Huron Forest Camp CedarRidge

S'mores and bonfires

2011-04-13T15:34:00.004-04:00

Last night after a church service I attended, we had a bonfire back behind the church. It was the first bonfire of the season for me, and immediately it brought back thoughts of campfires down in the rec field, outpost, s'mores making, the smell of your clothes after standing around the campfire all evening, and trying not to melt your shoes/pants from standing too close to the fire!

This bonfire started off pretty large...they tried to light 4 or 5 wood pallets with gasoline...if only they had taken outdoor living skills! All you need is 1 match and some pine needles, right?! Well, after a few minutes, the guys in charge of the fire had a rip-roaring bonfire that shot up about 12 feet. Try to roast marshmallows off of that! Being hungry for my first s'more of the season, I ventured into the woods behind the church to find that perfect s'more stick. It was dark, so the first thing I found seemed perfect enough! Haha.

Let me tell you, no matter how large the fire or how dirty the stick...s'mores taste like s'mores! Is your mouth watering yet? After I enjoyed a *few* s'mores, I passed along the stick and just stood and enjoyed the fellowship with others and the warmth of the bonfire. There's something unique about gathering around a fire. What is it about being around a fire that brings such peace and fellowship, a desire to just sit and look at the fire?

When we're at camp, gathering around the campfire happens a lot. For sunday night campfire, outpost, activity classes, and the final friday night campfire. We get to worship, laugh, enjoy delicious desserts, and be out in God's creation. Being at the bonfire last night and having a s'more just made me more eager to be at camp and enjoy one of our campfires down in the rec field, or build a fire while on outpost or in the activity classes. I hope you are looking forward to that too.

Getting the word out

2011-02-10T12:58:00.002-05:00

Hello again! It's probably been too long since we last updated, but things in the office have been busy. Hard to imagine being that busy when we aren't running camp, I bet you're thinking. As a matter of fact, we're in one of our busiest times of the off-season. Our brochure is out and in the hands of our camp friends and family. We anxiously await those registrations, and really do get exited about each one that comes through! We've already been to one camp fair this winter. The Metro Parent Summer Camp Fair was held January 29-30 in Ann Arbor and Beverly Hills. We had the opportunity to talk to a good amount of people, and even saw a few current campers!

Besides getting all of the promotional materials ready for the camp fairs we will be attending, we are in the process of creating packets of information to send to local churches, hoping to get the word out about Camp CedarRidge. Though we do have lists of churches, if you know of a church that you think would benefit from receiving that information (brochures, the dvd, flyers, an intro letter), please contact the camp office so that we can send one to them! We want to reach as many prospective campers as we can!

Thank you for your continued support and prayer! It is much appreciated!

Christmas

2010-12-20T14:42:00.002-05:00

WOW! There's only 5 days left until Christmas and you can sense that people are in the christmas gift rush, going from store to store trying to find that gift their child, friend, coworker, you name it wants. As I've never been much of a shopper, it was somewhat overwhelming to go out on saturday to find some christmas gifts. 5 hours later I had everything I needed to exchange gifts with my family. I'm more of a personal gift giver, so I enjoy creating gifts that you won't typical buy.

One of the thoughts that I have had during this Christmas season is how important it is to spend time with those you love. Everybody probably hears the Christmas phrases like "He's the reason for the season" and we may not think much of them, but if you take a minute to stop and really think, there's more to it than just a phrase. The real reason we celebrate Christmas is the birth of Jesus. With his birth, we were given the remarkable gift of eternal life and our lives were changed forever by His birth and later, His sacrifice. And so I ask you, has Christ really changed your life? Try to think of it in terms of those Christmas gifts you are shopping for. Is that what Christmas really is about? Getting the right gift? Or spending it in worship of fellowship celebrating the birth of our Savior.

My challenge to you this week is to celebrate Christmas for THE reason of Christ's birth and the special time you get to spend with those you love because Jesus Christ was born and reigns in our hearts.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The past month

2010-12-07T08:43:00.002-05:00

I apologize that we haven't posted in almost a month! With the holidays and new year quickly approaching, we have been quite busy in the office working to get our 2011 publications completed. The brochure looks great and we are hoping to send it off to be printed before the end of the week! We are excited for some of the new programs and dates that we have set for the 2011 season. Sorry, but you'll have to wait until the brochure comes out to see just what they are! We are planning on sending the brochures out before new years, and our registration should be open starting January 1st! The 2011 dates and information will also be up on our website in the next few weeks.

