Where
strangers become friends and friends become family.
Back
in 2005, Hugh & Camy Hicks invited us to the Family
Campers & RVers 46th Campvention in Blyth, Ontario.
They gave us almost a years notice, as the Campvention
was July 7 – 14, 2006.
Known as the “friendliest people in the world”,
FCRV is an organization dedicated to camping fellowships,
the preservation of our international heritage and the
strengthening of family bonds through shared activities
in the out-of-doors! Family Campers and RVers is a member-owned
organization with activities and programs for youth, teens,
adults and retirees.
We have been to FCRV provincial rallies and we have done
a few seminars for them. We really enjoyed those rallies
and how welcome everyone made us feel. At those rallies
there would be approximately 100 to 150 RVs in attendance.
The annual Campvention is different - this is their National
Rally for all North America, and in this case, the National
Rally would actually be an International event, as the
location would be the historic village of Blyth, Ontario,
Canada.
We were surprised when we arrived at the Blyth Fairgrounds
to find 800 electric and water hook-ups (400 30amp and
400 20amp). We also learned that a total of 690 families
with 667 units, and 23 visiting families attended this
Campvention from all over North America.
The village of Blyth also surprised us. The citizens are
known for being the friendliest RV people in Ontario.
The village of Blyth supplied many activities for the
campers including church dinners and breakfast; sidewalk
chalk drawing for the youth; and the Lions Club food booth
– a very popular spot on the fairgrounds. Those
who like their morning Tim Horton’s coffee were
happy to find that there was a store open on the grounds
each day. Blyth also provided a military tattoo with three
bagpipe bands in kilts along with a range of entertainment.
FCRV have a special event called a “noise parade”
at each Campvention and this festive activity is open
for as many campers who choose to join in. Hundreds of
participants make noise with pots, pans, musical instruments
and whatever creative means they can find to make a racket.
There were cars, trucks, and vans jammed full of merry
noisemakers as well as several marchers on foot. The parade
route wound through the fairgrounds and right through
the center of Blyth – that’s no unusual, you
may think, but this parade only started at 10 PM. We are
not too sure that the people of Blyth were ready for this,
as we saw many a strange face coming out of their homes
to see what was going on. One gentleman thought a bunch
of crazy people had come to town.
Not to worry. The Village of Blyth got even with us the
very next night. As we sat outside we could hear sirens
off in the distance. Then we saw several fire trucks and
pickups coming up through the Village. They turned onto
the road just south of the fairgrounds. Some of us thought
that a farm might have been on fire, but to our surprise
they turned into the fairgrounds and made their way up
and down the rows of RV’s! The pumper truck arrived
with its’ water hoses going full blast. The youngsters
thought it was great fun getting soaked as several RVs
got thoroughly cleaned. In the spirit of good clean fun,
everyone had a great time.
We do not have enough room in this column to tell you
everything that went on at this Campvention, so we will
give you the short version. There were seminars on just
about everything, RV Safety Diaster Awareness Training
(DAT), microwave cooking with Tupperware, craft classes,
renewable energy, extended travels, Habitat For Humanity,
Operation Migration, conservation, your health, braking
systems for cars, weather radios, air flow, computer education
and many more. There was a special area and events for
retirees as well.
In the town of Blyth, fire hydrants are special as many
of them are painted and decorated. Not to be outdone,
Campvention had a creative contest with everyone invited
to display his or her own decorated fire hydrants. It
was fun to walk around the campground and see all the
entries. Several photographers stopped at our unit to
take a picture of our Red Hat Lady Fire Hydrant all dressed
up in her purple outfit, complete with red hat, flowers
and a feather boa. How fitting for a fire hydrant –
those Red Hat Ladies are still “HOT” –
only now it comes in “FLASHES!”
Each evening from 7:30 to Mid-night the Teen Centre was
open with dances and events for the well-behaved teens.
During the day there was youth events and teen events
such as a Poor Person Lunch put on by the Teens, National
Youth Directors Meeting, Teens sport draft, Baseball and
also the planning of moving the chapter mascots around
when the adults were not looking. We were on Security
one night, travelling around in a golf cart. We noticed
that the pink pig mascot was on the parade grounds where
the bagpipe bands had played. We travelled around and
on our way past the parade grounds the pink pig was gone.
Now, we want you to know that this pig is not little,
it is huge, bigger than me. We looked for the pig everywhere.
When we pulled up to the Security Office, there was the
pink pig standing on the pitchers mound in the Baseball
Diamond.
One of the highlights for the teens is the Teen Queen
Pageant and this is a beautiful time for these young ladies.
It takes almost the whole week to come up with a winner.
From what we saw they were all winners.
FCRV also presented several scholarships to many of the
youth and teens that belong to the organization. We were
very impressed at how well FCRV looks after their youth
and teens.
There was entertainment every night, from professional
to amateur and it is all Family fun.
We really enjoyed the 46th Campvention in Blyth, Ontario
and we hope to come again in the future. The next Campvention
is in Pueblo, Colorado on July 5 – 11, 2007 and
in 2008 in Center Hall, Pennsylvania. If you would like
more information on the Family Campers and RVers, please
contact them at:
Family Campers & RVers
4804 Transit Rd, Bldg 2
Depew, NY 14043
Phone: 800-245-9755
www.fcrv.org
Take Care & Happy RVing,
M.B. and Karen Wilson
The Wagon Masters
wagontrains@bellnet.ca (Page Top) |
