By Chad Ingram

Published Nov. 20 2018

Camp Adelaide is to be closed at theend of 2019 and put up for sale in 2020.

As first reported in the summer of2017 the Ontario Girl Guides plan to sell of a number campproperties owned by the organization during a three-year period CampAdelaide among them. None of the properties are currently up forsale.

Of the 17 Girl Guide camps locatedthroughout the province 16 will be put on the market.

Located just west of Haliburton Villageoff Highway 118 the 500-acre property has been owned by the GirlGuides since 1959.

“Ontario Girl Guides has beenexamining our camp usage and financial data over a number of years”Susan Birnie

Girl Guides Canada’s Ontariocommissioner wrote in an email to the Echo .

“Simply put we do not use the campsenough to pay for the property maintenance and infrastructureimprovements that will be needed over the next 15 years.

We decided that we should concentrateon our strength which is programming for girls and remove ourselvesfrom the burden or property maintenance and management.”

Birnie indicated that outdoorexperiences will continue to be part of Girl Guides programming andthat many camping of the camping opportunities currently taking placedo not actually occur on Girl Guides-owned properties.

“Camping and outdoor experiences willremain an integral part of our organization” she wrote. “We areundertaking partnerships and collaborations with hundreds of entitiesacross Ontario that offer spaces for traditional tent camping aswell as some that provide indoor accommodation catering andprogramming. At present more than half of our camping experienceoccur at locations that are not owned by Girl Guides of Canada so weare confident that safe and accessible opportunities will serve ourmembers’ needs. We will create the same great learningopportunities and memories but the locations will be different.”

The Girl Guides were able to purchasethe camp in 1959 thanks to a $3200 donation from AdelaideMcLaughlin for whom the camp is named and her family.