Four days in August: what the summer camp actually looked like

Toronto, Ontario. The summer camp ran from Tuesday 4 August to Friday 7 August at two arenas: Leaside Memorial Community Gardens on the Dr. Tom Pashby rink, and Ted Reeve Community Arena in the east end. Two ninety minute ice sessions a day, a free lunch from Pizza Pizza every day, and a full set of equipment for every camper to keep.

The first morning did not go to plan. Registration and gear fitting took the whole of it, which meant children who had come to skate spent their first hour in a lobby. Some of them played ball hockey in the corridor instead. It is the part of the week we would most like back, and the fix is straightforward: gear goes out the week before, not on the morning.

By the Thursday afternoon the thing we are actually here for had happened. Children who could not stand up on Tuesday were skating the length of the ice without falling. That is not a statistic we can put in a grant application, and it is the only one that matters.

What it cost, in full, and what changed, are both published. So is the part that went wrong.

Everybody started like this.