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

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