It's hard to believe that is already the second week in december. The fall seemed to fly by and a lot has happened. Many of you have already heard that Ptarmi had a house fire almost a week ago. She continues to meet with companies and insurance people to get her house put back. Please continue to pray for her. She probably won't be able to be back in her house until the spring, possibly closer to the summer, and soon she will be having to deal with the outcome of her belongings and clothing being cleaned and what did and didn't make it because of smoke and/or water damage. Once we have a better idea of what she needs, I would like to send out another email asking for help. If you haven't received the first few emails sent from info@campcedarridge.org, please email us to let us know and we'll be sure to include you from now on!

May God continue to bless and keep you in this Christmas season! Always remember the reason why we celebrate!

The perpetual "What do you do now" question...

2010-11-09T09:18:00.002-05:00

From mid June through the end of August people know what we do! We do camp! The daily hustle and bustle up in the woods keeps us pretty busy as we have new programs start each week, new staff coming in and out, paperwork to log, inspections, campers to hang out with, and all the crazy campiness that goes on in the national forest.

And then we have the fall season when we travel back and forth almost every weekend for parent/child weekends and work weekends. Finally, in mid-late october, our site team blows out all the water lines so that the pipes don't freeze, turns off all the power, locks everything up, and closes camp for the winter.

And then we relax and take a vacation... NOT!!!

Although there is a bit of a lull in our schedule after all this happens, our work at the metro office is always keeping us busy. If you look back to last weeks post, we've got the fall newsletter to get out, fundraisers to execute (like the zoo walk) and communications to be made from the previous summer. One of the biggest tasks that is on our "to-do" list right now is the 2011 brochure. With that, we have to set our 2011 schedule, pricing, and programs. You're probably starting to get the picture that we still have work to do in the off season!

Then we have promotion. How are we supposed to reach out to new campers if we don't promote?! So that means creating a promo dvd, getting information about camp fairs and other promotional events, connecting with churches, and updating ALL of our forms so that they are ready come January to start registration!

All that to say....this is what we are doing now!!! I won't bore you with more details, but we just thought it would be nice to give an answer to that perpetual question!

Have a blessed week!

A lesson on the Lord's timing...not ours

2010-11-04T09:14:00.002-04:00

This past week has been a good lesson on the Lord's timing at the Camp CedarRidge office. We have been working on the Fall Newsletter since the beginning of October, and had set October 27th as the date of mailing it out. But God had other plans!

The process of printing this newsletter involved printing both the newsletter page and our zoo walk page, which detailed that fundraiser and everything that went on that day. All together, we had to make over 4,500 copies! (since our newsletter is double sided) Our printer did pretty well with printing the single sided zoo walk page, and then as we were printing the front page of the newsletter, we started received the "replace toner" error from the printer. Thankfully, we had some toners ready to change out with the old ones! We made it through the front side printing, but then the "drum life" error showed up. This "drum life" error is not so fun! The image drums are what hold the toner and transfer the right amount onto the page. They have about a 15,000 page yield, and after finding out we hadn't replaced ours since May '09, it was no wonder why the drum life was gone! We were able to trick the printer into continuing to print, but when the image drum really began to fail we had to pause our printing until the new drums arrived in the mail.

All that to say, we weren't able to finish the printing portion of the newsletter until this past monday, 4 days after we were hoping to have it mailed!

The next step in the process is taking all our materials and stuffing, sealing, labeling, and counting our envelopes. Usually this process takes quite a few hours, and we normally dedicate a whole work day to this. But, as God's timing goes...it only took us 3 hours to complete! I think God understood our frustration from the previous week and blessed us yesterday with a quick finish!

The newsletter is now out in the mail on its way to you! What a good lesson on trusting that God's timing is best, and even though our expectations and desires aren't always met, He knows exactly what we need...exactly when we need it!

Blessings to you!

Makeover for the barn

2010-10-25T09:04:00.002-04:00

A crew of workers traveled up to camp on friday to take on the large task of cleaning out the barn and then moving some of camps things in to be stored for the winter. If you've been down to the horses, you know that the barn is fairly large and it is the best place in camp to store things over the winter since it stays dry and we can lock everything up. During the season when we are at camp, we are able to use it to house lumber, tools, the tractor, our lawn mowers, and many other things. As the years have gone by, things have become "lost" in the barn, unfortunately! But this weekend was all about cleaning it up!

