CAMP UPDATE: MARCH 2019
As you can see, we have a ton of snow on the ground but we are full steam ahead to spring and summer! We have some retreats coming up here, Scrap n Stamp, LeatherCraft and Quilt Retreat next weekend, then 2 Retreat46 weekends (for grades 4-6), then 2 Mother & Daughter weekends. After that is summer and away we go!
Leading up to summer here, we will also have many guest groups, a lot of day / school groups from the surrounding area so we keep pretty busy. Fortunately we have several interns who continually knock it out of the park, so they help with groups, belay on the ropes course, whatever is needed.
Looking forward to summer, registration is up by a lot compared to last year, so we feel very blessed with that. We are around 400 campers ahead of last year at this time. The question is, are you signing up earlier, or are there many more of you? We think maybe both but we have seen a pretty consistent growth of around 10% for the last 8-10 years (if my calculations are correct, I'm a bit of a math-magician but have a bad memory). Also family camp is coming along quite nicely as far as registrations. Right now we have 1300 signed up, last year we had 1400ish total. Se we should grow this year. We did add another family weekend so that will help. Also we are currently building 4 new cabins!
If our growth continues as it has in the last many years, we will fill 4 new cabins this summer. Without them, we would be turning kids and families away and we don't want to do that. Also we are in the process of raising funds for what we call "Ironwood". It is a 4 cabin building with bathrooms in each cabin and will be a bit bigger of a project. With the new land we purchased this year, which is awesome, Ironwood will be more on track to be built for next summer hopefully, too much for this summer, hence the cabins.
Other stuff going on... Staff is doing well. When I explain our staff to people, you start adding up the many years that we have been here and it's pretty cool, maybe even a bit rare. As far as how many years full time staff have been here, we have a couple 30+, a couple 20+, and a number of 10+. Pretty fun to have that kind of longevity in our team, so again blessed there. I mean it is the best place on earth to work!
I went out to take a photo of the cabins being built today and got to chat really quick with a volunteer that is helping. What a huge help! We are always looking for volunteers... What you need first is just a willing heart and love for the Lord, it is nice and necessary on some projects to have some knowledge and experience, we appreciate all the help either way.
It seems like we are in such a positive snowball right now. Why? I don't know. I was just asked that and can only explain it like this. Of course God is blessing us because without that, it doesn't work. Everyone also seems to just be doing their job well, Herb, Larry and others are doing church visits all the time, and people seem to really enjoy their time here when they come. So it's all good! Thank you for whatever role you may have in it, from sending your kids, to supporting us financially and in prayer. Thank you!
