The Story of Kanata

Recently, I've started trying to uncover the history of Kanata.  I realized a while back that we don't seem to know a lot of our history, and to me, it seems like knowing our history is an important part of being able to tell our story.   We don't even have a complete list of our directors for the past 55 years, and so that seemed like a good place to start.

For the past few weeks, I've been flipping through a few old brochures I had around, filling in the blanks I knew, and thinking about ways to find the information.  Today, I got a box of old newspaper clippings and old annual reports and other such things from the Durham Y, and I couldn't wait to dig into it and see what I could find.  

A few hours, and lots of yellowing newspapers later, I've only made a bit of a dent in the box, but I am amazed at what I've already found, and I feel like I know so much more about the story of camp.  

My list of directors is growing, and I think I may have even found the first director (H.C. Raiford), but I'm hoping one of the next few articles will confirm it.  I've learned about the Durham Y's history of camping, which started 34 years before Kanata.  In 1921, the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club, and the Y started Camp Rota-Ki-Y.  

A change of name to Camp Sacarusa (named after a local Indian Chief), a fire, a change in location, and an infantile paralysis epidemic later, the land for Kanata was purchased in 1946.  

I'd always heard that Kanata was built in about three weeks, with a whole lot of help and money from local civic organizations, but I had no idea that 85 acres of the land for camp had been purchased eight years before Kanata's first summer of campers.  In 1947, the first plans for Kanata were drawn up, but the Y didn't have the money at the time, so a trust fund was started to raise the money to build camp.  

Learning the life story of Kanata will probably be a long process, but I'm fascinated by it.  Every time I get to fill in a space on the list of directors, or come across an interesting picture from 30 or 40 years ago, I am thrilled.  For almost half my life, Kanata has been a huge part of who I am, and I am so excited to have the opportunity to explore how Kanata has become what it is today.