It was a bit rainy on saturday, but the crew was able to clean out and organize the lumber, build a few new racks to store the remaining lumber we had from paneling the ridge cabins, and take home metal that we will be able to scrap for some money among other things. They also dug out the wall to put in a groundhog (or chipmuck) block in. Hopefully that will keep the critters away over the winter!

It's a good feeling to be able to clean and organize something like the barn, and now we're able to store what we need to this winter!

Hope this post finds you enjoying this fall day. May you be blessed!

2010-10-18T08:51:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to spend some time with my family at a cottage near Muskegon, MI. It was a relaxed, laid-back weekend, with lots of laughter, playing stickers with my niece, and walking to the beach and through town. On friday, when we first arrived, we were walking through town and we went into a kite shop to look at what they had (a lot of the shops had sales because many close for the winter). When my brother was younger, he used to fly trick kites, and was pretty good at them! Anyway, the owner of the store let my dad borrow a kite for the weekend and so we spent a lot of time on the beach flying that kite!

As I have been reflecting on the weekend, I was blessed by the simplicity and joy of something like flying a kite. When was the last time you did something as fun and simple like that? We so easily get caught up in the busyness of work, school, kids activities, and running around all day long that we have forgotten what it feels like to sit and relax, and do something like fly a kite!

My challenge to you this week then is to make some time to do something fun and enjoyable! For me, it was flying a kite on the beach and spending time with my family doing nothing. May you be blessed this week as you find joy!

2010-10-11T11:55:00.004-04:00

Well, we just got back on Saturday afternoon from a few days up at camp, and I'm so excited to share some of the photos that we took so that you can see just how different camp looks in another season other than summer!

The fall colors are about a week ahead of what they look like downstate, but it still isn't fully fall up in Oscoda. The leaves sure are changing though, and that made for beautiful trees along the camp road!

We spent friday and saturday at camp working on cleaning out the kitchen, packing the van full of the craft cabin materials and other paints that would freeze in the winter, and enjoying fires in the lodge at the end of the day! : ) Not many people know about all the work that goes in to closing camp down for the winter, so hopefully you're able to get a little glimpse today! One of the main projects like I said was cleaning out the kitchen. If you didn't hear, camp lost power right before Mother/Daughter weekend in September, so that meant that the majority of our food spoiled. Ptarmi and I had the fun job of disposing of that food and giving the fridge a major scrubbing and wash down to ensure that it stayed clean over the winter. We also covered all of the dishracks (it helps keep the dust and other things out over the winter) and packed away any paper goods that our little mouse friends like to use for their homes! After we pretty much finished with those projects, we spent some time up the hill taking down the Outer Limits boulder wall, and other initiatives.

We were so thankful for the warm weather while we were up at camp. Hopefully only a few more trips before we will have everything ready for the winter! Hope you enjoy some pictures of camp in the fall!

Fall is Here

2010-10-04T09:45:00.002-04:00

Well it's been quite some time since we have updated the blog. Sorry about that! After finishing our summer up at camp, we moved back downstate but hit the ground running with the Labor Day work weekend, then Mother/Daughter weekend, and finally, our most recent event, the 3rd Annual Zoo Walk! All that to say, the month of September was pretty busy for us!

We're at the end of our fall season, which means we'll be closing up camp for the winter. It's hard to imagine camp in the middle of winter because most people see it in the summer. Everything is the same, just with lots of snow on it! (I know, I already said the "s" word!) Our site team will head up to camp in the next few weeks to winterize our buildings and clear all of the water out of our pipes so that they don't freeze and break. Hopefully next time we're up, we'll be able to take a few fall pictures of camp and post them so that everyone can see the difference when the leaves are falling!

Our 3rd Annual Zoo Walk was on September 25th. It was a beautiful day for the walk, and we had a blast! We were suprised to see so many new faces that morning, but we were grateful for all the people who invited friends and family to come along for this great fundraiser. Though we didn't reach our goal of $20,000, we still have pledge money coming in and are blessed by what people did raise through pledges and for all of the support that was given for this event. There were games (the kids loved playing the toilet paper toss), and breakfast food donated from Einsteins, Tim Hortons, Trader Joes, GFS, and Bagel & Bites. Also, we had prizes that we gave out for the top fundraiser, the person that traveled the farthest to come, the longest involved camp member, the youngest walker, and a few other prizes!

Talking about the zoo walk...if anyone is interested in buying a zoo walk t-shirt, we still have some available for $10. Let us know and we can get one to you!

I think that's about all for now. I apologize again that it has been so long since we updated, but hopefully we can improve from here on out! So check back soon!

Blessings!

Winding down

2010-07-29T16:17:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Girls week 3! It's hard to believe that we are almost finished with our Girls camp sessions. This week has been a very uneventful week (which is usually a good thing!) weather wise. The weather has been beautiful other than a little bit of rain during outpost night, so the pool has been busy most days with lots of swimmers.

After we finish this week, we will begin our transition into the end of the summer programming. Culinary Camp had to be canceled due to low registration numbers, but we are still running Science Camp and Camp 101. After that, we will pack our things up and move back down state to open up our metro office again. Then, until October, camp will be busy most weekends with work weekends and parent-child programs.

I'm hoping to get a few other summer staff on the blog to comment on this season, so be on the lookout for that!

Please continue to pray for camp and all of the staff who will be departing this weekend. Also for those that are staying to finish out the season. Thanks for checking in!

Summer just keeps on rolling

2010-07-18T22:22:00.002-04:00

The title of this post really describes how camp goes once we get into full swing with programs. So far we've had Horse Camp, Boys Camp, Family Camp, and our first week of Girls Camp. All of these went well! Hopefully I can take some time to talk individually about each program, but for the sake of time, I will keep it short.

One of the highlights that came during Family Camp was saturday morning's theme! The theme for the week was Happy Holidays, so we had a different holiday to celebrate each day. Saturday was Christmas which entailed wearing our pajamas to breakfast, having christmas ornaments all over the commons, "snowing" the bird and the dining hall with cotton balls, and exchanging secret santa gifts between the families and staff. Oh...and I can't forget...red icing on the cinnamon rolls!

We just started our second week of Girls Camp. It's becoming a regular thing for it to rain during registration on sunday, but no one seemed to mind and everyone got here safely. Our theme this week is "Week at the Museum", so we're excited to see what type of fun activities we'll be doing.

Our apologies for not updating every week like we were trying to, hopefully the remainder of the summer will be better!

What's been happening

2010-04-12T14:54:00.003-04:00

So, we made it past the April 1st Early Bird Discount deadline. Thanks to everyone who registered ahead of time! If you're still thinking about registering, you have up until..well..up until you come to camp! Obviously, we'd love to know beforehand that you are coming, and it would sure make things easier for the Business manager, but hey, sign up whenever you can! Be sure to tell your friends too!

Is it really already April 12th? Seemed like just yesterday that we are working on planning out the brochure and summer season, and now we're just about to start opening camp up! Ptarmi and Stilt will be up at camp for the first time in 2 weekends to get things cleaned up and ready for our first work weekend. We have a special service project going on at the end of the month. Solid Rock Church will be bringing a group to replace roofs in all of the Cedar Cabins and the Lodge. It'll be a great start to our season!

Things here in the office are getting busy. We have volunteers that have been coming in and helping update our ACA Manual for our inspection this summer. Who knew the ACA standards manual could be SO big! Some of the other big things happening in the office are clothing selections for the summer, church packets going out, AND our newsletter just went out in the mail! Keep an eye out for it!

Check back soon and we'll hopefully have some pictures up of our new apparel!!!

Some new ways to check us out!

2010-02-22T16:24:00.005-05:00

A lot has been happening here in the office as we've been working on promoting and getting the word out about camp. Things are coming together quickly and we really appreciate the work and time that Linux has put in on our website, as well as helping with other promotion opportunities.

You can now find us on YouTube! We've put a few videos up so far, including short testimonials about camp and our 2010 promotional video. If you want to see more about what we do, the promotional video is a great place to learn about that! Grab your friends and have them watch it too.

And just to remind everyone, we are on Facebook under the page "Huron Forest Camp CedarRidge". Become a fan today! We update that regularly, so be sure to visit our page.

We are getting excited about the 2010 season (despite the recent 6 1/2 in snow fall and cold weather), and can see the summer approaching quickly! Can't wait to see everyone at camp this summer!

Metro Parent Camp Fair

2010-02-10T11:22:00.003-05:00

I hope you all are enjoying the snow!

This past weekend we were at the Metro Parent Summer Camp Fair in Ann Arbor and West Bloomfield, Michigan. Saturday's fair was held at Briarwood Mall, which was a new location for the Ann Arbor portion of the fair. Though the configuration of the booths was a bit interesting because of being in the center of a mall, our booth was conveniently placed directly across from the Starbucks kiosk! Meaning there was a lot of foot traffic through the area. Two staff members from this past summer joined us on Saturday in Ann Arbor, and we were able to connect with many people.

