At Toronto’s Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, a unique creative arts youth summer camp has just ended its second season, a growing, faith-filled program that honours music ministry.

Children from across the archdiocese spent the last month blending steel pan, guitar, drums and recorder lessons with other creative arts and daily Bible study. 

Run in partnership with the Fra Angelico Centre for the Arts (FACTA), the OLGC Summer Music Camp has grown from just a handful of participants in its inaugural year last summer to upwards of 15 children at the start of this year’s sessions. Open to the wider community as well as parish families, the camp has used this summer to offer musical lessons as well as various crafts and dance practices within a structured day that begins with Bible study.

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Organizer Heidi Lee told The Catholic Register that, even as most of the children arrive with little or no musical background, many make substantial progress in just three weeks. Returning campers from last year have been picking up where they left off, with new families deciding to stay after trailing the unique summer offering for a single day. 

As Lee explained, musical lead Sr. Aluna Abbott and parish pastor Fr. Dexter Brereton launched the program as a way to bring the intersection of faith and music to local youth in an approachable way. 

“It was only the beginning of last year that they had this vision to start something in our community for the young people, and it has been growing ever since. It’s about trying to provide some fun, artistic, but also faith-driven activities for these children,” she said. 

With Our Lady of Good Counsel having been established in 1975 under the pastoral care of Trinidad's Holy Ghost Fathers and the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena of Port of Spain in Trinidad, the parish has supported a long history of presence of the Caribbean Roman Catholic community of the Greater Toronto Area. Lee shared that Abbott had arrived at the parish from Trinidad solely to help the team get the camp off the ground during its first year. 

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Along with instructors Sr. Roxanne Constance and  Gillian Garcia, and with the help of Lee and fellow administrator Hydee Bristol, children from five to 16 have participated in weekly programming that combines faith formation and artistic development as part of the camp's holistic approach.

“It has been amazing to see these kids take to this, and at the  end of the three weeks, to see how much they have gathered and learned over the period of time they were here. The new parents are especially amazed by what they are seeing in their kids at the end of each camp,” Lee said. 

The summer camp also prides itself on its philosophy of accessibility. While programming ranges from $75 to $100 depending on length and age range, Lee said that the camp’s belief is that children should learn a musical instrument more than families should need to worry about money, and that monetary issues should not keep them from participating. 

“ Our camp is not based on if a parent can afford it, and we have had parents who said they could not. I told them to forget about it and just send their kids any way,” she said. “Music is such a beautiful thing to learn at that age, so that’s the important part for us.” 

While the last week of camp for this summer officially ends Aug. 28 with an evening recital of the children’s newly learned musicality, Lee and the team are already hoping to expand the program from three weeks to the full month of August when it launches its third year next August. 

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As for what the team hopes each child was able to take away from this year’s camp as they now return to their classrooms, Lee opted for what the camp was inspired to do since its inception. 

“My hope is that  they learned a new instrument, will continue to learn it, and that they will come back next year,” she said.