When I think of Camp Huronda, I think first about the people. Decades have passed, and my life has taken me a long way from those summers, but the friendships still matter.

I grew up in Schomberg, Ontario, and I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age six. Life got very difficult and strange for a while. Then Camp Huronda happened. Suddenly I was somewhere I didn’t have to explain myself. Everybody understood. The thing that made me different elsewhere was something we all shared.

One of the most important people in my camp life was my dear friend, Steven Berens. He was from Newmarket, and I was from nearby Schomberg. We became very close over our years at camp. Steven died when we were still young men, around the time I opened my pub in Schomberg at the age of 19. Losing him is something I have carried with me my entire life. Recently, I saw his brother Mark again, and it brought that part of my life right back. It reminded me that a friendship can stay with you, even after so many years.

Many campers will know Steven’s Bell at Huronda, which was dedicated in his memory after he died. For me, that bell carries a very personal connection. Steven was my very best friend at camp, and seeing his name remembered at a place that meant so much to both of us connects my childhood at camp with the generations of campers who have followed.

Opening my pub in Schomberg was the beginning of a much bigger chapter. Over the years, I went on to own and operate bars and restaurants, including Nashville North, arguably the most famous country bar in Canadian history. Hospitality and entertainment became a major part of my life: building venues, bringing people together, and working in a world full of music, personalities, and possibility. It was exciting, demanding work, and it took me far beyond anything I could have pictured as a little boy learning to live with diabetes. I have had the honour to work with some of the best in the music industry internationally, from the Rolling Stones on down the line.   

Music became part of my own identity, too. As the frontman of Apostrophe X, I have a creative life alongside the business side of entertainment. My career has given me opportunities to work with major names in the music industry, and entertainment remains an active part of my life.

Moving to Jamaica opened another remarkable chapter. Through Music Mansion and my wider entertainment interests, I continue to develop relationships and opportunities around artists, recording, and new projects. That chapter is still being written. We are currently involved in recording projects with some of the top people in reggae and dancehall including Maxi Priest, Rajah Wild, and many more. Having music projects alongside my other businesses keeps that creative part of my life very much alive.

My career has also broadened into industries that might seem a long way from the stage. Through HIMSL, I am involved in developing quarrying, construction-materials, and infrastructure businesses in Jamaica and Canada. In Ontario, we are working toward acquiring and developing the Hilltop Quarry in Georgetown.

Finance is another part of that evolution. With NorthBridge Financial Group, we are building a cross-border residential-financing business intended to help people use income earned abroad to finance homes in the Caribbean. It is a different kind of project for me, but it draws on the same principles of bringing people together and creating opportunities internationally.  

Then there is GEOPHYSIS, where I am involved in helping advance an ambitious technology and advanced-materials business. Its interests include concepts with potential applications beyond Earth. That work is still in development, but the possibilities are fascinating. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed, as a child at Huronda, that off-Earth technology would one day be part of my working life.

At 53, my working life spans entertainment, finance, mining, and technology. Much of it is still being built, and there is plenty left to learn and achieve.

I have been afforded an exceptional life, full of exciting projects, remarkable people, and opportunities I once could never have imagined. I am proud of what I have achieved, and I am still reaching for more.

But I am still here, still working, and still making plans. This year, I married my wife, Nicole, in Newfoundland. Family is central to me, and I am trying to make space for what matters. I am also writing books about my life and looking forward to spending time with my father, revisiting memories and getting more of those stories onto the page.

If I had one thing to say to kids at camp now, it would be to enjoy the friendships. Get to know the person next to you. You might find that someone you meet there stays with you, in one way or another, for the rest of your life.

For any young person at Huronda who feels knocked back by diabetes, I want you to know how much life can still hold. I have built businesses, owned bars, nightclubs and restaurants, worked in the music industry, moved countries, and taken on projects that once would have seemed far beyond my reach. You are allowed to aim for the top. Diabetes is real, and its challenges are real, but your ambitions deserve room in your life, too. You do not have to have the whole journey figured out today. 

Where am I now? Between Canada and Jamaica, with a family I love, music still in my life, and a collection of ambitious projects keeping me busy.

Still here. Still grateful. Still moving forward.

Kit