Friday, February 15, 2019

All About The Moves!

If you missed my "live" video (due to critical timing we were not able to actually go real live this week) of Rolf, Dylan, and Vince moving cabin 15 through the parking lot to it's new home you can catch an instant reply right here!  More about cabin 15 later.



For those history buffs out there I thought you might be interested to know where the old cabin you slept in as a kid has moved - several of them at least twice!

Here we go -  in numerical order...

Cabin 5.  Wherefore art thou...  Not sure where cabin 5 went?

We moved cabin 6 to the RV site where it has been used the last couple of winters as a second skate shack for rink number two - especially during Pond Hockey.  We also used it a couple of summers ago as a seasonal staff cabin.


We moved the old mountain biking cabin (for this blog I'm going to pretend it was cabin 7!) across the creek and we're using it for Charge, Trails Away, and Adventure Camp storage!


We moved cabin 8 to our old house for storage and we just recently moved it back near the lodge for storage.  (Are you sensing the common theme of storage.)  The plan is to renovate this cabin into long term archives.  It will most likely see some lost and found again this summer.


We moved cabin 9 initially over to Ken's old house - for storage - and have recently moved it back next to cabin 10 for our new out trips shed.  Water jugs, coolers, frying pans and the like will be stored here instead of over by the Welcome Centre.


We moved cabin 10 next to the kitchen - initially to hold deep freezers for the free Gem and Pincher Creek beef!  (Thanks very much for the free beef by the way!)  We've added shelves to store lost and found and it also holds kitchen "stuff."  (paper plates, napkins, cups, etc.)


Cabin 11 was moved to Rolf's property and he's in the process of making it into a guest house.  I guess you could contact him if you're interested spending your next holiday there...

We moved cabin 12 across the creek as well where it is being used for paint ball right on the course.


We moved cabin 13 - which barely stayed together - behind the shop for you guessed it...storage!  Be careful in there I believe there is a hole in the floor!


Cabin 14?  Not sure where this cabin went either?  Anyone have any good ideas?

And as already mentioned, we moved Cabin 15 next to the Welcome Centre primarily for John to have more program storage and a place to repair bows etc.  Our new skate sharpener will also be housed there!


We moved cabin 16 down to Roughin' It where it serves as storage and extra dining space when it rains.


One thing you can always count on here at Evergreen is that things are always changing or moving or growing.   The other thing is we're always looking for storage!

Stay tuned next time for an update on how Reaching Higher Phase Two - the new lodge is moving ahead!

Thanks for your continued support.


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

Still silly cold out!

Friday, February 8, 2019

All About Dates!

What comes to your mind when you hear the word date?  The first thing that comes to my mind is my lovely wife and one of our first dates back in Texas.  Bev and I grew up about a half hour apart in Chilliwack and Abbotsford B.C., but we met in the great state of Texas at a Capernwray summer camp!   His Hill Ranch Camp is about an hour north of San Antonio.


One of us fell madly in love with the other, and the other wanted to concentrate on the campers!  The story changes depending on who's telling it.  :)  One of our first dates was going to The Goonies movie - in the theatre.  For perspective, The Goonies came out in 1985!  We've been on many dates since!

Over the years I have seen many of our seasonal staff members fall in love and begin to date.  Some of our staff date well, and...some of our staff not so well!  But I can't think of a better place to meet your potential spouse!

Something else that might come to your mind is edible dates!  To be honest dates don't often come to my mind as I'm trying to cut back.  When you Google dates there are some interesting facts about them.  Very nutritious (I'm guessing you would actually have to eat them to experience that), and high in fibre - as we all know one can't get enough fibre.  Something I'm guessing you didn't know about dates - apparently they promote natural labour!   So if you're in that neighbourhood of life start eating dates!


But the dates I'm talking about today are upcoming (important) dates in our Camp Evergreen calendar.  So get your calendar out, follow along, and plan on joining us for one or more "date" at Camp Evergreen!

