The life changing experience has been offered to youth for ten years in the Edmonton area has finally made its way south to Calgary.

This July 40 to 50 lucky campers, age 14 to 24, will be able to attend the inaugural Camp fYrefly Calgary hosted in Cochrane. The addition was prompted by high demand and made possible with the partnering support of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre.

"Last year we had over 100 youth apply to the program here in Edmonton and we could only take 50," says Camp fYrefly Co-Director and Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta, Dr. Kristopher Wells. "Many were coming from southern Alberta and so we decided it was time to bring it [to Calgary]."

In fact, campers are drawn from across the country to attend Camp fyrefly’s unique program: a healthy mix of self esteem building workshops, leadership seminars, sports, arts and more. Every camp features an artist in residence and the 25 workshops offered per session are developed by the community.

"By using the arts, many young people can express themselves in ways they can’t with words," Wells says.

Themes range from creative writing and drama to queer history and relationships to yoga and self-expression.

April will be a key month for preparing these camps. Call outs to the community will begin so that four planning committees can be formed. These volunteer committees will develop the educational programs and outdoor activities that happen at camp; handle the advertising, publicity and community outreach aspects; mail out the annual camp fYrefly post cards to all of the junior high and high schools in the Alberta education program; manage logistics, transportation and food to be available at camp; as well as fill camper’s flag bags full of helpful information for the campers to take home with them.

There are a full variety of positions and ways in which one can help out. Prospective volunteers are asked to contact fYrefly by visiting their website and contacting them by Email.

Committee members will also have the tough job of selecting which applicants get to attend camp. Campers are selected on a range of criteria: the responses applicants provide in their application package, past experiences, background, and interest.

The selection committee will be seeking a "diversity of youth from a variety of different backgrounds," Wells says. "This is a real opportunity where diversity becomes our strength."

The camp only costs $25 per camper – a nominal commitment fee to secure the participant’s registration – the actual cost ($1,000 per camper) "is fully subsidized thanks to the generous donators in the community," Wells says.

This ensures that no youth is ever turned away for financial reasons.

The median age of attending campers has decreased over the years from roughly 21 to 15 or 16, as youth are now approaching the camp at a younger age, Wells says. But this does not mean that an older community member might not be experiencing the same issues as a younger member. The camp places no bias or inflection on age in years – its all about the current stage attendees are in their lives and how recently they have come out.

"Generally speaking the older youth tend to be leaders supporting the younger youth," Wells says. About a dozen youth leaders over the age of 18 will be selected and trained in advance of the camp start dates.

"Another big shift [we’re seeing] is that many of these people are now coming with the full support of their family," Wells says. "That’s a big shift from previous years."

"Many youth coming are now very active in their communities and coming from all over Canada to gain experience and access the resources to go back with, to build a stronger community."

This makes for a promising development for communities throughout the nation.

Camp fYrefly committees will be hosting friendraisers which will give people opportunity to learn more about the program. These, along with a formal launch of the camp introduction to Calgary, will be happening this spring.

The camps are still looking for additional companies that can donate items that will be helpful to campers. In addition to monetary gifts this can mean useful camp materials such as relevant literature, water bottles, protein bars, sunglasses, sunscreen, pens, etc.

Calgary will also be seeing a new fYrefly initiative in schools.  Peer to peer workshops are set to launch with a grant generously donated by the Alberta Human Rights Education Fund.

"We’re coming into the Calgary community in a big way," Wells says.  "We’re super excited."

This year all 600 junior high and high schools in the province will receive post card invites for their pupils to attend Camp fYrefly thanks to support from the Alberta Teacher’s Association.

"We’re delighted to be able to deliver the program with their support," Wells says. "We’ve seen it have profound effect – especially with a teacher who’s able to share that post card with a youth in rural Alberta who may feel like they’re the only one."

Wells says the most powerful testimony shared by a youth who attended Camp fYrefly was their feeling of belonging: "For the first time in my life I get to be the majority instead of a minority everywhere I go," he recalls a youth saying.

It’s the camp that never stops supporting it’s campers.

"[Camp participants] can always reach back into the network," he says. "They’re never alone. Whether it’s a bus ticket or plane ticket to get out of a bad situation... you don’t have to take your own life."

Wells has learned from speaking with camp attendees over the years, the depth of transformation that can occur over those four days.

"I used to say Camp fYrefly changes lives until a youth came back and told me, you have it all wrong. Camp fYrefly saves lives."