Sunday's portion was held at West Bloomfield High School. Though this day started off a little bit slower, we still were able to promote camp and have many people come visit our table. We even had a family come stop by who joined us for family camp last year! They said they are looking forward to seeing us again this summer!

Overall, our first camp fair of the season was a success! Our promotional materials got into prospective campers/families hands, and we are excited to see registrations come in! I've included a picture of our table so that you can see just what it looked like! Have a blessed day!

February promotion month

2010-02-01T08:31:00.002-05:00

Happy Monday everyone! As the month of January seems to have flown by, welcome to February. February is probably one of the busiest months for the camp office as it is the beginning of many promotional events and happenings.

This saturday and sunday, Feb 6th and 7th, we will be taking part in the annual Metro Parent Camp Fair. On Saturday, Feb 6th, we will be at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor from 11:00-3:30pm with our own promotional table. Sunday Feb 7th we head back east for another day of the fair at West Bloomfield High School from 11:00-3:30pm. You can get more information about the fair by calling us, or visiting the Metro Parent website: www.metroparent.com Click on the "Summer Fair" icon on their main page. If you, or anyone you know wants more information about camp, please feel free to stop by our table either of these days! We will have brochures, information sheets, and other flyers for our individual programs.

Another way we are trying to promote camp this season is by asking the friends and family of HFCC to help get the word out by providing us with 20-30 names and addresses of their friends and family who might be interested in learning more about us and coming to camp. Look for an email soon regarding this event and how you can help out!

Keep sending in those registrations. We want to fill camp this summer! Have a blessed week.

Camp in the winter

2010-01-14T09:00:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! Things are getting into full swing for us here at Camp CedarRidge. After the Christmas party and planning meeting, we have all of our themes planned and are ready to start promoting for this summer with our first camp fair Feb 6-7! Hosted by Metro Parent Magazine, Feb 6 we will be at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor and on Feb 7 at West Bloomfield High School. If you know of anyone who might be interested in camp this summer, tell them to stop by our table. We'd love to meet them!

Going along with promotion, we just mailed out our 2010 brochures. Thanks to everyone who helped get the brochures and other important information ready to mail last weekend! It should be arriving in your mailboxes soon! If you would like brochures to pass out to friends, family, or at your church please let us know and we'll be sure to get those to you or send them to your church.

Registration for the 2010 season is now available! Be sure to visit our website at www.campcedarridge.org to register online. We are excited to start processing them!

In other news, Ptarmi and a few other camp staff had the opportunity to snowshoe into camp last sunday. It was a blast! Though there was less snow than we expected, we still had a great time and even did a bit of sledding while in camp! It was fun to see camp in the winter, covered in snow. We found deer, elk, and coyote tracks along the way! We even had a chance to hike back to the beaver dam. Hopefully our beaver friend is enjoying a nice winter in his lodge underneath the frozen surface! Speaking of the Lodge, it sure was cold in there! After we hiked in and unlocked the dining hall and lodge, we sat down for some lunch. Unfortunately, it was only 22 degrees inside the Lodge! Brrrrr!!! It was such a fun adventure to snowshoe into camp. If you've ever tried to imagine what camp looks like in the winter, here are some pictures to help!

What's been happening!

2009-12-22T15:03:00.004-05:00

We know its not quite Christmas yet, but from the HFCC office, Merry Christmas everyone! A lot has been happening this fall since we closed camp for the season and moved back down state to work out of our metro office. One of the biggest things that has happened is that we've changed our name! After much prayer (and lots of paperwork!) we are officially Huron Forest Camp CedarRidge. Much of our time in the office recently has been spent changing over and updating all of our documents, including our website! Yes, our website still has the same design, but all new information for the 2010 season, along with our new name. You can visit that website (and register for camp!) at www.campcedarridge.org. We also have posted a frequently asked questions link so that if you do have questions regarding our name change and some of the things that we are doing, you might be able to find answers there. If not, we would love to speak directly with you, so feel free to call us at the metro office!

If you're reading this, and have been on staff, or are alumni, board members, or volunteers, we want to be sure to invite you to the anuual Christmas party this coming Tuesday, Dec 29th at 6:30pm. It is a great time of fellowship with other HFCC friends, great food, and lots of fun! We also will be having our planning meeting for the 2010 season (where we choose fun themes, talk and pray about camp, etc) at 10:00am Tuesday Dec 29th. If you'd like more information on either of these two events, please contact us!

