It Happened Again!

Well it happened again.  One of our student guests came with his band camp in March of this year, had a great experience with our staff, and went home very excited about Camp Evergreen.  His parents caught his excitement and registered their family for Family Camp - only to find out that Family Camp is full.  (Remember our first Family Camp filled in less than an hour after registration opened!)  This family is now 7th on the waiting list and hopefully there is enough movement on the list that we can get them in.

This challenge is not new to us.  We are entering our very busy spring season next week.  From Tuesday until the end of June (actually till the end of October) we will have a guest group on site every day.  Many of our student guests will have the same great experience this young man had.  They will bond with our staff, (we have a great staff!) and will go home excited about Evergreen.  However, when they try to register for summer camp it will be full.  As of writing this blog we are 132 campers ahead of last year at this time.  16 of our camps are full.  We have made some adjustments to ages and camps in an effort to squeeze a few more campers in this summer.  And yet, we have been turning children away as early as January.

Between now and the end of June we will see approximately 1,500 guests, the majority of which are camper age.  We will be turning campers away for the next two months.

That is why we are Reaching Higher.  The board has recently talked about increasing our ministry capacity by 50% in 5 years.  That is an aggressive goal.  But the reason is as simple as it is clear - we want to see more children have a life changing experience here at Evergreen.  Pray for us as we work hard to accomplish that goal.

With all our guests and campers we are still looking for a few more spring staff and summer volunteers.  The spring staff positions are paid positions and you can contact Lane for more information.  staff@camp-evergreen.com

In summer we're looking for adult volunteers to spend a week in the (fun) kitchen.  And if you're 16 years or older and love working with children, we need you to volunteer for a week or six!  Again, please contact Lane for more information.

And what about that blog word of the week?  Some of you are thinking, "How is Ranger going to tie hatchet into Reaching Higher?"  Sometimes I wonder the same thing myself.  Well, this weekend is our Ladies Retreat.  There will be lots of ladies.  (read LOTS of ladies!)  The small lodge reno was finished just in time.  We have a coffee plan ready to kick in, (did you catch the pun?) and it looks like we will huck some boots again.

New for this year...well you will just have to wait to find out about the hatchet.  But I can say with great confidence, there is a hatchet somewhere in Ladies Retreat 2018!

Thanks for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

What's Going On?

I often have people ask me how things are going and what do you do in the winter?  While it is true that we have less guest groups in winter, that doesn't mean we are less busy.  In fact, in some ways we are busier, especially when it comes to projects.  Here is a list of ministry expansion projects (formerly special projects) that we've either completed or are currently working on since the beginning of November.

 - Built 30+ shelves.

 - Built 7 bunk beds.

 - Painted the shoe shelves.
 - Painted the mini lodge interior.
 - Working on the beverage counters.

 - Painted both mobile home interiors.
 - Installed new beverage counter lights.
 - Painted the upstairs lodge - "staff" side.

 - Added equipment to our archery range.
 - Many, many, (many) hours spent making ice.
 - New flooring in the upstairs lodge washrooms.

 - Making a new Nine Square game - thanks John!
 - Working on a new guest group orientation video.
 - Painting the boot rooms and hallways in the lodge.
 - Installing an en-suite door into the guest washroom.
 - Installed a permanent video projector in the Heritage Room.

 - Shoveled snow.  Lot's of snow.  More snow than we wanted to shovel!
 - Renovated the Creative Arts Building.  (CAB)  Including some new shelving, painting the floors and the walls.
 - Continued work on The Fort.  Took down scaffolding, cut down two trees in preparation for finishing this spring.

As I look at this list I'm thankful for our staff working hard to keep Camp Evergreen looking good and moving forward.  A BIG thanks to Rolf as his hand was pretty much in every project!  We would like to finish these projects and if time and resources allow reach a little higher by starting a few more projects.  You can help us by making a donation to ministry expansion.

June 23rd.  I'll stop blogging for a minute while you get out your calendar.

Did you find it?  It's the second last Saturday in June, right between the 22nd and the 24th.  Go ahead and put Camp Evergreen Annual General Meeting in your phone/ipad/calander.  I'll wait for you.

June 23rd is our AGM, the perfect way to support Camp Evergreen and check out all the new projects.  I look forward to seeing you there.

And where does the blog word of the week fit in?  We're talking about none other than Ken's Uncle Ben VanHaga!  Uncle Ben is Ken's mom's younger brother, number 7 out of 10 siblings to be exact.  Uncle Ben helped us out by donating his truck to deliver hay.  On  behalf of our horses - thanks Uncle Ben!

And thank you for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director