huron Country Playhouse has discovered an especially wacky com- edy it' W. 0. Mitchell's The Black Bonspiel of Wullie Maccrimmon, directed by Playhouse Artistic Direc- tor, Steven Schipper. Bonspiel is an outrageously witty comedy, preview- ing July 15 and running to July 26 on the main stage. The setting is January in the early thirties in the town of Trillium, On- tario, Wullie's team, made up of Pipe - fitting Charlie Brown, Clock Charlie Brown and Malleable Charlie Brown, take on the Devil and his team, made up of Macbeth, Judas Iscariot and Guy Fawkes. For fun and adventurq, see The Black Bonspiel of Wullie Maccrim- mon, in which Wullie intends to out- wit and outmatch the Devil. Call (519) 238-8451, for ticket information. whole show! This is not the ribald, side-splitting type of humour that leaves you holding your aching sides but rather the slightly self-conscious "haarumph" or guffaw as one recognizes one's own little foibles or that of someone you have known. The satirical pokes at rural life and farm characters are never malicious. In fact the gentle ridicule is turned around to include the farmer's perception of the city slicker who thinks he can actually make a living from farming by returning to the idyllic days of the horse drawn plow. -What we have in this productionof "Letter from Wingfield Farm" is a thoroughly polished combination of clever dialogue and performer. Direc- tor Douglas Beattie, brother of actor Rod, mercifully never resorts to over- ly broad interpretations or slap -stick comedy of the grotesque, just to be funny. Rod Beattie, the sole performer, give a carefully controlled characterization to each of the nine characters he plays. Through changes in timbre and tone- of the voice, through subtle changes in cadence and rhythm of speech, Beat- tie draws up a mental picture of each character. As the stories unfold he can slip from one character to another without hesitation. Although there are facial expres- sions and certain body stances that ONE-MAN SHOW — Rod Beat- tie portrays one of several characters in "A Horse Story", Letter From Wingfield Farm, writ -- ten by Don Needles and directed by Douglas Beattie. The show is currently playing.at Playhouse 11 at Huron Country Playhouse. accompany each character, they are minimal. Even an unsighted person could enjoy this production for it is the ability to trigger remembrances that allows the audience to imagine the whole group of rurals gathered around the wood burning stove. Beat - tie's past work in radio is used here to great advantage. The play is organized into several scenes by the clever device of letters to the editor of the local newspaper. Stockbroker Walt Wingfield leaves the stress of the big city to take up far- ning near the town of Larkspur in Persephone township. As he meets his somewhat eccet4ric•neighbours and experiences' problems with the or- chard, the sick duck, the pigs that become his junior vice-presidents in- stead of going to market, Walt writes a letter to the editor for solace. The narrative style of these letters provides Beattie with a clever, witty, dialogue to which he adds the double take or dramatic pause with exper- tise. Indeed, author Don Needles won an Ontario Weekly Newspaper Assoc. award for these columns before perfecting the form to a theatrical showpiece. There are so many twists of intellect and classical references even the audience must question if they are the object of fun and ridicule. 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