Again, Merry Christmas to all! May you experience the joy and love of our Savior's birth during this season!

Closing work weekend

2009-10-21T12:04:00.003-04:00

Ptarmi and a few other board members/volunteers traveled up to camp for the weekend to do some final winterizing of our buildings. Their main goal for the weekend was to put boards over the windows of the hybrid cabins in the grove, hill, and ridge. This will help keep the interior of the buildings safe and dry during the winter! They also were able to clean out the fridge and freezer (which, by the way, being so large...holds more food!) and gave away some of the leftover, unused food to the Oscoda Senior Citizen's center.

They especially were excited about the minute maid juice bars that we gave them...since many of the senior citizens enjoy eating them (especially the blue ones) and sticking their tongues out at the cooks. (Or so we are told!)

After this closing weekend, the only thing left to do at camp is blow out the water lines for the winter which will be done soon! Pray for continued protection over our property throughtout the winter.

A weekend of activity!

2009-09-30T10:10:00.006-04:00

It sure was a busy weekend for us here at HFCC. With our 2nd Annual Zoo Walk at the Detroit Zoo running simultaneously with our Father/Teen Daughter weekend up at camp, our staff had to divide and conquer! While Stilt and Archy, along with some other volunteers traveled north to run the parent/child weekend, Ptarmi and the rest of the board of directors and zoo walk committee spent Saturday morning at the zoo.

We had about 25 people for this year's Father/Teen Daughter Canoe Weekend, which was a jump from last year's numbers. Praise God! We had some new camp families, and some long time Father/Daughter campers come for a weekend that was filled with fellowship, canoeing, and learning how to be "Vessels", which was our theme for the weekend. God blessed our time with great weather, and everyone was able to go canoeing on Saturday afternoon without having to worry about rain! Some of the other highlights from the weekend included our "Get to Know You" games on Friday night when everyone arrived. We thought it would be a good idea to give the daughters a lesson on how their dads shave, and this is what happened!

Then we thought, "maybe they need a little practice....throwing cheeseballs!!!"

The girls had a blast with this, and the dads were great sports with being their targets. It was great to hear the Dining Hall filled with laughter! We hope that these families can come back next year for another great weekend.

Our 2nd Annual Zoo Walk took place on Saturday morning at the Detroit Zoo. Though it was a bit rainy, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and again, it was a great way to raise money for camp. We had face painting, games, and give aways before the walk began, and everyone was able to stay at the zoo after the walk was completed. Thank you to all of our sponsors, and to everyone who worked so hard to make the 2nd Annual Zoo Walk a success by getting pledges and inviting friends! We'll be posting pictures shortly from it.

Keep stopping by throughout this year as we update everyone on the happenings of camp! God Bless.

Aloha! Mother-Daughter Weekend

2009-09-23T11:12:00.003-04:00

Our 2009 Mother-Daughter Weekend turned out to be a blast! The theme this year was "Luau" and everything we did reflected that! The Dining Hall was transformed into a tropical place with streamers, decorations, and some hawaiian music. With multiple first time families, it was great to see how quickly they settled in and enjoyed making family surfboards, beachglobes, and grass skirts to accompany our Luau dinner on friday night.

Our cooks did a fantastic job following along with the theme too! We had lots of tropical things, and little umbrellas stuck in many dishes! The food was wonderful and I'm sure everyone could have eaten more!

God blessed us this past week with great weather during the day. Though it did get a little chilly at night, there's nothing like a cup of hot chocolate in the morning to warm your insides! Saturday afternoon the moms and daughters had the chance to experience some of our normal camp activities like Canoeing, Archery, Riflery, and Lacing.

We ended our weekend on Sunday morning with a great worship service and message down in the Rec field. We hope and pray that this weekend was a great time for moms and daughters to fellowship together, spend time in God's word, and see His beautiful creation. Can't wait for next year!

The weekends have begun

2009-09-15T10:45:00.002-04:00

We successfully made it through our summer and have transitioned into our fall programming and weekend schedule. After moving the majority of our office BACK downstate to Farmington, the fall is in full swing!

Our first fall "weekend" was the Labor Day Work Weekend. It didn't feel like fall one bit as we had beautiful weather and sunshine the entire time. Good weather is conducive to work getting done! One of our summer campers came up with a few other guys from his troop to complete his Eagle Scout project, which was replacing the steps going up to the Rec Hall. They did a great job with the area and were able to get a few other jobs done as well including some work on our corral and planting a garden in front of our camp sign inside the gate!

