The History of Camp Kidaca

In the 21 years that camp Kidaca was around there were many changes.  Camp started with one true location, and it grew to six in the year 2000.  To start our story off, there is none better to tell us Kidaca's origin than the man himself, Larry Collinson.

Kidaca The Early Years

Prior to Camp Kidaca there was Adventure Camp, which was run out of the various Recreation Centres in The City of Hamilton. Prior to that there was Kifodaca (Kings Forest Day Camp) it was run out of Kings Forest behind Rosedale Arena.

Now The City of Hamilton Recreation Department was ready for a change and so they directed 3 Program Organizers to Run Adventure Camp one in each of the 3 areas of the City. Lower City East, Lower City West and The Mountain. We were to meet with the Centre Supervisors and run the program that they planned. One week out of each Recreation Centre. The 3 Program Organizers where Doug Deforge Lower City East, Mike Castiglione Lower City West and me Larry Collinson Mountain.

Each of us were given 4 staff members and told to go to it. Doug, Mike and I were to work under the supervision of the Centre Supervisors in our areas under the Direction of the Area Supervisors. I was lucky, Gary Kohler was my Area Supervisor and he took a chance on what I presented to do for that summer.

I would run one week of Adventure Camp out of each of the 3 Recreation Centres (Huntington, Hill Park and Westmount) and then run what I called Super Camp out of Barton Community Centre. One of the driving factors behind me was a comment by Ed Beattie the Supervisor of Westmount Recreation Centre "If it fails it's your fault!" Well the first 3 weeks went as I thought Swim, hike, crafts one trip, (Zoo) what a great camp experience. Come week 4 all changed I registered 70 children with 4 staff and all the volunteers I could get, I brought a car full of kids from my neighbourhood and for $10.00 they had 3 trips, a sleepover, Family Night with Bar-B-Q supper. My staff that year was fantastic. Friday night of the first week we set up at Barton Community Centre and raised the roof with skits songs and when we had the kids fired up we announced that there were openings for the next 3 weeks. The registrations went up to 120 kids still with 4 staff. Doe, Sandra, Nancy and Chuck. We had T-shirts made up for every camper for every week. The t-shirts came from a sweatshop in Toronto at a cost of $2.00 per shirt and screening $.45. I made many a trip in an old Fiat sedan.

One of my Fraternity Brothers' was a salesman for Sealtest and through him I got enough Popsicles, creamsicles, fudgicles and ice-cream cups that every camper had 2 or 3 per day. I had this stuff in my old stand up freezer at home for months.

That was to be the forerunner of KIDACA. If you have ever wondered where the name came from, let me tell you. Super camp was such a success that over the winter and spring one Centre Supervisor was assigned the responsibility for the Camps. Along with Doug, Mike and I, Ted Hammond joined us as our Supervisor for Camp. We met to talk about how we would operate the next summer and to coordinate trips, shirts, supplies and to steal one another's ideas and call them our own. Back to the name. Ted Hammond came up with the name KIDACA for Kid Day Camp. Kidaca was born. In the early days we were still given only 4 staff, I knew that 4 staff for 100+ campers was not enough and as I had said earlier thanks to Gary Kohler I was able to get 3 more staff, Donna, Gary and Mitch. 

and Mitch ha actually been on this site, and contacted the Kidaca Kid personally!!! okay, back to what the Kidaca Godfather had to say...

Kidaca the First Year. Barton Community Centre, Coronation Area and Rosedale Arena, these were the base locations.

My weekly program was;

Week One, Three, Five and Seven

Monday Base swimming at Walker pool
Tuesday Christie's Conservation area
Wednesday Resource Management Centre
Thursday Bronte Creek
Friday base with Bar-B-Q supper and family night

Week Two, Four and Six

Monday Base swimming at Walker pool
Tuesday Christie's Conservation area
Wednesday Bronte Creek
Thursday Resource Management Centre Sleepover and family night
Friday Base swimming at Walker pool

Very repetitive but the staff made it a great success. Those original staff had a difficult task to perform and they were great. They gave Kidaca a firm foundation to build on, I have lost contact with them over the years but I am sure that they are all successful in what ever they are doing.


For now, I am going to skip the middle years and jump to the final years of Kidaca.
The Fall of the Kidaca Empire

It was in the January of 2001 that the city of Hamilton amalgamated with its surrounding suburbs, forming the "New City of Hamilton".  This should not have been a big deal in the life of Kidaca, but as you will see, it was the undoing.  The first hint of change came when it was announced that there would be 10 day camp locations for the summer of 2001, and that they were interviewing students for supervisor positions.  Up until this point Kidaca had always had Program Organizors as supervisors.
Stay tuned for more of KIDACA's history, and we may even be lucky enough to hear more from the Kidaca Godfather himself. Thanks Larry, not only for your help with the site, but for starting what became the definition of summer.
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