Age and social status was seemingly thrown out the window in the latest evolution of the local Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program.

The DARE Leadership Camp at Camp Bickell brought together high school students from all around the Timmins area for a three-day camping experience they will not soon forget this past weekend.

Chairperson for Camp Bickell’s Board of Directors—and Timmins city councillor—Joe Campbell says it was an easy decision to play host, and was quick to credit Timmins Police and DARE Constable Rick Lemieux for all the work he put in.

“It’s a pleasure to have them here,” Campbell said, “It’s a good fit for camp because that’s what were all about. We’re all about kids and teenagers and younger kids and that’s really what our focus is so it’s great that way.”

And it was all free, thanks to Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart Program.

“The Jumpstart program is fantastic,” says DARE Officer Bill Field, “They support Rick and I and the Timmins Police community service in many of our endeavours and (they’re) unbelievable. They’re a fantastic community partner.”

Students left from the Sportsplex at 9am Friday morning and got to the Camp Bickell location off of Municipal Road around 10am.

“We’ve been getting to know everyone around and we’ve been doing ice breakers so that no ones shy,” says Kara D’Arcangelo, a 9th Grade student at Ecole Secondaire Catholique Theriault.

Students also got to play some sports and really, have lots of free time to mingle.

“Everyone’s pretty chill and nobody’s really left out,” she added, “Everybody’s getting along, which is nice.”

On Friday, D’Arcangelo says she’s looking to come out of the weekend with better leadership skills. It’s also provided her a reunion with a couple other girls she used to dance with too.

So you can guess just on that one experience, there’s already some positives in putting this weekend together.

And it spanned every high school grade, according to Olivia Fregonese, a Grade 11 student at O’Gorman High School—and one of the team leaders.

“It’s a lot of inter-mingling,” she says, “A lot of talking with people who may not be the same like ‘social standard’ in grade-wise, like ‘they’re in Grade 12, I don’t want to talk to them, it’s scary, they’re the big people of the school.'”

That’s a definite confidence builder. In fact, when asked what attribute makes a great leader, Fregonese says confidence is key.

“Confidence is the root of all leadership skills,” she answered, “You need to be able to put yourself out there and know when to speak up, when to sit down (and) willing to talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to.”

Talking in front of the group, Constable Lemieux adds a leader is someone “who is themselves, who leads by example.”

“I don’t want you to be someone you’re not,” he says, quoting the saying he heard over the years ‘Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken.’

“I don’t want anybody here to judge anybody else,” Lemieux continued, “We have people that don’t like certain things, that’s alright. People that like certain things, that’s alright. Be you.”

Many of the activities throughout the three days combined leadership skills with a whole lot of fun, no matter who was there.

“We’re really hoping this can become an annual event,” says Constable Field, “We already have a lot of kids who, next year are really looking forward to coming back as a Team Leader, so it’s really looking great.”

And if it’s not the experience, the special Camp Bickell cake will sure be a draw.

Filed under: Local News