Marygrove Camp Receives $2,500 Donation | Story Featured In The Midland Mirror
On Saturday, Sept. 1st 2018, the Clearwater Beach Ratepayers’ Association proudly presented a $2,500 cheque to Marygrove Camp. The donation not only commemorates a long-standing relationship between the residents and cottagers of Clearwater Beach and the beloved camp, which was established in 1940, continues to serve as a summer retreat for over 1,000 disadvantaged inner-city girls each year, but also represents the profits from the sale of the highly anticipated and recently published book Clearwater Pioneers: Early Cottaging on Clearwater Beach.
Written by Wayne Yetman, Clearwater Pioneers tells the fascinating true story of how Clearwater Beach came to be, while showcasing Yetman’s deft ability to capture the incomparable real life characters who brought spirit, soul and a little bit of legend to the shores of Georgian Bay. The result is an entertaining and fast-paced history lesson readers won’t soon forget.
“The book is a collection of written portraits of the earliest adventurers who built their cottages on Clearwater Beach in the late 1940s and early 1950s,” states Yetman. “The stories are told by the original pioneers or their adult children. These are the real words of our forbearers, describing the harrowing, and often dangerous, challenges of venturing into the wilderness years ago. Bears, snakes, collapsing roofs, and portaging absolutely everything in by water, the earliest cottagers persevered against incredible obstacles. They set the stage for the easy life we lead today.”
In addition to the hardships faced by its real life protagonists, the book also reports on the early joys. We read about the “Secret Garden,” “The Big Rock,” the generosity of neighbours in a time of crisis, the raucous social life of a much less constrained era, and the infamous “Big Swim.”
Clearwater Beach was virtually a wilderness at that time, and it took courage and planning to lay down roots out there. These days, the Clearwater community stretches from Marygrove Camp to 1769 Champlain Rd. Given the role that Marygrove has played over the course of the past 78 years on Clearwater Beach, donating all proceeds from the book was a natural and impactful decision.
Clearwater Pioneers is now 100 per cent sold out, but copies can be found at both the Midland and Penetanguishene libraries.