About 1,100 men and boys from the Calvinist Cadets Camporee were evacuated from Kamp Lone Pine near Lacombe on Friday due to severe weather.
The campers were redirected to the pools at the Dawe and Collicutt centres in Red Deer for the day and spent the night at Woodynook Christian Reformed Church, west of Blackfalds.
A few trees came down at the site as winds gusted up to 90 km/h in the region, but no one was injured and all the tents are still in good condition, said Keith Vaandrager, a spokesperson for the Calvinist Cadet Corps.
“The winds were picking up pretty good so the last thing you want is to have someone have a tree fall on them. We thought with the rain and miserable weather, we’d change our plans,” Vaandrager said. “They were back in camp Saturday morning. It was what we’re calling a surprise overnight excursion. They were tired but they had a good time.”
The Calvinist Cadets Camporee is for boys only (ages 11 to 17) from the international church community and runs for about a week.
Camp activities include archery, riflery, canoeing and geocaching, as well as shelter building and cooking lessons.