Camp is OPEN!

Hello All!

This weekend was full of hard work, great people, and most of all fun!  Saturday was our Spring Volunteer Day - our annual day to get things in ship-shape for summer.  The red chairs came out, the units were opened, the windows cleaned, and ALL the leaves raked away.  The place looks immaculate!  Our Youth Advisory Council girls even raked out Blueberry and Sassafrass, our camp sites on the other side of the bog.

While our volunteers were busy at Camp, Gary and I were in Hesperia manning the rock wall for Project FOCUS's STEM competition.  We had kids racing to climb to the top, first-timers climbing for the first time, and we even convinced a few of the chaperones to give it a try!

Setting up the wall for the first time this year - and carabiners!

On Sunday was our Spring Open House, and the YAC girls did an amazing job showing off camp to new and returning campers and their families.  Kids playied with the magic sand, ate popcorn, played Spikeball, watched our amazing video, and made new friends!  There's only nine weeks left until the first session of camp starts and I am so excited!

Happy Camping!

Everyday Superheroes

Hello All!

Last night TrueNorth hosted its annual Community of Efforts dinner for our amazing volunteers.  Ridge Catering served herb crusted chicken, roasted redskin potatoes, seasoned green beans, salad and rolls to the guests.  Julia and I helped Gary prepare for 200 people!  That kitchen was hopping.

Camp Newaygo helpers Fran Gibbs and Michael Danhof both won awards for their excellent service - Fran was awarded the Peggy Stone Award and Michael was given Camp Newaygo's program award.  Congratulations to the both of them for their hard work and many hours of service.

The evening ended with a performance by Fly Paper, a band from Kalamazoo.  The Volunteer Resource Center team - Lora and Jena - did an excellent job with the decorations and the flow of the night, and the video showing all the volunteers wearing capes was adorable.  All of our volunteers are superheroes to us!

On the homefront, the Wetland Trail is passable again!  Julia and I hiked through the bog to Cliff House on Sunday and the frogs were practically deafening.  Our feet got a bit wet from the high water level surround the boardwalk, but it was lots of fun picking our way through the trail.

Happy Camping!

Whirlwind April!

Hello All!

What a wonderful week to live in Michigan, huh?  Hail, strong tornado-like winds, snow, and tomorrow it will be back in the sixties like nothing ever happened.  We had some co-workers lose power for a few days as well as some property damage and some flooding.  We are very fortunate that Camp fared well in the storm.  Mother Nature proved once again that she's a force to be reckoned with!

Jalisa and Julia are away all week showing Grand Rapids all of our amazing programs, and we are gearing up for a busy Spring!  They only just returned from Chicago where the Mid-States ACA conference was held. Jane is back from a wonderful vacation to Key West - so warm! - and we are preparing for our next big events - Spring Volunteer Day and the first annual Mother's Day Buffet.  It is turning into a very popular event, so if you have not reserved a spot yet, do so now!

Happy Camping!

Off Season Shenanigans

Hello All!

One way I like to keep myself entertained in the off-season, when there are no kids around to keep Camp busy, is to play trivia downtown on Tuesday nights.  And guess what team won two weeks in a row!  It's a lot of fun, especially when we have someone in the group that knows the sports questions.  Unfortunately that is not my area of expertise.  I play with some folks from the local library and we share some laughs along with random knowledge and good eats.  I think Camp Henry was there this week, but I can't be sure...

This year's Buckeye Leadership Workshop was absolutely fantastic.  I learned so much!  BLW had an amazing guest instructor named Bil Lepp, a professional story-teller.  I highly urge you all to check out his website (leppstorytelling.com) as well as his CDs, books and videos.  He was hilarious, and taught some great classes about the art of storytelling.

I also learned a lot about being productive and some tools that people can use to help stay organized.  I'm very excited to start adopting some techniques into my everyday routines, like the Eat Your Frog First Rule - get the not-so-fun stuff done first - or the 2-Minute Rule - if it can be done in two minutes or less, do it.  It was all extremely helpful.

Here is a photo of my Think Together Group for the workshop for the week.  They were all so nice!

Photo bombed by the tire.

Happy Camping!