CAMPING can present a wonderful opportunity to get out and enjoy nature and leave behind the grind of daily life.
But for children that spend a week at Camp Kulin, it can prove to be a totally life-changing experience.
The award-winning program began in the Wheatbelt town of Kulin in 2013, and according to camp founder and manager Tanya Dupagne, its growth over the past four years has surpassed all expectations.
After spending the previous decade running camp and youth activity programs for at-risk children in Australia, America, South Africa and Vietnam, Tanya was contacted by a community member from Kulin to gauge her interest in making use of the town‘s extensive yet under-utilised facilities, which include the biggest waterslide in regional WA.
“I was running programs for another organisation in Perth at the time, but when I saw what Kulin had to offer I was blown away,” she said.
“The facilities, along with the atmosphere of the town meant that before I knew it, I was moving to the Wheatbelt.”
Tanya said her original focus was to come up with a program that was different to anything else on offer, and drew some inspiration from the hugely popular summer camps held for children in America.
She also focused on children aged between 8 and 12 years – an age bracket that Tanya identified as lacking in activity opportunities.
“Everything seemed to be targeted at either the 0-5 age group, or children over 12 years – there was a real gap for 8-12 year olds,” she said.
So with the support of the Shire of Kulin she came up with plans to hold week-long camps for children living in regional WA to prepare them for boarding school; general camps for children from anywhere in WA; teen camps for youths aged 13-15, and scholarship camps for children affected by childhood trauma.
These camps are held during the school holidays, while additional programs for school excursions, school camps and even corporate programming are held throughout the rest of the year.
These additional programs, together with the general camps for WA children, help to fund the scholarship camps that have more than 400 on the waiting list.
Camp Kulin also offers a ‘sponsor a child program’ to help give as many children as possible who may have been affected by trauma or other situations the opportunity to attend the scholarship camps.
Tanya said donations through the program, whether they were by individuals or businesses, were extremely important in getting the scholarship campers to camp.
A donation of $70 could translate into one day at camp for a child, while $350 would cover the entire camp.
Children had to be referred by a case worker to be considered for a scholarship camp.
All child sponsors receive a letter from the child they sponsored after the camp, as well as acknowledgement on the Camp Kulin sponsorship wall.
Last year donations allowed children affected by the Yarloop bushfire to be transported to Kulin from Waroona to attend one of the four-night, five-day camps.
Tanya said the wide open spaces were ideally suited to children who had suffered trauma.
And by staying at the Shire of Kulin’s group accommodation facility, the Kulin Retreat, they could benefit by being able to spend the week in the country town.
All programs run at Camp Kulin focus on the campers learning essential life skills such as leadership, respect, trust, self-confidence, perseverance, persistence, respect, anger management and communication skills.
This is achieved through a multitude of activities, including rock climbing; initiative activities; a sensory walk; orienteering; group challenges; swimming; frisbee and foot golf; dodge ball; and arts and crafts.
It never ceases to amaze Tanya what impact can be made on a child in just one week.
“We have some children that are non-verbal when they arrive, yet by the time they leave they have been taking part in a talent show,” she said.
“And the best thing is that the changes are sustained after the children leave.”
To achieve a minimum ratio of one camp counsellor to every three children, Camp Kulin has been extremely fortunate to build up a bank of more than 200 volunteers.
Aged from 16 through to 74 years, the volunteers are from a range of backgrounds including students and retired teachers, and their support translates into $350,000 of donated time each year.
Now that the camp is well-established, gaining national and international recognition for its innovative program, Tanya said the next phase was to hopefully expand it to triple the number of people able to be accommodated at any one time due to the pure demand for places.
“We have children travelling from places like Carnarvon and Newman right down to Esperance; and now we are even receiving inquiries from overseas families,” she said.
“It has just grown beyond what we thought it ever would.”
Currently a regular week-long camp at Kulin Retreat can take 34 children, whereas Tanya is hopeful of expanding this to a 120-bed facility.
This would allow Camp Kulin to host bigger school camps, which simply cannot be accommodated at the moment, all of which help to offset the scholarship camps.
Camp Kulin recently received a grant from the State Government’s Community Chest Fund, funded by Royalties for Regions, and Tanya said the $31,500 one-off grant would help them to complete a feasibility study into the proposed expansion.
The cost of a week at Camp Kulin for general campers is $365 for children from the Perth metropolitan area (including transportation); $320 for children from regional WA; $350 for scholarship camps and $380 for teen camps.
All meals, accommodation, activities, facilitation and camper t-shirt are included.
