Kitted out in helmets and form-fitting apparel, a sea of cyclists and their high-performance bikes gathered in the Friday morning sunshine on the east end of campus, preparing for a long day in the saddle.

Some 350 people from across the province descended this week on Brock University, the site for this year’s Ontario Tour for Kids, a three-day gathering that raises money to help send young cancer fighters to summer camps.

Besides the allure of barbecues, beer tastings and winery tours, the event also involves a lot of cycling along Niagara’s scenic sideroads. Each day, riders choose from one of three different routes — loops of 100, or 160, or 200 kilometres — that will eventually bring them back to campus.

Tour for Kids is just one of dozens of clients who use the University’s accommodations and dining facilities between May and August. How busy is it?  By summer’s end, the volume of guests will add up to more than 32,100 “bed nights” in Brock’s residences.

The entourages have been large and small, from Math Camp and the Ontario Volleyball Association, to the Lifesaving Society of Canada and the Ontario-Quebec Paleolimnology Society.

This month, when the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta drew hundreds of rowers to Niagara from around the world, Brock housed more than 400 athletes from Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Zimbabwe and across the USA.

Earlier in the summer, more than 1,200 coaches, athletes and volunteers with the Ontario Special Olympics High School Championships stayed at Brock, as did 150 professionals who came for a Mechanics of Hearing conference. Members of the Toronto Korean Presbyterian Church chose Brock as the site of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

All the coming and going can make for busy days, but the business also creates summer jobs for eight Brock students, says Sonya Forsey, the University’s Conference Coordinator.

“It’s a great experience for the students working the front desk,” she said, “They get to interact with people from all walks of life and from all over the world.”

But it will all soon be coming to an end, as Department of Residences and custodial staff start preparing rooms for another busy academic year. In two weeks’ time, thousands of students will be arriving in carefully scheduled waves for the annual move-in marathon on Labour Day Monday.