By: Kiron Mukherjee, ROMKids Coordinator

When we receive our evaluation forms back at the end of every session of camp, our number one piece of positive feedback is not what you may think. 

It's not Futalognkosaurus, or Djedmaatesankh. The giant squid, the Ming Tomb. It's not the bottle rockets that blast off from their launch pads in Philosopher's Walk, or the colourful ceramic creations fired at thousands of degrees. It's not even going behind the scenes to see where the fossils are prepared, or where the bugs clean the bones of new specimens. 

No, the number one best thing about ROM Camp is the "young people".

From tying shoes to cutting plaster bandages for teddy bear mummies, to endless games of dodgeball, and making sure kids eat their lunches, these young people, our volunteers, do it all. For their campers, these volunteers represent someone not quite old enough to be their parent, but a person in between, a big sibling, that they can learn from, play with, and look up to, providing a critical role model for many young girls and boys.

In 2015/2016, the young people represented 220+ creative, enthusiastic, and dedicated volunteers, many of which are in high school, some as young as 15. Even more, nearly 50% of our volunteers attended the very camps they now help in. This tremendous group of talent contributed over 23,000 hours of their time with programs such as Summer Club, Saturday Club, March Break Camp, PD Day Camp, Sleepovers, and ROMKids Jr, programs that, without these very volunteers, we could not run. 

Thank you to all our volunteers!