DSFM (Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine), the French school division in Manitoba, has purchased Camp Moose Lake from Mennonite Church Manitoba. The camp is located near Sprague. The purchase was officially announced Wednesday night at the school board meeting. Serge Bisson, secretary-treasurer for DSFM, explains how they will use the camp.

"DSFM is a province-wide school division and has been using camps for many years to bring students together. Most of our students live in an environment where they're a minority and so we find that camps allow them to meet other Francophone students in the same situation as they are. We just build on various skills and on the Francophone identity."

Bisson says the division will use the camp extensively.

"We've got roughly 30 camps lined up between now and the end of June and that will be ongoing for future years. We haven't really looked too much in detail as to what to do in the summer yet. We're just focusing on the school year for now. We'll figure that out later."

He adds they will hire one person to maintain the camp. Bisson says a staff member and the various schools look after the programming so that will not require any additional expense.

The division paid $300,000 for the camp. Bisson says, considering the division was spending almost $100,000 a year to lease space at various other camps, this acquisition makes great financial sense as well as making good sense from a programming perspective.

Mennonite Church Manitoba announced earlier this month that it was selling Camp Moose Lake and would focus its attention on its other two facilities, Camp Assiniboia near Headingley and Camp Koinonia near Boissevain.