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Okay, so we didn't do any scuba diving at the OELC,
but this was the coolest picture I could place here unless you really like Babe Ruth!!!!! Hi!!! I'm Paul 'Schmaul' Kennedy. I'm a grade 12 high school student from Brockville, Ontario who finally decided to honour the absolute best athletic centre in the entire world, the Ontario Educational Leadership Centre!!!! The OELC has been around for 51 years now, continuously serving the secondary athletes (and fine artists) of Ontario.
I had my doubts about the OELC at first I must say. It was my phys ed teacher who nominated me to go because according to her, I was to be a big-shot exec on our school's athletic council. Sure enough, I tried to get a spot at the end of the year, but she did not choose me. I didn't see the point in going to the OELC after this happened. What would be the use?? But I did go, and I sure as hell didn't care what was happening at school, because what I learned there extended just so much beyond athletic council qualities, I learned life qualities.
The OELC is a beautiful hunk of land located on the shore of Lake Couchiching ('lake of many winds'), about an hour and a half north from Ontario's capital, Toronto. The centre itself is run by a number of teachers from across the province. One teacher facilitator (or TF for short) is assigned to one cabin. The cabin can contain up to 15 students (all of the same sex of course, but unfortunately!!). You also discover on your first night that if the cabin door is open for more than two seconds at a time, the mosquitos will NOT let you sleep a wink!!!! All meals and social gatherings are held in a relatively new building called the Couchiching Centre, built in 1991. The OELC uniform (yes we had to wear uniforms, but they weren't annoying at all) consists of a white t-shirt with the OELC crest and navy blue shorts also containing the crest on the left leg. The OELC colours are therefore white and navy blue. There are of course exceptions, such as during tournaments, cabins are designated a certain
colour, and they receive a t-shirt of that colour (for instance, my team tournament t-shirt was purple!!). As well, when it gets chilly outside, the OELC provides everyone with a navy blue sweatshirt, and navy blue sweat pants. Its many facilities provide an athletic experience unlike any other imaginable. All in all, nothing's perfect (including my grammar and spelling probably), but the OELC is pretty close!!!!!!!!!
Now you have some options. If you wish to hear about my personal experiences witht he OELC, please continue reading. If you wish to hear more about these facilities, and more information about the camp itself, scroll down to the bottom of the page where you'll find your gold. Enjoy this page and feel free dropping me a line anytime!!!!!!
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My Experiences
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My first trip to the OELC occured on June 29, 1998. Again, I wasn't too enthusiastic about going, but hey, getting away from my brother for a whole week, I couldn't turn that down!!! The day was sunny (just like all the others as I would find out). The World Cup of soccer was in full stride. And I stood was my suitcases in hand waiting for someone to show me where my cabin was located. Sure enough I found it, cabin #22. I was our second cabin member to arrive out of what was 9 leaders (or students, at the OELC, everyone is referred to as a leader). Many of the cabin members were from the Toronto area, so naturally, I was a little nervous about what these guys would be like, but sure enough they were the greatest group of guys I have ever met in my entire life. When everyone had arrived, the afternoon started off in a strict and organized fashion. First we introduced ourselves, as anyone would, within our cabin, then off it was to Alumni Hall to pick up the UNIFORMS. It was like passing your tray
along the cafeteria steel thinger. In a straight line, we first picked up our three white t-shirts, followed by our shorts, our tourney top, our sweatsuit, and our optional cap (to me, optional meant free, so I took one of course). Then it was our first gathering as a whole camp. 200+ leaders, many teachers and the executive OELC members. We went over basic stuff like what to do incase of a fire, etc. Then it was picture taking time with our sister (female) cabin for the week, cabin #2. Later, we learned how much of a challenge it was to get into the Couchiching Centre to eat. We couldn't just walk in, we all had to line up in our cabins, look really mature and serious (no wonder my cabin was always the first in!!!), our shirts had to be tucked in, our socks HAD to be white, etc. It wasn't long before cabins started making up cheers after their group was permitted to enter the building. Of course, being the tall guy in our cabin, in the camp for that matter (I'm 6'7"), our group chant was about me. It went like this (although I can't play the music for you).
One Person shouts: "Who's that guy who's 7 feet high?"
All respond: "It's Schmaul!!! It's Schmaul!!!"
One Person: "Who's that guy who can reach the sky?"
All: "It's Schmaul!!! It's Schmaul!!!"
One Person: "Who's that man with the master plan?"
All: "It's Schmaul!!! It's Schamul!!!"
