Special Ops: Sunup to Sundown

Yesterday we had some great Special Ops volunteers join us for another blitz trip to Arrowhead.  One of our SO Guys from southern PA arrived early in the morning just as the sun was coming up.  First, he completed several outside projects that have been looming on our to do list.  Then he moved inside and joined up with a few more skilled guys.  In just a few hours we rerouted electric, built three walls, sound proofed, hung drywall and had the first coat of mud complete!

A big thanks to our local skilled guys and to our SO Guy from southern PA.  Just as the sun went down, he and I shook hands and he set off on a four hour drive back home.  What a huge blessing to have Special Ops volunteers who bring their excitement, skill and desire to serve... especially on time sensitive projects like this one.

Special Ops: Blitz Trip

What a day.  Literally, it was just shy of 24 hours!  Yesterday, we had a Special Ops crew in to build a deck.  Even with the three hour drive to camp they arrived before the sun came up and left well after the sun had gone down. 

What an impact to have their skills, energy, commitment and time.  Their investment in this Special Ops project is a huge blessing, keeps us moving forward and allows us to continue to honor our full time staff.

Lumber & Steel: Special Ops

Had a great weekend with some friends from Lumber City Church and Steel City Church.  They were a hard hitting Special Ops crew.  We made the winter switch, cleaned corners, nooks & crannies, built new decks and made a bunch of repairs in the gym.  They also brought a huge pile of items from our wish list.

Who doesn't love a little Lumber & Steel.

Shepherds Fall (Summer) Retreat 2017

It felt like summer this past weekend for our Shepherds Fall Retreat.  We had a great time reconnecting with campers, staff and volunteers from the summer. 

Kickstarting Accessibility!

A huge thank you to our friends at Kickstart Cafe.  Their recent Kickstart Your Community Dinner in partnership with Russell Farms was a great success.  Of course, the food was delicious and company was delightful.  The Community Dinner raised over $1,700 for Shepherds Camp! 

We have utilized the funds to purchase a Hoyer Lift and a Personal Ceiling Transport System.  Both will be a huge enhancement to our safety and accessibility at Shepherds Camp... making a week of camp possible for our campers who require more intensive care.

Fruit Hoops

Fruit Hoops is our newest camp activity.  We are hoping it's popularity will rival that of Camper-Counselor Kickball.

For those of you movie buffs.... Yes, we did think about calling it Camp Quidditch, but we didn't want to be trendy by riding the coattails of a franchise.  That and the balls we use for this game could be mistaken for a variety of giant fruits (super-polyploids if you will).

Our campers enjoyed their first round of Fruit Hoops yesterday.  We can't wait to introduce it to our campers throughout the summer.

A Typical Week With Not So Typical Guests

We just wrapped up our first typical week of Shepherds Camp.  We call it a typical week because unlike our One-to-One sessions, during our typical sessions counselors have more than one camper.

This past week we had some very exciting special guests.  It was great to have Dean & Friends back again.  This was Pastor Dave's first time chalk drawing for Shepherds Camp.  But it wasn't his first time at Arrowhead.  He reminisced with the campers about being here as kid, where God used chalk drawing to change his life.

The Wheelchairiot

That's right... it's a chariot for wheelchairs!  Now all of our campers can enjoy Pedal Carts at Arrowhead.  A huge thank you to our friends from Liberty Baptist in Virginia Beach!  As part of their week long missions trip to Arrowhead this spring they funded the making of the Wheelchairiot.  And a big thanks to our friends from the local metal shop who took the Wheelchariot from a drawing on paper to a safe, accessible and fun activity that has kicked off our first week of summer camps with a bang.

The In Between

After a week of Staff Training our summer 2017 camp family is ready for the first day of camp... which is tomorrow.  We've got 10 weeks of Shepherds Camp ahead.  It's going to be a great summer!

Work Groups for Days

Our last round of work groups have made their way around camp tackling a variety of projects from cleaning buildings, landscaping, re-grading, building decks, and demolishing buildings to painting, making brand new curtains (over 100 curtains), preparing summer crafts (over 4,000 hand cut leaves), renovating bathrooms and fixing up cabins.

April vs. April

Sorry, no giraffes in this post. 

Check out this photo from April 2016...

and now April 2017.

Springing Ahead (again)

It is that time of year again.  Yes, it is that time when the grass is getting green, the tress are budding and the weather is seasonably all over the place; but that is not what I mean.  It is that time of year again... when we have been tremendously busy transitioning out of our winter retreat season, tackle major projects and working with a big list of work groups and hosting retreats as we prepare for summer.  It is also that time of year when the camp blog is starving for posts.

We certainly have been busy and that is my excuse.  We refinished walls, built decks, landscaping, grounds clean up, building cleaning & organization, replaced roofs, worked on projects for the neighbors, more roofing, built new bench for the new fire ring area at the lake, served at a local church, even more roofing, annual weeding and edging, split firewood and a host of other projects

Check it out: