In our small community, I frequently get asked questions about our camp...
“Are you the Christian summer camp by the golf course?” or “If you are a summer camp, what do you do all winter?”
I always enjoy sharing who we are and what we do at Camp Koinonia. Yes, we are the camp by the golf course and yes, we are a summer camp. However, as the years have gone by, we have grown to be so much more.
Last year we served 2,577 adult camper nights which includes Narcotics Anonymous groups, men’s & women’s retreats, as well as adult service teams. We also served 1,540 family camper nights and 1,792 scouting nights. Our passion is serving children and teenagers. One of our newest and largest offerings is a homeschool collective with over 75 children and 30 parents attending 24 Wednesdays per year. On busiest time on the weekends is when we serve youth retreats. This last year we served 4,166 youth retreat camper nights. These campers use our facility to grow in their faith and grow closer as a youth group. We facilitate some of their programs, offer delicious meals and assist in the day-to-day need through radical hospitality. If we have breaks in our schedule, we spend time creating punch-lists of broken items in our 22 buildings as well as coming up with fun upgrades like painting cabins, updating our escape room or creating new team building elements.
We are a very busy summer camp with almost half of our annual income generated during June-August. What people may not know is that we serve a wide variety of groups. To begin our summer, we serve a Jewish group called Sephardic Adventure Camp for 22 days. For the last 10 days of summer, we serve Camp Kesem a group dedicated to providing an outlet for kids who have lost a parent to cancer. The vast majority of the middle of our summer is dedicated to our Christian summer camps. We host Cascade Camp Cedarbrook, several Slavic Christian organizations, Larchaven summer camp and about five other non-denominational churches. In total last summer we served 8,874 camper nights. We train our staff to cook, clean, lead archery, swim lessons, kayaking, mountain biking, escape rooms and more. Several of our staff volunteer to serve as cabin counselors and are willing to cross train in other areas of camp.
Moving forward our camp will explore opportunities to meet the needs of people with love. We are beginning a summer day camp ministry, exploring outdoor education and looking to add day events on a monthly basis. Our core reason for existence is for people to come to camp and grow in their understanding of their faith, grow in their relationships with each other and spend time learning about nature. We have a chance to make an impact on God’s kingdom and we will work hard everyday to remember our vision and goals. As we move toward the end of our fiscal year, we welcome financial support or consideration for joining our volunteer team. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
In His Name,
Kevin Eichhorn | Executive Director of Camp Koinonia
““For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” ”