The verses varied from day to day. By the way, Schmaul was given nickname by a couple of leaders from my cabin. By the end of the week, all 9 members of our cabin had a nickname. These members' nicknames include; Chicco, Rico, Elf, Playa, Unibrow, Benji, Christen, Psycho, and myself, Schmaul.
The first couple of days were very long days as you could imagine. You had to walk (and in some cases run) from place to place to get to your area on time. It sure as hell felt like boot camp because there were just so many rules to follow down to the colour of our socks!!!! But hey, after the first couple of days, nobody cared, the week simply blew right by. It was actually pretty saddening how fast it went.
Our cabin were the early trouble makers in the camp (well, not me directly, but we're all in the same cabin, therefore, we were all guilty). I didn't know why at the time and still don't today. But we knew that we could clean up our act, and we did that tremendously. Until the second last night though, when we were playing in our daily tournament. We got a little too competitive and that gave birth to some emotions that are really not acceptable in any environment, but especially not acceptable at the OELC. Our TF took us away from that tournament after we had our first warning. We was very disappointed in us we could tell. After the tournament was over, the executive members of the OELC then had a talk with us and they didn't seem very impressed either. We were lucky to have got out of that situation unscaved. Later that night, we felt so bad for our TF. I mean, here's a guy who's taking a week out of his summer to teach us leadership skills and the only way we could repay him was to go out and act like a bunch of idiots. It was that night that we started planning for our last day.
The day began in a special way. Due to the talk we had witht he executives, it did split us away from our sister cabin. Our TF's knew this so they had us (the guys) form on circle facing inwards, and then they had the girls form a circle within our circle facing outwards, so one of us was facing one of them. Then we had to say three nice things about the person we were looking at, followed by a hug, and then the girl's circle moved one space left until every guy had encountered every girl. It was truly a great feeling. We were okay with each other again. But the day was long from over.
I was nominated our cabin's Honourary Cabin Leader. Meaning, I had to give a speech in front of the entire leader body on the final night. I wrote out my rough copy, and I made it so special, it was exactly what I wanted to say. Unfortunately, the executives who reviewed the speeches before they were presented, said thhat mine was too long and too much of a joke. How could my speech have possibly been a joke I asked myself constantly. They wanted me to cut a lot of it out. I told them I would, but I didn't. I went up there in front of 200 people and said exactly what I had wrote originally. The executives were sitting behind me, so I cannot describe what their faces were like, but hey, I wonder if they felt sorry. Because my speech brought tears to many people (including myself), and as I recall, my speech received the old standing-O afterwards. Cabin #22 was now back in business. But even after this, the night had just begun!!!!
We had a skit night afterwards in which brother and sister cabins presented a short skit. Our skit was a comical view of how we thought the OELC really changed our view of the centre itself. It got a lot of laughs from leaders and teachers alike. As well, there were short intermissions inbetween skits, so the camp needed fillers. Our cabin wrote a variation of "If I Had A Million Dollars." And guess who had to sing it?? Yours truly. We made it so funny though. We included people from our cabin who popped up and sung a line. It went like this:
Schmaul: "If we had a million dollars"
All: "If we had a million dollars"
Schmaul: "We'd buy cabin 2 a house, but not a toy house that's cruel."
Schmaul: "And if we had a million dollars"
All: "If we had a million dollars"
Schmaul: "We'd buy Ricco a monkey" (then Ricco stood up and did the most amazing monkey sounds in the world, they were cool)
Schmaul: "Cause I know he's always wanted a monkey."
Schmaul: "And if had a million dollars, we'd buy a maid"
Schmaul: "If we had a million dollars"
Schmaul: "We wouldn't have to walk to the Couch" (short for Couchiching Centre)
Schmaul: "If we had a million dollars"
Schmaul: "Maybe Chris wouldn't be such a mooch" (Chris stands up and looks like a mooch)
Schmaul: "If we had a million dollars"
Chicco: "Yo check it, I'd be rich!!!" (not sung, it sounded funnier with him saying it).
So it was all over. Our week was done, and cabin #22 was on a major high. Going into the final day, we were considered the worst cabin in the whole centre (I heard others talking about us in a negative way), but at the end of the day, we were the envy of every other cabin, and that was something we were extremely proud of.
We left the following morning with so many good memories, and I've only shared a few with you. But I hope you enjoyed them, these are some of my favourite memories.
Continue reading for what some of the buildings are like, and locate a hotlink to the oficial OELC website. Thank you OELC, and thank you reader!!!!!! Drop me a line sometime!!!!
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