The stars light up the sky, the fire burns bright, and the sound of children chanting, singing, and sharing stories fills the air.

Therapy here doesn’t happen on a comfy couch or in a cramped office; it happens on a river’s rapids or on a cliff’s rocky range.

Ranch Ehrlo provides most group home with 36 camp days annually as part of its therapeutic camping program, giving youth and staff the opportunity to have experiences, live adventure, and discover more about their world and themselves.

“Those 36 days are by far the best tenth of what Ranch Ehrlo does and has to offer,” said Ron Schlamp, unit manager of Klassen House. “Camp trips outperform a lot of our therapeutic work. It’s a very important part of what we do.”

“Folks get so wrapped up looking at the world from an egocentric point of view where it’s all about them, and all their trauma and bad experiences are internalized,” he continued. “These rare but meaningful experiences force us to have these moments where you matter to me and I matter to you because we are all in this together.”

The duration and destination of each camp trip differs among group homes. Ranch Ehrlo has three camp properties that are heavily used (two fly in northern camps which are currently inaccessible due to forest fires and land accessible camp at Chitek Lake) but programs plan trips across Saskatchewan and Canada. Klassen House makes an effort to take a 10-day canoe trip every other year.

“We have highly skilled staff who are trained, certified, and accomplished in the wilderness so we can take cooler trips,” Ron boasted. “We travel by canoe, we portage, and we make miles.”

The Klassen House summer trip takes youth on a 10-day, 160 kilometre canoe adventure through northern Saskatchewan’s rivers, rapids, and lakes.

It’s an exhausting but significant journey for the young campers, said Ron.

“These kids are paddling for hours a day and portaging with an 80 pound canoe on their backs. It’s a lot of work and the kids grunt and groan during the hard days but at the end of the trip they’ll tell us it was their favourite part. It’s like running a marathon – it’s not easy, it’s not fun but it’s huge in terms of accomplishment. Something that takes that much effort and that much preparation comes with great reward.”

Major preparations are taken by the youth and staff year-round to get ready for the trip. Staff are certified/recertified by Paddle Canada, and have their Bronze Medallion and wilderness first aid training. Youth build skills and confidence by practice building fires, setting up tents, cooking camp-friendly recipes, and taking part in swimming and canoe lessons.

“Doing a canoe trip takes a huge amount of preparation,” said Ron. “It’s like if you want to climb Mount Everest you don’t just show up and say ‘hey, I’m here to climb.’ This is an expedition – it requires a lot of skill building on everyone’s part.”

Klassen House youth and staff will set out on this year’s canoe expedition on July 26^th, returning home on Aug. 4^th.