The Bowen Lodge by the Sea is home to the Camp Bowen Summer Independence Camps, Canada-Wide Blindness/DeafBlindness Independence Skills Training, and outreach programs and plays a critical role ensuring blind, DeafBlind, and low vision Canadians can come together and gain crucial independence skills.
Built by volunteers in 1962 for the blind, low vision, and DeafBlind community and opened on June 1, 1963, the Bowen Lodge is a west coast gem. A somewhat rustic, but truly picturesque facility, the lodge is unique and second to none for a retreat away from the hubbub of routine life. The ferry trip to Bowen Island is no more than 20 minutes from West Vancouver, and the Bowen Lodge with its lovely grounds and waterfront is only a ten minute walk from the ferry terminal, island restaurants, shops, and other amenities.
Surrounded by nature on the shore of beautiful Deep Bay and set against the background of the scenic North Shore mountains, Bowen Lodge offers participants enriching experiences, opportunities for fellowship, the acquisition of independence, and peer support. Our natural setting promotes friendly interaction, development of new solutions to everyday challenges, renewal, and inspiration.
“I have been spending vacation time at Bowen Lodge by the Sea nearly every summer during the past 24 years and I find it to be always a highlight of summer relaxation and diversion from my everyday activities. The ever-present sounds of gulls, other birds, combined with the distant lapping of the tide as it moves in and out provide a regular aura of welcoming calm.” Peg Mercer, a longtime Camp Bowen camper
The simple layout of the Bowen Lodge, designed with features specifically for blind and newly-blind individuals, along with its grounds and waterfront area, offers a conducive atmosphere for regular times of fellowship that take place during each session. Whether it’s a sing-along, game activity, enjoying a fine cooked meal together, or just sitting leisurely on the large patio, the lawns, the dock at the waterfront, or inside the lounge with a warm fire burning when the weather outdoors is not so agreeable, Bowen Lodge offers a heart-warming setting where participants enjoy and cherish many hours of peer support and friendship together.
The Camp Bowen Summer Independence Camps and Canada-Wide Blindness/DeafBlindness Independence Skills Training programs at Bowen Lodge are staffed by a team of enthusiastic people who do their utmost to organize activities for the participants, and help people reach their dreams.
Over the years, adults, youth and children alike have cherished their time at Bowen Lodge with its lovely grounds and waterfront. It is truly a West coast gem and many of us who visit the Lodge deem it a unique and special setting. It’s a place to learn, relax, unwind, and slip away from the rigours of everyday life.
