Our Vision

Our History

Camp Chestermere was established in 1953, when the Gospel Missionary Association (an association of Alberta Baptist Churches) purchased lands and buildings from the Sea Cadets for $8500. Their purpose, as with many church-group established camps, was to provide a place for children to come and learn about Christianity in an environment that was fun and provided recreational activities.

In the early days, the camp was a summer operation consisting of a day or two of staff orientation, two weeks of children's camps for age eight to twelve and five day teen's camp at a cost per camp of $7.00 . Camps operated with about 70 campers, with most of the campers coming from the associated churches.

As the popularity of the camp grew, several large tepee tents were brought in to use to as camper accommodation. In 1968, five brown cabins (still in use today) were donated and added on the south end of the campground. These were outfitted with individual vacuum systems, toilets and heaters and so opened the way for year-round operation. These were also the years when camp opened up not only to the children of local church families, but to children of all backgrounds and families.

With the growth of camp programs, other facilities rapidly became inadequate; the long barrack cabins were replaced with more functional facilities in the early nineties, and the old canteen (used for chapel) barely survived the exuberance of camp life; when the campers were singing their hearts out, and stamping their feet to the rhythm of a marching song, the whole floor swayed. This building was replaced in 1971 by the current lodge - a beautifully designed facility tiered around a central fireplace, with ceiling to floor windows overlooking the lake and mountains.

In recent years the camp began hiring full time directors and winterizing more facilities to allow for facility rental in the non-summer months. Winter camps, with fun events like snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, broomball, and snow fort building complimented the summer camp programs, and allowed the campers to stay in touch with camp (and their counselors) year-round.

The early nineties brought significant changes to the camp, as it became an independent entity under the leadership of a volunteer board of directors. It was established as the Camp Chestermere Association registered under the Societies Act of Alberta and a registered Charity with the Canadian Government. The camp hired Andy James to become its full time director, and he took steps toward encouraging the residents of Chestermere to think of the camp as “their camp” instead of “that Bible camp” or “the church camp”. He welcomed the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, and Guides to use the facilities of the camp at no charge and began day camps for children from the Chestermere region.

Growth in summer camp attendance, increasing demand for winter camp and retreat use spurred current director Frank Littel and the Board of Directors to design, fundraise for, and build three new multi-purpose dorms. These were completed in 1998, and allowed the summer overnight camp capacity to grow to 130 campers per week. Another area experiencing growth is summer day camp, where attendance has grown to 600 campers as more families make Camp Chestermere's day camp a part of their summer.

The current staff team numbers eight year round, swelling to over one hundred in July and August when fifteen hundred children and teens attend one of our week-long camps. The future looks bright as we continue to register hundreds of campers (new and returning) train new staff and expand our facilities to accomodate for the growth Chestermere has gone through during its many years of operation.