The First Sonshine Day Camps | Captain Don Paterson | #30DaysofSonshine

Portable puppet theatre with “Sonshine Summer” | Left: Cathay Bender.

Captain Don Paterson (Executive Director, 1980-1993) always said Toronto City Mission (TCM) was the first organization in Toronto to take children out of the city to Fresh Air Camp.  The original camp was on a farm near Bronte.

Under his leadership, the first Sonshine Day Camps began.  It also became a family affair as his daughter Cathy helped run the camps for a few years during her university years.  They would take a team of university students and go to different churches in communities impacted and run a camp for one week.  They had a portable puppet theatre that they would set and perform a different show each day.  Part of their puppet collection even included a life size puppet of a dragon one year.  The stories taught the children that God loved them and wanted to be their friend.  In addition to the puppet shows, leaders would play games and sing songs with the children.  Even back then Super Heros were popular and one year the theme song went, “I’m a hero, you’re a hero and God makes it so...we all can be heroes”.  

Later in the summer TCM would take some of these children to an overnight camp for a week with their family.  At the Fresh Air Camp, our goal was to show the campers how to have fun outdoors.  We went to the beach, jumped off cliffs, canoed, hiked and played games.  Captain Don Paterson’s wife, Ethel often was in the  kitchen cooking or served as the camp nurse.  Things never went quite like planned and it was necessary for the team to adapt quickly, improvise, and to pray.  Sounds similar to what we are all experiencing now during the pandemic!  

TCM team with puppets

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