Update on summer camps

---Luc Côté 2021 summer sports camp cancelled

Due to unforeseen restrictions imposed by Covid-19, Luc Côté’s sports camp will not take place this summer. Initially planning to host the camp’s annual summer programming at D’Arcy McGee high school between June and August, Côté explained to the Aylmer Bulletin that he will be unable to run the camp this year because the school’s athletic facility won’t be accessible.

Regretting to be unable to offer the local youth such as highly solicited sports camp at a time when kids need active and social stimulation more than ever, Côté said he feels especially sorry that he can’t be of service for parents dependent on affordable summer entertainment destinations for their kids, and for his employees who won’t have a place to work and make money. However, he’s looking forward to offering the best possible programming during the summer of 2022, hoping that it happens at D’Arcy McGee high school.

Launching the camp in 2000, Côté explained that it was initially held at l’école Rapides-Deschênes – where he works as a gym teacher - for more than 15 years as an initiative to raise money for the school’s physical education program. Unable to run the camp at Rapides-Deschênes for the previous four years due to ongoing renovations at the school – which should be completed by the end of this summer presumably allowing activities to resume there next year – Côté brought the camp to l’école Vieux-Verger for one summer before transferring to D’Arcy McGee the following year, where it has been successful ever since.

“The kids were having a lot of fun and they were learning new things,” Côté said, noting that the camp typically attracted more than 100 kids per week. The camp is expected to resume with winter programming in March 2022.