Programs

GICEL Camp Information

Updated February 18, 2025

We are excited to share the proposed dates for our 2025 GICEL SEEP and Seedlings programs on Mayne Island and new information about the registration process. Please continue reading below to learn about the changes and this year’s dates.

For 2025, we’re offering four weeks of the Summer Earth Education Program (SEEP) for 6-12-year-olds on Mayne Island, with a capacity of 30 participants in each camp.

The proposed SEEP dates (dependant on staffing) this year are:

  • July 14-18, 2025 Mayne Island (Forest theme at Bennett Bay)

  • July 21-25, 2025 Mayne Island (Marine theme at Georgina Point)

  • July 28- August 1, 2025 Mayne Island (Forest theme at Bennett Bay)

  • August 4-8, 2025 Mayne Island (Marine theme at Georgina Point)

We are excited to share that Seedlings, a program for 2.5-5-year-olds, will run on Mayne Island this year. Lots of details to come!

The dates for Seedlings (tentative, dependant on staffing) will be:

August 4-8, 2025 on Mayne Island (exact location to be announced)

August 11-15, 2025 on Mayne Island (exact location to be announced)

 For further updates, please fill out this form to be added to the Seedlings email list.

In 2024, we were overwhelmed by unprecedented demand, leading to many challenges in our systems. We know many of you experienced these challenges alongside us. Thank you for your support and feedback. As a result, we’ve made a number of changes. Some information about these changes is below. More will come as we move through this year’s registration period.

New for 2025: Each participant will be able to register for a maximum of 3 weeks of programming. This allows families to rely on SEEP as childcare support for the same number of weeks they have been able to in the past while also allowing more families to access our programs as we go back to a 4-week program this year.

More New for 2025: With the help of a GICEL parent and volunteer (thank you!), we are piloting an online registration platform this year. When we announce the registration dates we will include information about how this new platform will work and how to use it.

More New for 2025: Our registration policies will be published on our website prior to any registration opening. When these are sent to you and posted to the website, please read through them ahead of registering to find the answers to common questions and to prepare for registration.

Registration for the SEEP and Seedlings programs will be in early April. When the program dates and registration dates are confirmed, I will email our list and update the GICEL website with these dates and times, all registration policies, and information on how to use the new software registration program.

Please note that in 2024, all programs were full within 5 minutes of the general registration window opening. We hope that adding a fourth week will help, but we remain a small-scale program with space and staff limitations. Please watch for an email with the registration date and time, mark it on your calendars, and set an alarm!

For more information regarding:

If you are not already receiving emails from GICEL and would like to be informed of when the registration dates will be, please complete this “GICEL Camp Updates” google form.

Thank you for your support!

The Gulf Island Centre for Ecological Learning

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Programs:

Summer Earth Education Program

Grouped in clans such as the Roaring Rockhoppers or the Tree Clan, participants in our Summer Earth Education programs (SEEP) explore together, study together and play together in the forests, freshwater and marine environments of the Gulf Islands. Components of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park as well as regional and community parks found on each of Salt Spring, Pender, Mayne and Saturna islands are the venues for the 2010 programs. The clans create their identity and build forts which are their base of operations for the week-long programs. Using rotations and activity centres, participants have hands-on experience in understanding forest ecosystem dynamics, multi-sensory explorations, bird communities, food chains and food pyramids, animal behaviour, energy flows in ecosystems, journaling and self-reflection. Specifically designed games to re-enforce the concepts and activities have children role-playing as prey, predators, salmon, and orcas, to name a few.

Specific studies are done on forest decomposition and the soil cycle, intertidal zonation and freshwater aquatic organisms’ lifecycles. Each island program includes sessions led by specialists in certain fields including forest bird communities, forage fish ecology, watershed dynamics and salmon survival, as well as First Nations storytelling and use of resources. Participants also spend time collecting, identifying and recording various organisms found within forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems according to their place in the food chain.

Music is an integral part of each day’s opening and closing ceremonies in which the participants learn new songs about the natural world around them. At the end of the week’s program, individualized certificates of achievement are presented to each participant at our closing ceremony.

This PDF file details a typical day with GICEL.

Seedlings Early Years Nature Day Camp

Seedlings Early Years Nature Day Camp is a week-long outdoor, play-based program (mornings only) which offers young children an opportunity to explore, learn and grow together in nature. It takes place every summer on a secluded private property (the coordinator’s home-place on Mayne Island) that provides both field and forest environments for the children’s outdoor adventures.

The emphasis is on social, affectionate, play-based and creative learning, with a focus on sensory experiences in nature: listening, looking, touching, tasting, singing, laughing, digging, climbing, running, swinging, building, eating, sharing, story-telling, painting, sculpting, and – did we mention? – playing! We warn everyone beforehand that the children will get Very Dirty! And they do… We all make new friends and greet old ones with joy, sing songs, paint rocks and sticks and add to the wall-mural. We read books and tell stories, paint faces (and arms and legs and other bits), build and decorate a woodland fort, eat frequent snacks, explore the garden, play games in the field and make expeditions into the forest.

This PDF file will give you more information about the Seedlings Program.

GICEL Connections

The Gulf Island Center for Ecological Learning (GICEL) is now offering a free online summer mini-camp experience for 2020.  Connect with nature by engaging in fun, ecology-themed activities and connect on-line with friends & leaders with the new GICEL Connections program!

Check out our new GICEL Connections webpage for open content created by GICEL leaders, coordinators and community members.  Ecology themed activities, video explorations & tutorials, and more will be posted weekly – check back regularly to see what has been added! 

Explore the activities on the webpage and post any of your experiences and creations to our Facebook page.

Join the weekly GICEL Connection Sessions via Zoom on Tuesday and Friday at 10:00 am PDT throughout August!  

During the 30 minute session on Tuesday, participants will have a chance to connect with each other & GICEL leaders, enjoy some fun camp experiences, and learn about the week’s themed challenge to get outside and explore your local green spaces.  

On Friday, we will gather again to share what you’ve discovered!

Click photos below to enlarge: