Our Lady of Victory Camp (OLVC) has officially launched its 2025 season on July 5, welcoming a record 430 young people from across the Archdiocese of Edmonton for five weeks of faith-filled summer programming.
The camp is held at Gull Lake in Lacombe County. OLVC offers overnight camp for students from Grades 4 to 12, blending classic camp activities like canoeing and archery with daily prayer, the sacraments, and small group faith discussions.
Camp Director Cody Parr, who has led OLVC since 2023, shared that this year’s registration numbers have exceeded all expectations, marking the largest High School Week (first week of camp) in more than a decade.
Parr credits the growth to OLVC’s outreach. The camp team has visited dozens of Catholic schools and parishes across the Archdiocese in the past two years, organizing retreats and making presentations to raise awareness and build community ties.
“At OLVC we strive to give our campers a unique place in which they can encounter Christ, encounter community, and encounter creation,” Parr said. “We fill our days with classic camp activities such as canoeing, archery, campfires, and wide games. We celebrate the sacraments together, pray together daily, and learn our faith together through talks and small group discussions.
“Everywhere I go, I encounter young people who are hungry to go deeper. Deeper into community. Deeper into faith. They want connection, community, and to experience something real. For many, the camp experience provides exactly that.
“This year many come to Rome as Jubilee pilgrims of hope. Those who come to camp, despite travelling a shorter distance, are the same type of pilgrims. We live in a world which is perhaps more confusing to young people than it has ever been before. Things around them move at breakneck speed.
“This, I believe, is at core of what youth are holding on to in terms of hope for their future – that their future may involve stability and surety of purpose, assurance of their value, confirmation of their calling, and the unceasing love that may only be found in God.
“I hope, of course, that the young people who come to camp this summer will enjoy themselves, make friends, and build their confidence. But most of all I hope that they will deeply encounter Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist, and further experience Him through creation and the love in Christ that our community has for them.”