I am a second year camper at Rayec and I really enjoyed my time there. I learned skills like communicating with others, how to be a good leader and most importantly I had a lot of fun. My favorite part about Rayec was paintball. I was really looking forward to that both years I went. I also met a lot of cool people during my two years camping at Rayec.

I have a lot of funny stories to share. I also learned a lot about entrepreneurship and running a successful business. I also enjoyed all the meals that us campers got provided with. I don’t think I can remember a meal I didn’t like.

I have a lot of good memories from my past 2 years as a camper and look forward to many more fun memories. Rayec is my favorite camp that I have been to. The youth leaders also do a great job in helping campers during the day with whatever they need.

This year my group’s business was making t-shirts. I had a lot of fun learning that new skill. I am very grateful to have had this experience. This is probably the best entrepreneurship camp out there.

Rayec does a good job on teaching teamwork and self discipline. For example my first year at Rayec my group decided to make crib boards. We had to use old wood and take the nails out of it then cut it into smaller chunks then sand those smaller chunks, put the holes in them and stain them.

On Friday night we weren’t quite finished so I skipped my rec activities to finish the crib boards. That’s just one example out of many on hor Rayec helped teach me self discipline.

This was a great experience and I am looking forward to it next year. Like I said previously I am very thankful for this wonderful camp.

Thank you very much,

Eldar

Hello my name is Colton Andrew and I attended Rayec this year. I am 15 years old and wanted to attend the camp to learn about business and negotiation. I love basketball, golf, and live on a dairy and sheep farm in Central Alberta. My favorite moment spent at the camp was climbing on the rope bridge that was 40 feet high. I really enjoyed it because of the thrill and excitement of being that high in the air.

Over the course of the week, I worked with a group of kids in creating a product to sell. We decided to make cookies in a jar. We sold chocolate chip, brownie, double chocolate chip, lemon poppy seed, and shortbread mix. The idea was that all the dry ingredients were in a mason jar with a bar code on the lid to scan for instructions. I participated in any physical labor and the marketing side of things because I don’t know much about baking. It was a slow start in sales at the beginning, but once we eventually lowered our prices and had buy one, get one free deals, we started actually selling the products. We did sell out and we made enough money to cover the bank loan and also bring in 50 dollars cash per person at the end. The reason we didn’t succeed as much as we wanted to was the mason jars drove the cost up too much and making our product seem expensive. If we could of used bags or a different product to contain the dry ingredients at a lower cost the product would have been more appealing to customers.

Another major part in the camp was that my group hosted the Friday night dance for other campers to enjoy. Our main profitable part of the dance was the entry fee, snack station, and Polaroid pictures. We were in charge of set up, decorations, limbo, music, and clean up. We had three levels of entry including, a bronze level for just entry for 2 dollars, silver for entry and a pop and bag of chips for 5 dollars, and gold for a pop, bag of chips, and 3 polaroid pictures for 10 dollars. Most people bought the bronze entry fee, but still ended up buying snacks and Polaroid’s, which played in our favor because the tickets were a better deal for them, but they never took advantage. The income from the dance was the main reason why we actually walked away with profit at the end of the week.

Over the course of the camp I learned lots of communication in sales, working with people, and what it was like to run a business, but I also learned what it was like too not be home for a long period of time and often had times in the work hour periods where I wished I was working in my dairy barn or raking hay in the fields. Today I am very thankful for going to this camp because not only did I learn about business and being in the camp and experiencing the activities, but I also learned about myself. Thank you very much for the opportunity to experience this camp.

Sincerely,

Colton

My time spent at RAYEC was easily the best week of my entire summer. The activities, youth and adult leaders, and the other campers made the camp extremely enjoyable. Activities like paintball, rock climbing, archery, and all the other ones made me look forward to every day I spent there, and made me sad when I eventually had to leave. The leaders in the camp made the camp more enjoyable. Most of the time, adult supervision makes activities much less enjoyable, but the leaders at RAYEC made things fun, and felt like they were your friends. I loved the idea of making our own business, and I think it gave me valuable skills that will benefit me for the rest of my life. Creating a business with a group meant that I had to learn how to communicate better, and got to create friendships that would continue after camp.

If I remember correctly, I was in Business Team 9. We called our business “Imagine This…” , and sold potted plants. Sadly, I had to leave the camp before business day, but I was told by my group that we did quite well. I enjoyed being a part of my group, and I think we got along the best out of any group in the camp. I am still pretty good friends with everybody from my group. In fact, I am still friends with about half the people from the camp. Everybody at the camp surprisingly got along well with little to no drama, which you do not normally see from a large group of teenagers. I would credit the peacefulness and cooperation of the entire camp to the youth and adult leaders.

The leaders of the camp were very relaxed and not strict at all, while still enforcing the rules in an effective manner. For my group, our youth leader was Rachel, and our team leader was Don. Don was a good source of information, and helped with his past experiences. Me and another person in my group, Logan, were both friends with Rachel from when she was a camper last year, so it made working easier. Both of my group's leaders were really fun to work with, and to talk to. The rest of the leaders were also really cool. It was easy to be friends with all the youth leaders, since most of them are only a year or two older than me. The youth leaders were also super helpful because of their experience. I want to be a youth leader next year so I can help next year’s campers. I also feel like I am just not ready to be done with RAYEC.

One of the main reasons why RAYEC was so fun was because of the activities. Paintball was probably my favorite activity, even though I was covered in bruises and paint by the end of it. Another one I loved was rock climbing. It was fun to challenge my friends to see who can reach the top the fastest, or who can climb the hardest route. The campfire was one of, if not the best part of camp. It was so fun to hang out with friends, dance to music, and just have a great time. Everything about the camp was fun, and I loved it.

Thank you,

Ezra