The Ottawa Construction News – May 2011 – PAGE B5

The story of great people helping thousands of

Boys and Girls Club kids atCamp Smitty

Tom Patrick doesn’t mince words. Camp Smitty exists today—modern, well-maintained and funded, revenue-

producing and community-building—because of the generousity of Ottawa’sconstruction industry.

In fact, the Boys and Girls Club camp was in pretty rough shape and in dan-ger of closing before the start of the new millennium. Its facilities were mostlya mish-mash of haphazardly constructed “camp-style” structures from the 1930’sto 1960’s, lacking solid foundations, flush toilets and even minimal insulation.

As Camp Director, former Police Youth Centre Director and one-time campparticipant the very thought of having to discontinue such an historic Boys andGirls Club program both saddened and motivated Patrick.

“Camp Smitty is a story of great people,” says Patrick, who met his wife thereand has sent his children there. “Once they see camp in session they want to domore. Hearing the stories is one thing but seeing them unfold is something else.”

Located on 28 acres at the edge of Mink Lake in the Ottawa Valley, it wasfounded as Camp Minwassin in 1924 and renamed in 2001 to recognize the con-tribution CTV sportscaster Brian “Smitty” Smith had made to the communitybefore being killed in 1995. Smith, a former NHL player, attended Camp Min-wassin as a young teenager.

Today, four summer camp sessions each accommodate 100 children agedeight to 15 years old. On average 70 percent receive significant financial support.Many attend despite having experienced very traumatic life situations. Children’sAid refers about 50 kids a year.

In 2006 the Ottawa Senator’s Alumni, with Brad Marsh’s enthusiastic sup-port, committed to raising $500,000 for the camp. To date they have raised$300,000, which has been used to build two new washroom blocks and a seniorstaff cabin, with more to come.

The construction community steps upTo address the need for upgraded facilities at Camp Smitty a committed and

effective Camp Facility Committee was formed. Current members includePatrick, Boys and Girls Club Building Coordinator Tony Bond and ExecutiveDirector Scott Bradford, Amsted Construction’s Steve Barkhouse, and BruceSandor, owner of South Woodworking and Construction.

“The impact of the contributions from our construction volunteers, donors andsupporters has been incredible. It significantly upgrades the facilities at CampSmitty and, as importantly, it motivates our staff team and energizes the campers;everyone gets the clear message that the construction community truly caresabout enhancing the quality of life for deserving children,” says Patrick em-phatically

Today, thanks to the generous support of businesses such as Kealey and Tack-aberry Log Homes, South Woodworking and Construction, Amsted Design Buildand Restore-All Corporation, Camp Smitty is equipped with camper cabins forboys and girls, a state-of-the-art dining hall with a majestic electric fireplace, anindoor recreation hall (renovated original dining hall), a waterfront recreationarea, and a soon to be completed log home.

“Our kitchen facility was recently put into operation and provides a greatplace to have meals and host activities like award nights, quizzes, talent showsand conferences,” explains Patrick. “We have installed a new well that will sup-ply all the drinking water and showering water needs for the camp. We now havenew canoes, a rescue launch and swimming equipment for our campers to enjoywhen at camp.”

The enthusiastic Amsted Construction teamOne weekend each fall for nearly 10 years Amsted/Restore-All has been

bringing a team of 50 to 70 employees and their families to complete on-siteprojects at Camp Smitty.

Company partner Fred Barkhouse started the tradition with the constructionof the dining hall and kitchen. Over the years Amsted/Restore-All’s contribu-tion has grown to include two “tree houses,” a new maintenance shed with elec-tricity, roofs and porches on the camper cabins, and renovations to the arts andcrafts room.

“The tree houses are 15 feet high and are a beautiful alternative to sleepingin a tent,” explains Patrick. “We do the meals for them and they do a full week-end of volunteering. If the projects are not completed they will come back the fol-lowing weekend. To finish the tree houses they came back the next two weekendsto get them done.”

Local contractors make it happen! KAREN SECORD – The Ottawa Construction News Special Feature

Amsted/Restore-All provides design/build, project management and construc-tion services to the residential sectors. Theyalso own insurance restoration specialistsand Restore-All Roofing, Windows &Doors.

Decked out in matching t-shirts the Am-sted/Restore-All group of three to 70 yearolds are given tasks suited to their skilllevel, by a management team that beginsplanning for the weekend one year in ad-vance.

“This is a team building exercise for

Amsted/Restore-All,” says Steve Bark-house. “We work all year to prepare. Wepick a project, get the material and equip-ment, walk the site, pick the tasks and dothe staging. We want to make sure thateveryone who comes up is involved in theproject.”

For Steve Barkhouse, his father Fed andbusiness partner Kirk Haw, Camp Smitty isa special place.

“I would suggest that Camp Smitty isnow one of the premiere camps in Canada,”says Steve proudly. “As a father it is im-portant to me that we participate in some-thing like this together and that we workhard together. I want my children to giveback to the community because they wantto not because I told them to. When we all

work together at Camp Smitty we can seethe results of our hard labour and we feellike we have contributed and that is impor-tant.

“Carpenters are not known to be phi-lanthropists,” continues Steve “but we havea skill that is in huge demand so we canstretch the donations for them by helpingout.”

The singing carpenterBruce Sandor, owner of South Wood-

working and Construction has a five yearplan for the continued rejuvenation ofCamp Smitty’s facilities. But he has beenvolunteering his time and expertise farlonger than that.

“No kid is going to miss out on going tocamp because their parents can’t afford it,”says the Smiths Falls resident passionately.

Sandor clearly believes that the work heand others like him are doing to assist theBoys and Girls Club really makes a differ-ence in the lives of the children and fami-lies it serves. He likes to visit Camp Smittyin the summer just to see the children smil-ing and having a good time. He thinksnothing of putting his paying work on holdto build or fix something for the campwhen an urgent need arises.

However, what the carpenter is mostproud of is the dedication shown by his fel-low “barbershop” style singers in the Cap-ital City Chorus. For the past 10 years agroup of about 80 men have assembled atCamp Smitty for a weekend of hard workwith huge rewards.

“Bruce Sandor is a big guy with a heartof gold,” says Patrick. “When he gets thoseguys working on a project he works themhard and they respond. They built four newcamper cabins in a single weekend.”

The Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa es-timates that the value of the renovationsperformed by the Capital City Chorus atCamp Smitty over the past five years is$100,000.

“The Capital City Chorus guys are ded-icated. They feel guilty if they are not con-tributing,” explains Sandor. “Upgrades likeinsulation have made Camp Smitty a 12-month operation which means that it cangenerate income from rentals and we arereally pleased to have been part of that.”

Kealey and Tackaberry Log Homesbuild new Point Cabin

Currently, the excitement at CampSmitty is focused on the construction of anew 1,200 sq. ft. log home designed to re-place the old Point Cabin. Located near thefamily beach area with a spectacular viewacross Mink Lake, the cabin had seen sev-eral incarnations throughout the years. Attimes it was used as the camp director’s ac-commodation and at others housed volun-teers or special guests.

Paul Kealey and Adam Tackaberry,owners of Kealey & Tackaberry LogHomes, are building the one and a halfstory, three bedroom house at cost. Andwith the support of many other construc-

PAGE B6 – May 2011 – The Ottawa Construction News

Camp SmittyContinued from page B5–––––––––––––––––––––––

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Arban Stoneworks Ltd.Granite – Marble – Quartz

5638 Power Rd, Ottawa, ON K1G 3N4Phone: 613-822-1300 Fax: 613-822-1600

Congratulations to the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawaand the whole team working on the Camp Smitty project.

The Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa would like to extend itswarmest regards and deep appreciation to all the companiesand individuals who have given so freely of their time, energy, and finances to help rejuvenate Camp Smitty.

You help us to give our best and make us who we are.

Thank you!!!

Boys & Girls Club

of Ottawa

Phone: 613-232-0925 Fax: 613-230-0891

DESIGNED FOR LIVING

Deslaurier is pleased to be associated with the great team atAmsted Construction and wish them continued success.

