G8 spouses give new canoe to Camp Ooch

ROSSEAU – One of two canoes that G8 leaders’ spouses helped a local artisan build from scratch was donated to Camp Oochigeas in Rosseau on Wednesday.
Pam Wedd, owner of Bearwood Canoe Company, a building and restoration company in Parry Sound that also offers canoe crafting courses to the public, assisted international dignitaries during the beginning stages of the project, which took nearly three months to complete.
On Wednesday morning, Wedd, accompanied by Edie Hentcy, who wove the canoe’s seats with wicker, and shop helper Jane Liddell, transported the 15-foot wood-canvas canoe to the camp where it was unveiled before a small crowd of kids and staff.
“This is a big deal,” Wedd said of the secretive project that involved the wives and husbands of international leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“The whole experience has been incredible.”
Gifts are nothing new to Camp Oochigeas, a camp for kids battling various forms of cancer. It’s existence wholly depends on donations, community fundraising and the volunteer work of counsellors, medical personnel and other staff.
“There are a lot of generous people supporting this entire place,” said maintenance supervisor Jeff Mann en route to a job somewhere on the expansive property. The canoe was the result of a special G8 funding component requiring spouses of world leaders to give something to the communities where funding was being dispersed.
Although Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was responsible for spearheading the do-good project, MPP of Parry Sound-Muskoka Tony Clement suggested that camps Oochigeas and Huronda, a camp in Huntsville for kids with type 1 diabetes, be the recipients.
“It’s wonderful that it can be done here, in Parry Sound and Muskoka,” he said after touring the camp grounds for the first time.
Many items have been donated to Camp Oochigeas in the past, including paddle boats, gators, emergency vehicles and large sums of money, said executive director Rob Drynan, but the canoe was unique.
“It’s a different kind of donation,” he said. “For us, it’s a piece of art.”
As sturdy and dependable as the canoe may be, kids won’t be piling into it anytime soon, Drynan said. Instead it will be hung in the camp’s dining hall as a permanent reminder:
“We want the kids to know that there are a lot of people in the world who care about them,” said Drynan.