‘Day is done, gone the sun’

Read it all:
"‘Day is done, gone the sun’
Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette
Published: Sunday, April 29, 2007
Calling all former Camp Oolahwan girls: Its time to brush up on your Boom-da-de-ah-da.
Smores and campfire songs like Land of the Silver Birch will be on tap May 12, when former campers and staff of the now-closed YWCA camp gather at the downtown Womens Y.
Founded in 1917 near Ste. Marguerite, 100 kilometres north of Montreal, Oolahwan was Quebecs first summer camp for girls. It closed in 2004, a victim of rising costs and changing times.

In 1964, Marian Scott, 9, waits for the Camp Oolahwan bus on Crescent St. outside the YWCA.
Marian Scott

In its final decade, Oolahwan accepted boys and offered English immersion for francophones.
In 2005, the Y sold the 345-acre property, including a private lake, for $1.47 million to developers, who have subdivided it into building lots.
Former camper Lesley Charters Cotton, 58, learned two years ago her beloved camp had been sold when she tried to donate photographs to the YWCAs archives. The holistic health teacher in Dorval decided to organize a reunion to keep Oolahwan memories alive."