Belwood Lodge and Camp is a summer camp dedicated to meeting the summer recreational needs of children, youth and adults with intellectual disabilities. Our program provides an exceptional holiday experience for our participants, provides caregivers valuable respite time, and builds a foundation for an energetic staff to become future leaders and advocates. For 2021 we are running Day Camp programs due to COVID-19.
Mission & Our Story
For over 70 years, Belwood Lodge and Camp has provided an exceptional holiday experience for people with intellectual disabilities.
Support Us
Our wonderful facility is always adapting and upgrading to make our camp experience its absolute best. If you would like to support us, click here.
Belwood is a wonderful opportunity for people with intellectual disabilities ages 7 - Adult. We screen our applicants to ensure they can be safely supported at our facility. We are not able to support individuals who require 1:1 care, G-Tube feeding, have been physically restrained in the last year, or require assistance transferring from wheelchairs (participants in wheelchairs must bear their own weight while transferring).
"This camp has great lodgers who made me feel great and I feel like this is the only place I can be myself other than home. I would like to thank everyone for making me feel like Belwood was like home. You guys rock."
-AJ, Lodger
Belwood News & Alerts
Ontario trillium Foundation Support
7 May 2021
We are delighted to announce that, once again, the Ontario Trillium Foundation has recognized the importance of Belwood Lodge & Camp to our lodgers/campers and their families by providing critical funding.
This grant comes from the Trillium Resilient Communities Fund which is specifically designed to ‘support the non-profit sector recover and rebuild from the impacts emerging from COVID-19 so they can effectively meet the needs of communities across Ontario.’ Belwood was awarded $136,000.
How will this money help our Camp?
-
To meet the needs of Camp in 2021 we need additional room for activities and sleeping. Our old Barn is undergoing a major upgrade and will become a large and versatile new space. The Nature Centre will be upgraded to a fully functional & accessible programming space. And, most importantly we will have upgrades to pathways that will improve safety as our Campers move around between cabins and the Barn.
-
To achieve these improvements, we will upgrade our power supply which is not cheap but is essential.
-
2021 requires lots of new medical/PPE supplies, rental of tents, hand washing stations and porta-potties, and additional staff planning and preparation time. All these will be funded from our grant.
-
Finally, what would Camp be without new outdoor games and activities?
We are most grateful to Trillium for its generosity. Please make sure you pass on this good news. Trillium has been and continues to be critical to the success of Belwood. We are very grateful.
New Director Announcement
1 Dec 2020
The Board of Directors and Members of Belwood Lodge and Camp would like to introduce Madeleine Rawling (Maddie) as our new Camp Director starting 2021. Our selection was made after a most thorough and lengthy search where Maddie rose to the top of a pool of highly qualified candidates.
Maddie will tap a wealth of experience working with children, youth and adults with disabilities. She also brings experience and an advanced degree in management that will help us run that part of the camp that you don’t see every day.
We congratulate Maddie and encourage you to introduce yourself as soon as we can all get back together at Belwood.