In total, we had about 35 people at the work weekend. With that many people, we were able to take down ALL of the platform tents and prepare them for winter, finish carpentry on some cabins, paint cabins, clean a couple of our buildings, winterize the pool, AND complete the tiling project on the girls side of the Cedars bathhouse among other projects. We are grateful for everyone who was able to come up for the weekend!

We're looking forward to our parent/child weekends these next few weeks. Coming up next is mother/daughter weekend Sept 18-20. Continue to pray for safety and good weather as we serve Him and others through this ministry!

The Final Stretch

2009-08-11T09:57:00.002-04:00

Wow! It's incredible to think that we are coming up on our final camp program for the summer. It's been a month since we've last posted an update, but a lot has happened.

At the end of Girls week 2 we saw 4 incredible young women graduate from our CILT program. Budgie, Lyra, Myna, and Scarlet all graduated, along with Augi, who was unable to attend week 2 but completed the CILT program and graduated a week earlier. Congratulations ladies! Despite a little bit of rain and having to transform the dining hall into a CILT grad and closing campfire location, it was a great evening and we are so proud of the ladies who graduated. The rest of the week was filled with lots of fun activities and new experiences as we were able to reach out campers and staff alike. Our cooks for the week took our theme of "Ancient Treasures" and ran with it as the created themed desserts such as popsicle pyramids and even served chocolate gold coins with browies one evening.

Week 3 was the final week of Girls camp that we ran for the summer, but it was still a blast! The drama class came up with a "Phantom of Camp Cherith" skit that was a real hit on friday evening for verse night. We had a great staff for that week, including our newly graduated CILTS who we are to stay on for week 3 as first time staff. All the staff worked hard during this week to make it a great experience for all the campers, and we were able to hear at the end of the week some of the things that they learned about God through their activities and morning watch/bible ex time.
Also during week 3, a few of our maintenance staff took on a huge remodeling project down in the Cedars Bathhouse. The girls side of the bathhouse received new tiling in the showers and under the sinks, which has made such a difference in appearance. Thanks to the staff who worked so hard to start that project!

Unfortunately, we had to make some difficult decisions for this summer and cancel 2 weeks of programming due to low registration numbers. Our Co-ed week, as well as Science Camp were canceled. A few of the staff stayed at camp after Girls Camp ended for what would have been Co-ed camp, to complete some other work projects and continue the work on the bathhouse, which included giving priming and painting the walls of the girls side, and also painting one of the cabins down in the Cedars. The new kitchen space that was created from replacing our fridge and freezer received the final touches for spakle and a coat of paint so that it would match the other parts of the kitchen. And if anyone of you were on site this summer, you probably saw the cabinets and cupboards that were hiding in the corner of the dining. Well, they are now in place in the kitchen filled with dishes! We've still got some more work to do, but the changes have made such improvements already!

As we conclude Camp 101 tomorrow, I'll try to give an update by the end of the week. Thanks for visiting again!

Camp happenings

2009-07-11T18:40:00.004-04:00

I apologize for the absence of an update to this blog! A lot has happened since the last update. Our summer program is in full swing now and God is doing amazing things as always.

During the 4th of July week, we were blessed to have 8 families join us for a fun-filled week at Family Camp. Though the weather was a bit more chilly than we expected, it was still a great week. Our schedule at Family Camp is a bit more flexible, allowing for the families to choose which activities they would like to do in a day, or even just spend some time together as a family in and out of camp. A couple of the dads and sons really got into fishing during the week and were asking if we can run a fishing camp next year! : )
Since our schedule was more open, everyone was able to do just about every activity that they wanted. Praise God that the weather stayed decent and we didn't have to change to "rainy day activities" throughout the week.
We started out our week with the 2nd Annual Family Camp Egg Toss; a great time for creativity...and cleaning broken eggs off the Dining Hall deck! Our theme for the week was "Once Upon a Time", so many of our evening programs focused on stories and fairytales. It was fun to see kids running around being "knights" and fighting off our staff to save the princess Spreo!
We truly enjoyed serving these 8 families in their stay at HFCC, and hope that they can come back for years to come! Thanks so much for coming.

