My friends thought I was crazy for wanting to spend my summer living and working in the woods, but I am so glad I did! The summer I spent working as a Ranger was one of the best times of my life and I still talk about it to this day (you can never have too many Ranger stories). 


I was a Ranger at Killarney Provincial Park, and although I spent many years camping with Girl Guides, this experience was way more than I thought it was going to be -  but in a good way! Rangers taught me to be more independent and more confident in myself.  It also taught me to work hard, both as an individual and as part of a team. The girls I met at Rangers were some of the most amazing people I had ever met, and although we came from different parts of the province, we found a way to come together as a group and become our own kind of family. 

Although I have chosen a career in business, I still take with me what I learned from the Ontario Ranger program.  Rangers gave me the confidence to move away from home and go to school in a different town. I still continue to get into the outdoors whenever I get the chance, and I have even been back to visit my old Ranger camp, although it’s completely changed now.

I took a chance on this program; I signed up without knowing much about it, other than what I had seen in a promotional video, and I didn’t know anyone else who was going.  But it turned out to be the best experience that I ever had, and I am so grateful for it! It should be something that other youth have an opportunity to experience. 

You’re probably going to read hundreds of these blogs. But that’s the point: Hundreds of stories, hundreds of Rangers and hundreds of reason to keep the Ontario Ranger program.