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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Youth at Risk


I was just reading, “Weighing the Risks” in the fall issue of Family Camping. I enjoyed the editorial immensely and laughed out loud at the end. It did get me to thinking how far risk-benefit analysis goes in our every- day lives. As a firefighter I deal with it on a level most people could not understand but you brought home how we all weigh risks and benefits in everything we do. Portage here, line it there, unload and run the rap- ids, or just go for broke, can apply to a lot of situations. Let’s hope you touched a chord with the quotes from the Commons health committee findings [26 per cent of Canadi- ans between age two and 17 are obese due to overfeeding and lack of exercise] we are heading off in a bad direction. I think it’s time to just run it. Bill Smillie Bolton, ON


Your article on risk perception was interest- ing, and risk management is certainly one of the big issues affecting outdoor access and participation these days. Way back in the mid-’90s, while I was a student in Kingston, Ontario, I connected with an organization called Camp Outlook, which is dedicated


to taking youth-at-risk on canoe trips in Al- gonquin Park. What made me think of Camp Outlook is that they struggle with resources and one of the big struggles is the cost of insurance. I understand that liability insur- ance costs have taken up an ever-greater share of Outlook’s costs. Back in the ’90s, the lion’s share of our insurance was to cover the three-hour drive between Kings- ton and the park—the intervening 10 days of canoeing was seen by the insurance com- pany as having lower risk than the driving to get there. But no one ever asked us, “You’re taking kids in a bus?” Yet they were always amazed that we could take “hoods in the woods” and not end up suffering some kind of harm—to them or us. Funny that we see car accidents and hear about traffic fatali- ties daily, and then we all get into cars, talk on cell phones and hurtle past each other at unsafe speeds. Eric Baron Vancouver, BC


WRITING to Family Camping


C A M P S I G H T S


THE GRUNDY BOYS “Dinner!” Steve Grundy and the boys—Gavin and William—land this beautiful speckled trout dragging a line north of Hardy Bay in the south arm of Lake Lavieille, on the second day of a seven-day trip in Algonquin Provincial Park.


AIDAN HYSLOP-HEALY And, on his 45th day, Aidan Hyslop-Healy and his dad Mike set off on their first canoe trip, Stony Lake, northeast of Peterborough, Ontario.


Send your letters to the editor and CampSights to: Family Camping, P.O. Box 70, Palmer Rapids, ON, K0J 2E0 or send us an email at editor@familycampingmag.com. Letters may be edited for style, clarity and length. If we use your CampSight photo, you’ll receive a one-year subscription to Canoeroots and Family Camping Magazine, a $17.95 value.


4 FAMILY CAMPING


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