Church Camp

Since Tiernan has been old enough, we started sending him to church camp through the UMC (United Methodist church), since that is what we attend. I have always been happy with them, until this year.

When the camp brochure camp out this early Spring, the prices were up and all the special camps that Tiernan loved, horseback ridding and computer, were gone. It was just plain camp for a week. Funny thing was, the day I got a reply to my email asking where the other camps were, was I just missing them or were they really cancelled, we got a post card from Springhill Camps.

Springhill Camps does just that, they run church camps in MI, OH and IN, and they do nothing else but camps. I looked them up online, www.springhillcamps.com and I read about them, I checked their mission statement, their faith statement, and although we wouldn't be able to get any help paying for the camp, as we get help from our church to go to their camps, we felt it was the best alternative for the kids this year.

Springhill has a summer overnight camp close to us in Seymour, IN at what used to be Redbrush Park. During our camp tour, we learned that Springhill was started in 1969 in Everett, MI and that in 1998 they bought Redbrush from the Rust family, and transformed it into a church camp. The first overnight camp held at Redbrush was in 2001, so this year marked the 10th year of summer camps there. We could send all three kids, as they had camp starting with kids just finishing first grade, like Molly.

As i got ready to sign the kids up, Maeve made the choice to go back to the UMC camp this year with a friend, instead of going to Springhill, and we allowed her to. She wanted to be with a friend, and she was going to Camp Indi-Co-So, which is the first camp the UMC is working on updating to streamline their camp adventure. I know that the economy had alot to do with the changes, it has effected a number of people, and I understood what they were going for, at this point though, I have to say, they still have a long way to go.

On Sunday we drove over to Seymour to drop off Tiernan and Molly. The check-in was so smooth, and the camp was full of very excited camp counselors, and teen counselor trainees all over welcoming the kids to camp. The kids took off on an old firetruck to their campsites, and the parents followed on a tram, with a guide who explained a lot of information about camp and Springhill in general. We got off the tram first at the Wigwams, which is where Tiernan was staying. it was close to the dinning hall, and across the road from the smaller lake, where the kids would swim.

The Wigwams were great, Tiernan loved them, 8 boys and 1 counselor in each and then the lake. It was full of these great toys to play on and Tiernan was ready to go long before i was ready to let him go! Then we got back on the tram and rode down to the next campsite, called the Teepees. This is where Molly was staying. She had already made a new best friend in the five minutes it took us to get there. They had bunks and smaller bunk-like shelves above the beds to put all their stuff on. There were 8 girls, and 2 counselors for this age-group.

The entire time we are there, Maeve is rethinking her decision to go to Indi-Co-So, so she and her dad rode the Zipline while they were there, sort of to make her feel like she didn't miss everything by going to another camp. She said next year, i am coming her!

Another thing I liked about Springhill, I can go online anytime, and I can check Molly's store account and it will tell me if she bought anything at the store. The first day she went in and got some candy, the second day a pair of swim goggles, yesterday a stuffed animal and today a journal and pen set. I can also use that same site to send an email to Molly and check out photos posted each day of camp. I am also able to call down to camp anytime and the people there have been wonderful about checking on things and making me feel comfortable about everything. Not only can I check on Molly, but I can check on Tiernan the same as Molly, and I was even able to call and add money to his store account the other day, since he had bought some things and had his account a little low.

Tomorrow we go pick Molly and Tiernan up and i am excited to see how the closing programs go.

On Monday we took Maeve down to Camp indi-Co-So, and they seemed excited. They did talk about how they would again this year have daily Facebook updates and pictures online, and even that this year they were going to use this online service to allow us to buy the pictures as a fund-raiser for the camp. Maeve was happy to be with her friend, but she couldn't stop talking about Springhill.

Now, why am I disapppointed you ask, sounds great....well, it's not all lived up to the hype. So far, we have been lucky to get a once-a-day update on facebook from Indi-Co-So, and last year, before they were promoting this so much, we got three to four updates a year. The other is the pictures. So far this year, they have uploaded a whole 37 pictures from camp, 37 pictures covering four days, which has amounted to a whole 2 pictures of Maeve!! They even posted on Facebook, water games pictures, and there were all of 3 pictures uploaded, and two were of the same group of 8 kids. Really? How hard would it have been for the person with the camera to have turned around and made sure to get at least one shot of each group of kids, instead of taking 3 pictures and having 2 of them be almost identical!!

I'm sorry, but if you are promoting facebook updates and buying pictures as a fund-raiser, then you need to have someone who is responsible, and willing to do that job do it, take pictures making sure they are getting all the kids and updating often. Two pictures to tell you what happened for all of one day, and then having the same kids in both pictures just does not cut it with me. And before you say, well did you say something, yes I did!! I sent off a formal complaint to the camping minstries about this issue this morning. I know i am not the only parent feeling disappointed and frustrated, because they are posting all over facebook, as "worried parent" or "distracted parent".
Okay, you say, you are expecting too much. I don't think so. Last year, before they promoted this, we got daily updates on facebook, at least three to four times a day. As for pictures, each day, they uploaded at least 50 pictures. i mean, when it is pool time, how hard is it to have someone stand by the pool with the camera and take the picture of each kid in the pool? That alone would be better than the pictures we are getting right now. we got pictures from the pool the other day, there were all of 8 pictures!! Ok, there are 8 campers in each cabin, so one cabin's worth of kids got their pictures taken, what about the other 10 cabins? And over 75% of the pictures are of the boys, i don't have a boy at camp there, but you would think it was all boys if the pictures are any gauge.

Ok....so it is a minstry and maybe i need to expect less from them...maybe, or maybe I just need to find a church camp that can met my expectations of a church camp.