Opening Day at Camp Inspire

On a hot Friday morning in July, Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) staff and YouthWorx program volunteers gathered to set up a fun day for TCHC’s newest cohort of Camp Inspire kids. The event marked the very first day of summer camp for 300 TCHC kids ages six to 12!

With support from local vendors and the City of Toronto, Wishing Well Park in Scarborough was transformed into a play area with giant inflatables, face painting, obstacle courses and big field games like soccer ball.

Soon, yellow school buses rolled into the parking lot, each filled with excited campers. There was a school bus for each community: Brahms/Sparroways, Gilder, Glendower and Gordonridge in the East, Islington St. Andrews, Mabelle, Tobermory and Trethewey in the West, and 501 Adelaide, 150 Dan Leckie, 45 St. Lawrence St. and 40 Lower River in Central. Kids were also outfitted in a custom Camp Inspire t-shirt that represented their region; dark blue if you were Central, pink for East and bright blue for West.

TCHC staff volunteered for the day at different stations. Some helped manage the inflatables, making sure the kids were using them safely. Others helped serve lunch, manage the flow of kids through the activities, and helped them play games in the big field. Staff had also set up a quiet area with sensory toys for kids who needed a break from the excitement.

Many campers already knew this summer program as Rookie League. In 2025, TCHC renamed it Camp Inspire while still offering the same great programming for youth. 

When asked what Camp Inspire meant to them, one of the campers said, “It’s a place where I get to make friends from other communities, not just my own.”

Another said they enjoyed “hanging out and doing fun activities with my friends all day. There is always something different to do.” Indeed, on this day there was!

Just as campers and volunteers were starting to feel the heat, the ice cream truck rolled up. Offering free slushies and cones, the line up continued well past lunch time. 

While some kids lined up for the ice cream truck first, others went straight for the big red fire truck that Toronto Fire Services brought to the park especially for our campers. Kids explored the truck, sitting in the driver’s seat and checking out the different items fire fighters use to help people.

The fun continued into the afternoon, ending around 3 p.m. when buses arrived again to take campers home. 

Breonna Francis, Program Coordinator for Camp Inspire, put it best, “If programs like this didn't exist, we couldn't continue growing the next generation, no passing the torch on.”

Camp Inspire runs in 12 communities through July and August for seven weeks and is free to TCHC tenants.