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Five-year volunteer and Red Deer Rotary Sunrise member Grant Burchnall works on the new stairs up to the deck extension that was completed at this year’s Weekend Warriors. (Supplied)
youth hq

Weekend Warriors bolster Camp Alexo ahead of summer season

Jun 3, 2019 | 7:20 PM

Supporters and volunteers were at it once again at Camp Alexo for the annual Weekend Warriors event.

The yearly event gets people out to the site near Nordegg to complete important upgrades to the camp which will soon welcome youth throughout the summer.

Meagan Parisian, Marketing and Communications Specialist for camp operator Youth HQ in Red Deer, says it’s about making the kids’ experience better, but also engaging community supporters.

“Our big project this weekend was a deck extension and we also added some drainage onto that. We basically doubled the size of the deck at Eagle’s Nest Rotary Lodge,” she says. “It was about five years ago we had Eagle Builders and tons of community members come out to build a brand new lodge for us.”

Helpers came from the Red Deer Optimists Club and Red Deer Rotary Sunrise, among others.

“Some of the those we had come out are volunteers who mark this event on their calendar and have been coming for five years in a row,” Parisian adds, noting the next one is set for end of May 2020.

There were about 40 volunteers who took part, including some who installed a brand new BBQ donated by friends of Camp Alexo this spring, and volunteers helped roll more than 2000 sleeping bags donated by the Canada Winter Games.

Meantime, camps start up the first week of July, with approximately 550 campers expected through the end of August.

There are still some spaces left to register for. More information is at YouthHQ.ca.