WTDD (Write These Dates Down)

February 15 to18 is our Winter Family Fest.  Absolutely more fun then you've ever had in snow before.  Crokicurl, great food, and even rumours of a Rodeo?  We still have room so it's not too late to join us on the Family Day weekend.


April 5 to 7 is our Ladies Retreat.  A great speaker, moving worship, crafts, and will axe throwing return for a second year?


May 3 to 5 is our Father Son Retreat.  Dad's Root Beer, bacon burgers, bacon for breakfast, bacon for night snack?  This is a great opportunity to hang out with your son all weekend.


May 26 is our Daughter Day.  Built around daughters we pack as much into one day as possible.  Chapel in the morning, activities in the afternoon, and we end with a great supper!

June 8 is our Second Annual Tough Camper Run.  Some of you missed this date last year so make sure this gets in your calendar.  Running with your family through the woods, mud, and obstacles of Camp Evergreen, could be one of the best times of your life!  This is our second main fundraiser of the year.


And finally - June 22 is our Annual General Meeting in the morning and Open House in the afternoon.  As a society the AGM is a very important part of our year.  The Open House in the afternoon allows you to invite friends and neighbours to experience camp in a relaxed atmosphere.  We are planning one or two ball games this year so bring your glove and lucky bat.

Reaching Higher continues to move ahead behind the scenes.  We anticipate having to make some major decisions soon and ask that you continue to keep the board of directors in your prayers.

Thanks again for your support.


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director






Friday, February 1, 2019

What's In A Mug?

You can answer that question one of two ways.   The first way is the obvious way.  You look inside the mug and whatever is in there - is in there!  A lot of people who come to Camp Evergreen will put coffee in their mug.  I've tried coffee several times in my 54 some odd (key word being odd) years.  I like the smell of coffee - but not the taste of coffee - much to the chagrin of my lovely wife who would like to "have coffee" with me!  I'd say I've had maybe 3/4 of a cup - total - over my life span. 


I'm happy with hot chocolate in my mug or even tea.  Happy with Mug Root Beer in the mug of course, but most often at camp I have milk in my mug.  This usually happens when I plan on starting to drink coffee, pour the milk in first, and then find out there is "too much" milk in the mug and no room for coffee.  Of course you can never have too much milk so I just end up drinking the milk.


If you haven't noticed we have new mugs here at Evergreen.  In the catalogue and on online they looked distinctly lime green.  However, when they arrived at camp, they looked more lime yellow - if in fact lime yellow is actually a colour!  We decided to splurge this time and get the logo on both sides of the mug!  I know, crazy!  Now it doesn't matter if you are left or right handed, when you hold the mug up high enough, that logo is staring you right in the eyes!

The second way to answer the question, "What's In A Mug?" is simply this.  We like to celebrate things here at Camp Evergreen and a new mug is something to celebrate.  We have all sizes of projects on the go.  Big ones like the new lodge - now that's a big project.  Another big project is our new septic system.  No one really gets excited about a septic system, but we've been told in no uncertain terms that before we get occupancy of a new lodge - we need a new septic system.  So we're doing our best to get excited about sewer!  Yippee!

We have some smaller projects.  Cabin 15 is up on skids ready to be moved so John, our Activities Director, has a new office/workshop.  Just one look at his desk and you can see he needs more room! 



We've installed the new beverage counter which looks great!  Thanks very much to Stephen at Legacy Kitchens and our own Rolf for making this possible.


So in the grand scheme of things a single mug would be one of the smaller new projects we're celebrating, but we're celebrating.  So what's in a mug?  Our camp logo - Camp Evergreen Reaching Higher.  Yes I know it's technically on not in, Kevin!  :)


Why do we want to reach higher?  Well today is the last day of early bird registration for our summer camps.  We have 736 campers already registered!  Seven hundred and thirty six!  (Looks more impressive written out :).)  That's 105 campers ahead of last year at this time.  Six of our camps are full.  We have campers on the waiting list.  We need to reach higher so we can share the life changing Good News of Jesus Christ to more children, youth, and families.  It's as simple as that.

Thanks for your continued support and I invite you to reach higher with us in 2019.


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director