Expanded Camp Manitou site includes lake, accessible dock, new biking trails

Hundreds of kids have already gotten to experience an 11-acre expansion at Camp Manitou that includes a new lake and accessible dock that allows kids with mobility issues to get out on the water.

In addition to enabling the camp to offer canoeing and kayaking, the expansion also includes new biking trails and a pump track.

For 11-year-old Ben Wolodarsky, who has been coming to the camp near Headingley, Man., every summer for the past five years, the change is noticeable.

"It changed in a really good way. Now that we have the lake, we can have much more fun at camp," he said.

"We used to never be able to go in the canoes, or kayaks, now we can."

The $9 million capital project expanded the site from 28 acres to 39 acres, including the 2.6 acre man-made lake. 

When the camp started in the 1930s, and continuing on until the 1960s, participants would swim, canoe and kayak in the Assiniboine River, which runs alongside it, said camp director Audrey Hicks.

"I've looked back and been reading about the history and looking at the pictures, it's pretty incredible when you see what they were doing in the river, but that's not feasible for us to do anymore," she said.

"And so this has now expanded and opened up that same opportunity for us."

The lake includes a dock with rollers that allow a canoe or kayak to slide up onto the platform. A person with mobility issues can then shift from a seat into the watercraft, which can then roll back into the water.

The dock, which normally would cost around $60,000, was donated by Nor Col EZ Dock president Garth Krulicki and his wife.

"I wanted to be able to donate something like this so that the kids, all of them — doesn't matter what their sort of abilities are — was able to get on the water," he said.

The new biking trails will give kids the opportunity to develop skills they wouldn't normally learn riding on flat ground, Hicks said.

Biking instructor Ness Dalling has been focusing on teaching kids basic riding skills like braking.

"When they're riding, the better they can brake, the faster they can go because they'll be able to get themselves out of stickier situations."

In addition to having fun, the camp also gives kids the opportunity to learn leadership skills.

Program participant Wolodarsky says he hopes to one day be a camp instructor and pass on the skills he's learned to other kids.

The camp, operated by True North Youth Foundation, also includes an NHL-sized outdoor covered rink. In the winter, the lake will be used for pond hockey.