One Million!

Well we did it!  Through cash and pledges we have raised our first million dollars!  1,033,906.36 to be exact.  I always like putting the 36 cents in as it reminds us that no matter how big or small our pledge is, together we can do much more than by ourselves.  We need to take this first million and keep moving forward simply because we have run out of space.  We're still about 140 campers ahead of last year at this time, 14 of our 25 summer camps are full, and we've been turning campers away since January.

I think it's appropriate to stop for a moment and realize what Reaching Higher has accomplished so far.  First, we've built two staff homes for the price of one.  Two for one!  Buy one get one free!  That is no small deal.  Second, we've raised over one million dollars.  One million is a big number.  Any one of these would be a great accomplishment on their own.  Put them both together and you get a HUGE accomplishment!  Thank you very much to everyone who has participated.

We continue to move ahead with the new lodge.  I had the opportunity to meet with our architect recently and as a building committee we're working hard to finalize our needs and the floor plan.  Some of you might be wondering about the exciting septic system.  (I realize that septic and exciting don't usually go together!)  To be honest it's not likely that many of us have lost sleep wondering about the septic system.  But we are currently exploring the possibility of government grants and new technology.  That's exciting!  The septic system is needed for the new lodge and we hope to start on that project soon.

In other news we are working hard with some ministry expansion projects here at camp.  We want to finish the fire circle by summer.  One of our long time supporters has donated the funds to help us finish the project and I'll share more about that in another blog.  We are painting the lodge boot room, the hallway, and the upstairs lodge on the staff side.  Rolf is renovating our guest washroom in the lodge and all three upstairs bathrooms will (finally) be getting new flooring.

We have two new guest groups on site today and they needed both wings of our archery range open at the same time.  That gave us the opportunity to reach higher by purchasing some additional bows and arrows to accommodate the larger group.  This increase in programming is a trend that will only continue to grow.  John recently built us a new game called 9 Square which is a lot of fun and gives us another indoor activity.  Thanks John!

To complete these projects and to be able to start several other projects we will need your financial help.  Please designate your donation to ministry expansion.

Our family was able to celebrate Christmas in Orlando this year.  It was difficult for us to get together at Christmas so we decided to go somewhere a little warmer.  Of course I needed to bring the camp mug along for the ride!  Bev wasn't as excited about that as I was.  :)  In the bottom front right you have me with the mug, Mitch and Samuel beside me.  In the front is Bev, Nina and Samara.

Thanks for your continued support!


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director