This past week we filled our camp with loud and enthusiastic girls from 8-17 for our first week of Girls Camp. I was amazed at how loud they were the first night at songfest. That noise didn't change all week as they continued to learn more and grow in their activity classes and through the time spent with their cabin in fellowship and bible study. Our CILT program; a leadership training program for high school girls, began simultaneously with Girls Camp, and the group of 9 CILT I's (in their 1st year) and 5 CILT II's (in their 2nd year) is filled with young woman who will hopefully soon be part of our staff. They worked hard all week to complete requirements and learn more about HFCC as a camp and ministry. Keep up the good work ladies!

Girls week 2 starts tomorrow, and we are excited to welcome more campers into our gates. Continue to pray for us this summer and that every camper will leave their week of camp having been impacted and grown in their love for Christ and others!

*note: pictures should be uploaded soon for Family Camp and Girls week 1. Check back soon!!

Father-Daughter Weekend

2009-06-15T21:03:00.002-04:00

I apologize that we haven't posted anything since the beginning of the month! It's incredible how quickly these past few weeks have gone by in moving up to camp for the summer and getting ready for our season.

We ended our spring programs with a great Father/Daughter weekend June 5-7. The dads and the daughters enjoyed the "HIStory" theme we had for the weekend. It was a great weekend, especially with our brand new corn toss game. We had the 1st Annual Father/Daughter Corn Toss Round Robin Tournament (a very easy name!) and also had a blast at the dunes at Lumberman's monument. We'll post some pictures this weekend when we are in town and have a better internet connection!

Precamp Training and Horse Camp have started this week. The horses and horse campers are doing great, and we are excited for a full week of preparation for this summer season! We have a great group of staff this summer and can't wait to have more campers arrive. Continue to pray for this summer and safety!

Outdoor Education week!

2009-06-01T15:29:00.003-04:00

This past week we had the opportunity to run an Outdoor Education program for the Northville Christian 6th grade class. Despite a little bit of rain, everyone had a blast! Volunteers and staff worked hard over our Memorial Day Work Weekend to get camp ready for the group to come, and it paid off!

Not only is our new fridge and freezer unit up and running in the Dining Hall, but the cabins were cleaned and prepped just in time for Northville Christian to arrive for their week at camp. Some other work we were able to accomplish during the work weekend included setting up our bike shelter, cleaning out the craft cabin, clearing away some of the fallen trees from the winter, and just a good general cleaning of our site. Now that's what I call spring cleaning!

We've enjoyed having Northville Christian come to do an Outdoor Education Program with us these past two years, and hope that we can continue to grow this program. Some of the activities the 6th graders were able to take part in included hiking to the beaver's dam and checking out the work the beavers (YES! We have beavers again!) have done this past year,

exploring our swamp, and using the Outer Limits course to do team building challenges and other initiatives. On their first night here, they had the chance to hike through the national forest to the AuSable River, and were able to visit the river again on Thursday at the dunes at Lumberman's Monument. They had a blast running down the dunes and the *cold* water didn't seem to bother them!!

Overall, it was a great week for NCS and they had a ton of fun! Hopefully we can run more programs like this in the future with additional schools! That's all for now, but check back soon as we are about to start our summer season and will have some great updates and photos to share! God Bless!

2009-04-28T09:58:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the new HFCC blog! We hope this can be a place where the friends and family of HFCC can come and stay connected to camp! Our goal is to give parents, campers, and anyone else interested up-to-date information, events, activities of camp, as well as a weekly devotional! Also, we hope to be able to upload current camp photos from our programs throughout the year!

This past weekend we traveled up to camp, after what seemed to be a long yet very short winter! The winter season left us with a few downed trees, one that fell on our new cabin, Zuni, and another that fell on the slide in the Rec field. We're planning repairs already, and are grateful that there was only minimal damage while we were gone!

A group of men came up to lay the footer and pour our cement slab where in a few short weeks our new fridge/freezer unit will lay! Despite some (or lots) of rain and a few equipment issues, they were able to get the job done and were even able to tear out the old unit that was over 35 years old!

One of the other highlights of the weekend was being able to participate in the 10th Annual Oscoda Family Fun Fair put on by the Iosco County Family Coalition. It was our first time being a part of it, and we had a blast! Thanks to Ptarmi's parents, we had a new corn toss game for the kids to play...and they loved it! It was great to get connected to the community around camp, and we are praying that we can have a positive impact in that area.

Our new corn toss game!

Our display at the Oscoda Family Fun Fair

We look forward to returning to camp in a few weeks for the May 15th-17th work weekend. Continue to pray for the completion of our new fridge/freezer unit and the safety of our site. We'll upload some pictures in the next few days but we wanted to get this blog up and running! Thanks for stopping by!