An empty camp provides opportunity

Over the next 8-12 weeks we anticipate a very different season of camp. We won’t be serving all of our usual groups and we won’t have a full summer of kids running around the property.

With an empty camp, we have already begun updating our facilities including renovating our kitchen, clearing downed trees, preparing firewood, spreading mulch and deep cleaning areas of camp. Projects only last for so long.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for this to be over, we began making contacts with local, state and federal agencies. We offered our camp and all if it’s buildings and services to those in need. We have a few leads and are excited to begin the process.

Please join us in praying for our staff, our campers and any future plans that may be in front of us we look forward to serving ANYONE that comes through our gates

WHY WE ARE COMMITTED TO OUR SITE RENTAL CONTRACT FOR THIS SUMMER.

The letter below was written by Judy Elbert. Judy is a member of the Cascade Camp Cedarbrook board as well as a director for the girls camps. She has shared this letter with me and other CCC members and campers. I am forwarding it to the Koinonia community as communication and encouragement.

WHY WE ARE COMMITTED TO OUR SITE RENTAL CONTRACT FOR THIS SUMMER.

Dear Camping Colleagues, 

This season has been a season of disappointment for many as one after outstanding opportunities has been cancelled by our fight to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. Many of us have had to face cancelling our spring retreats and some have cancelled camping programs.

I wanted to take the time now to share why we, at Cascade Camp Cedarbrook, have not cancelled our site contract for our three-week camping program at Camp Koinonia this summer. 

First, we believe in what we do as a unique calling and benefit to children.  Children will need the opportunity to step out into the outdoors and away from the four walls of their homes more than ever.  If our state and federal health officers deem it is appropriate to resume activity, we want to be ready with our plans, our curriculum, our materials, and our trained staff. We can adapt to provide more physical distance, more sanitization procedures, more health screening and more hygiene. If we can resume activity this summer, we want to be ready because what we do for children and families and our world is important.

Second, our future depends on having a camp site to use.  Camp sites are difficult to find.  There are a limited number for a growing population. Camp sites depend on rentals to survive.  When there are no campers, maintenance needs abound as the natural world is hard on camps.  Our camps have harder winters, hotter summers and unique water and electricity needs, all of which require year-round maintenance.  Without user income, camps cannot care for these basic needs. We are continuing our contract to contribute to the camp site our program will need next year and the years to come. We are reaching out to our donors to encourage them to contribute directly to Camp Koinonia.

This is a time when we do not know what our summer will hold.  In the meantime, we are reaching out to campers more frequently than before.  They need their connection to their camp family!

Whatever your camp’s course, please consider supporting your rental site to the best of your ability in the months ahead.  It’s a tough time for retreat and camp sites as the cancellations roll in.

Your colleague in camping, Judy Elbert

Cascade Camp Cedarbrook - Serving Christ. Loving Others. Growing strong in God’s creation.

If you would like to support Cascade Camp Cedarbrook directly, please click here.

If you would like to support Camp Koinonia directly, please click here.

Witnessing people step up for camp

We have all received an E-mail from one company or another reminding us to wash our hands. We have laughed at about various toilet paper memes or jokes on Facebook. We have created unique ways to stay in touch with our friends and families on Zoom and “social distancing” has become a normal phrase. Some of us are scared and all of us have been impacted in one way or another.

Our camp has made sacrifices to ensure we survive this crisis. The heat is off, the budget is cut and we are preparing for the worst while planning for the best. I wanted to share a few moments we witnessed people stepping up for camp and they all occurred in the last 7 days.

Firewood. We have been getting creative regarding finding work for our staff. One idea was to cut down our dead trees and split it up and sell it to the community. Well instead of cutting down trees, out of nowhere, a local logging company dropped off dozens of huge logs to split up. They have since been cut into rounds and we can put someone to work because of that donation. (PS if you want to buy some firewood, let us know)

Cash Donation(s). Obviously these are fantastic. With no strings attached, we received a $5,000 donation that will go directly to payroll. We also received a planned donation of $6,000 that is earmarked for our ongoing kitchen remodel that was begun prior to the virus ramping up. We long for the months ahead when can host groups and generate income, but for now these donations help. Our bare minimum monthly expenses range from $11,500-$13,750 including utilities, payroll, insurance etc. If you are able to contribute, there is a link below.

Paid Invoice. It seems simple, but believe me this is a huge deal. For the month of March, April and May, we will total $72,000 in cancellations. We have a 90 day cancellation window for groups to walk away with no penalty, but those who have to cancel inside that window, well that involves a little more conversation. We know this is not their fault and the state of Washington has made it officially not their fault. We know we need to be flexible so we are offering all our groups the ability to apply their funds to a future retreat in 2020 or 2021. It would be easy for these groups to say “sorry Charlie” and leave us without paying a dime. However, we have hoped for the best and today we received a check for $3,400 from our first cancellation. (You know who you are and we thank you!!). I am certain some groups won’t (or can’t) pay their invoice, but this first check gave us hope. We know that this situation stinks and we know it isn’t easy to come up with funds for a cancelled retreat. With that being said, we hope the option is there for groups to help support camp and we hope to welcome them back very soon to use every dime they put forward.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, your patience and for being a friend to camp.

Taken by the pond March 22, 2020

The Impact on Camp

*** Coronavirus impact on camp ***

Our camp is preparing for the worst. Almost all groups have canceled or postponed their events through April and the trend is likely to continue further into spring, we are taking steps to plan for an enormous financial impact.

As many of you know, we do not have frequent weekly and monthly offerings and we rely on 1-time per year interaction with most of our guests. We don’t have regular online giving and our budget is based off 90-95% user group income.

Without our user group income...

• we cannot pay our electric and propane bills.

• we cannot pay our insurance premiums.

• we cannot repair anything that breaks.

• we cannot pay our staff.

We are taking steps to lower our payroll costs by reducing the salary for the Camp Director, cutting our Food Service Director's hours to a minimum and furloughing the remaining team members including housekeeping, kitchen assistants and seasonal facility assistants.

We have some reserves to make it through the next 4-6 weeks, but we need as much help as we can get. We want to work. Our staff are not the type to sit on the couch and wait it out. There are plenty of projects that can be worked on alone or by following social distancing rules to keep us busy.

If you would like to help put some of our team get back to work and help our staff receive income during these uncertain times, we would greatly appreciate it.

Let us earn it. Here are some ideas of projects we can put our staff on while we wait for our groups to return to camp.

• New Stairs for our Upper Shop to Replace Old Unsafe Stairs | Project Materials: $1,500 | Staff Hours Allocated (60) = $700-1000

• Paint Upstairs Retreat Center | Project Materials: $1,000 | Staff Hours Allocated: 40 = $540-$700

• Split Firewood for Camp | Project Materials: $20 Gas | Staff Hours Allocated (we will never have enough and if we do we can sell it)

• Dig Out Fire Pit Areas and Add Rock/Mulch | Project Materials: $500 Rock | Staff Hours Allocated 75 = $1,000-$1,500

• Remove Clutter, Clean Upstairs of Shop, Add Insulation, Fix Leaks | Material Costs $0-$1,000 Insulation | Staff Hours Allocated 100 = $1,100-$1,800

• Landscaping, Beautifying, Preparing for Summer | Project Materials $0.00 | Staff Hours Allocated 100-300

  • We have to spread mulch (which we already have) all over our trails. We can spread manure (which we already have) all over our fields and get our grass looking like grass. We have trails that can be trimmed back and plenty of mowing and weedwacking that can take place. We have burn piles to take care of and plenty of firewising to accomplish.

• What do you have in mind? We welcome ideas and plans for the upcoming months. It is about to get warm outside which opens up a lot of time and availability.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to us directly, please reach out.

Kevin Eichhorn | Camp Director

509.304.9541 | director@campkoinonia.org