For more information on the opening of our new Ottawa showroom,please visit our award winning Web site, www.deslaurier.ca.

ConstructionAmsted Construction LimitedSteve Barkhouse613-836-7434www.amsted.ca

MagEastwood Construction Mario & Lewis Grandinetti613-223-7521www.mageastwood.ca

Log homesKealey&Tackaberry LogHomesPaul Kealey613-227-4663www.ktloghomes.com

LumberKott Group Bernie Ashe613-838-2775www.kottlumber.com

Rona Wayne Bentwayne.bent@rona.ca

LoggingM. Foy & Sons ExcavatingMalcolm, Kyle, Corey Foy

WindowsMarlboro Window and DoorFrank Manitta

RoofingIdeal RoofingClaude Laplante

Housing Design CentreAstro Design Dave Harding613-749-1902www.astrodesigncentre.com

Kitchen DesignDeslaurier KitchensBob Gould613-596-5155www.deslaurier.ca

PlumbingZito PlumbingFrankie Zito

ElectricalFaught Electric Chris Faught

Carleton ElectricMark Conrad

WeldingRock WeldingRock Villeneuve

Stone WorkArban Stoneworks Sandro Campagna613-822-1300

HomebuildersDoyle Homes Trevor Doyle

EntertainmentOttawa Sens AlumniBrad Marsh

Capital City ChorusBruce Sandor

Building MaterialsBraycor Dan Stashick

Advanced Building SystemsStephen Wise

tion partners (see sidebar) the build is justanother example of the amazing commit-ment of the industry to the children of East-ern Ontario.

“We believe any successful businessneeds to have a relationship with their com-munity and this starts with giving back tothe community,” says Kealey. “We alwaystry to support local events and charitieswhen we are able to so we literally jumpedat the opportunity to be directly involvedwith this one since it’s ‘right up our alley’.”

Logs for the house were sourced di-rectly from the property commencing inNovember 2010 and construction began inJanuary 2011. Foy & Son Logging and Ex-cavation Co. left the heavy equipment athome and used horses to harvest twospecies of trees—white cedar for the wallsand red pine for the second floor and roofsystems. The style of construction is piece-en-piece,which uses a combination of hor-izontal logs and vertical posts. This was thepreferred style as the white cedar typicallyhas too much ‘taper’ to be used in lengthslonger than 20 feet.

“The idea of the project stems from the

nature of our company existence and ex-pertise - energy efficient home buildingusing natural materials, having a low car-bon footprint,” explains Kealey. “It does-n’t get more future-friendly than this one.The logs were not only taken from theproperty, they were horse logged as well.

“Log homes are a symbol of us as Cana-dians, especially here in the Ottawa Valley,one of the ‘lumber capitals of the world forthe past 150 plus years,” continues Kealey.“Importantly, Forestry Canada’s harvestingrules and regulations are such that they willprevent this valuable resource from everdepleting. In a nutshell, Canada has 12 percent of the world’s forest cover, 90 per centis crown owned and no more than one-quarter of one per cent is allowed to be har-vested each year. The renewable nature ofwood along with its structural and insula-tive qualities, make it one of the most avail-able construction materials. As a result, alog home is a true preservation of nature asthe structure is ‘visible’ - “Preserving thepast, protecting the future” as we like tosay.”

Rustic and functional, the cabin’s foot-print is 28’x32’. It features a covered porchon three sides and an open concept interior.Completion, notes Patrick, will depend onthe availability of volunteers and donations

of furniture.However, once finished, rentals of the

new Point Log Cabin will help generaterevenue revenue for future camp renova-tions and additions. The money raised byhaving an attractive facility for off-seasoncorporate events, family reunions etc. willalso be used to give more children the op-portunity to attend camp.

Camp Smitty is all about the kids. AndOttawa’s construction industry is doing itspart to make sure that no child who wantsto go to camp is denied the opportunity.

The Ottawa Construction News – May 2011 – PAGE B7

Camp SmittyContinued from page B6–––––––––––––––––––––––

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We are proud to be part of the Boys and Girls Club ofOttawa and Camp Smitty project