Friday, June 22, 2018

A G M

Our Annual General Meeting and Open House are tomorrow, June 23!  Before you run away because you read the words AGM let me remind you that Camp Evergreen's AGM is a little different.  We'll start with a few warm ups because every AGM needs a few warm ups!  We'll sing a couple of camp songs and two staff members will share a brief testimony of how Camp Evergreen has impacted their lives.


Kevin will give a great, exciting, and understandable (maybe short?) financial report.  We'll update everyone where we're at with Reaching Higher (our capital campaign).  I'll share my passion for summer camp and about half way through we'll stop for ice cream.  I see you didn't run from the word ice cream!  Right there in the middle of the meeting, before lunch, real live ice cream!  Mentioning ice cream was enough to get Helmut and I to attend.


Three new board members will need to be voted in and our board chair Eric will give us a great report!  (No pressure Eric!)  Courtney will be sharing about what is happening at camp and we'll get our first peek at next years summer camps and dates.  We'll end the meeting by heading over to our Fort fire circle to dedicate it and pray for our summer staff.  There, that doesn't sound so bad does it?


After lunch we have our Open House where activities will be open and the day ends with a BBQ, and you guessed it - more ice cream.  It's helpful to know if you're coming so we can better prepare meals.  If you haven't already let us know please give the office a call.


Thanks for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director




Friday, June 8, 2018

Story Time

I like stories and have been an avid reader from an early age.  One of my favourite stories as a child was Bartholomew the Beaver.  Bartholomew was a young beaver who didn't want to grow up (I can relate) or work very hard.  (sometimes I can relate to that as well!)  That all changed one day when suddenly he needed some adult skills when he met a wolf!  A story that I like to tell new staff members is about the man who went ice fishing and didn't catch a thing all day!  For some strange reason the moment I start telling the story, other staff who have heard the story groan and ask me to stop!  I'm not sure why.

Here are a few recent Camp Evergreen stories as we continue to reach higher.

Centre for Learning at Home is a Christian school that works primarily with home school students.  They have been coming to Camp Evergreen the last couple of years for their fall retreat and about 100 students are booked in again this year.  Barry, one of our current board members, was at their graduation ceremony last week as his oldest child graduated this spring.



It was the usual grad ceremony with pictures, good food and stories.  Each grad was asked to share briefly their memorable moment from their entire school experience.  Student after student shared about their experience at Evergreen.  Some of the students conquered their fears at the zipline.  Other students enjoyed the activities, while still others met their best friend at camp.  Nearly half of all the grads shared that Camp Evergreen was their highlight.  How cool is that?  A big shout out to our seasonal staff for giving each guest who comes to Evergreen such a great time!

Jim was a camper at Camp Evergreen many, many years ago and wanted to re-connect.  After spending some time on our web site he gave me a phone call.  We chatted for several minutes and Jim ended up sending us a donation for campership aid.  This story encourages me that if we give someone a good experience today, someday they may encourage us back!


Speaking of campership aid, we raised just over $10,000 with our Dalhousie and Bob Thiessen pancake breakfasts (at lunch) last Sunday!  Thanks very much for the staff, board members and donors who served us so well.  Here is a picture of my pancakes, covered of course in whip cream out of the can!  Our third and final pancake breakfast (at breakfast) will be in Linden on Saturday, June 16.




And finally - the blog word(s) of the day - Tough Camper Run!  Our first ever Tough Camper Run will be happening tomorrow - June 9th.  We're excited that over 60 individuals and families will be joining us for the fundraiser.  We've put together some obstacles, there's a mud pit, and John actually changed the course to run through more mud!  It's not too late to come out and support us as a spectator.  Just call camp so we know you're coming!



Thanks again for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

Friday, June 1, 2018

Extra Curricular

Can we talk pancakes for a second?  Who doesn't like pancakes?  Well I know some of you don't like pancakes, but I'm pretty much a pancake lover.  Breakfast, lunch or supper it doesn't really matter.  Denny's Grand Slam with pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon along with a glass of ice and a glass of milk.  I'm getting hungry just blogging about it!


I'm not super big on crepes or what we would call German pancakes as a kid.  (Entschuldigung, meine deutschen Freunde!)  Thin pancakes do taste pretty good when you spread lemon juice, sugar and whip cream on them.  (Especially with the whip cream in a can that you accidentally spray directly into your mouth - hypothetically speaking of course!)




I'm also not big on adding extra curricular activity to pancakes - blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, whole wheat etc.  I'm a firm believer in the "pure" pancake, swimming in syrup, and if there's any left over whip cream from the crepes...

Why am I going on about pancakes today?  This coming Sunday - June 3, we are having two pancake breakfasts at lunch.  (Just saying pancake lunch felt a little awkward.)  A crew of us will be at Dalhousie Church after the morning service and a second crew will be up in Edmonton at Bob and Marianne Thiessen's starting at 12 noon.  A third pancake breakfast (this time at breakfast) will be on Saturday June 16 in Linden.


Photo Credit Tammy Hanratty


The purpose of these three meals is to raise money for our campership aid.  In 2018 we have already designated $24,000 to help campers who otherwise could not come to camp - come to camp!  The board has said that we will not turn any camper away due to finances.  How cool is that!  We are looking for your help to make sure these campers can come.  Don't like pancakes?  Can't make the dates or locations above?  You can easily skip the pancakes and send your cheque directly to camp marked "campership aid!"





We have just heard back officially from Canada Summer Jobs that we will not be getting any funding this year because of our beliefs.  While the result is not surprising it is still disheartening.  In some ways I feel that our Prime Minister is more supportive of faith and religion in other countries than here in his own country with the people he was elected to serve.  Sorry for the rant!  :)



Currently we have students on staff who really need the extra income the grants provide to get them back to Bible college and university in fall.  Last year we received $30,000 from the Canada Summer Job grant program and we would like to raise that again this year.  It would be very encouraging if as an Evergreen community we could rally around our seasonal staff and support them better than their own government.  Bev and I will dig a little deeper.  Will you join us?  Please mark your cheques "CSJ."

Thanks for your continued support and I hope to see you at our AGM on Saturday June 23rd!

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director