Introducing the Canadian Organization of the Blind and Deafblind and the Camp Bowen Division

The Camp Bowen logo: A bell with the words

We are very excited to announce that as of April 15, 2021, the Camp Bowen Society for the Independence of the Blind and Deafblind is now the Canadian Organization of the Blind and Deafblind. This new name will help us to express our nation-wide identity, something we have been building behind the scenes for some time now. It will also be very helpful in some exciting new initiatives that will be announced later this year.

Never fear! Camp Bowen isn’t going away! To the contrary, Camp Bowen will from now on be operated by the Camp Bowen Division, part of the Canadian Organization of the Blind and Deafblind that came into being today, April 16, 2021. For some time now, the Camp Bowen Society team has been working on independent living skills training and outreach in addition to camps. We are very pleased to announce that the new Camp Bowen Division team, made up entirely of long-time Camp Bowen Society staff, will be focusing exclusively on the Summer Independence Camp experience we all know and love. This will allow the team to grow the camps without needing to worry about any of the other projects of the organization and should lead to even better camps going forward. In short, nothing will change as far as Camp Bowen itself is concerned, it will still be the same camps we have always known!

As for organizational headquarters, both the national and division headquarters will permanently remain on Bowen Island. Bowen is our home community and we aren’t going anywhere! 😎

We look forward to the months ahead as we move forward under our new national and division arrangement. Please be patient with us as we update the website over the coming weeks to reflect these new and exciting changes. We look forward to the new opportunities ahead and the improvements they will bring for both Camp Bowen and our training and outreach projects.