After more than a year of playing Red Light, Green Light, (mostly Red Light!), it is both exciting and overwhelming to think about reopening camp.
The past few months have been a scramble of wading through guidelines and mapping out modifications only to have the rules shift, then shift again. We will do our best to keep camp as “normal” as possible, while also making safety a priority. We hope to know better what that will look like as OHA guidance is continually revised.
It has also felt like a race to get things ready for campers after three years. Josh and Anna have been hard at work preparing the grounds and the field is in great shape! We are deeply grateful for a grant for Oregon camps that has made some much-needed maintenance projects possible. However, there is still a punchlist of things to accomplish before the campers arrive. If you are interested in supporting DCC, we would love help with some final prep before summer!
In March we were so blessed to have some wonderful help from the hardworking folks at Fairview Mennonite Church. They generously tackled some really huge projects! We are so grateful for their contribution! They replaced the guardrails on the bridge and repaired damage to the lodge roof where a tree had fallen and punctured the metal this past winter. A tree had also fallen on the field. They helped Josh process many, many rounds of wood and the youth helped clear debris off the road. Thank you so much!
In many ways, it feels like the last few years have been “lost”. Between my own battle with cancer and its lingering side-effects, the road closure, Covid, the many downed trees from the Labor Day storm and the forest fires that followed, there have been so few opportunities to welcome the volunteers on which DCC depends. Now that we have the bulk of the grant work done and know that we can meet that qualifying deadline, it’s time to look ahead. After 15 months, we are hopeful that we can regularly welcome guests and volunteers once again!
Our focus now is reopening and operating summer programs, then we can focus on what’s next. At that point, we will be able to acquire the supplies needed and revive the effort to finish the new cabin. At that point, we will need skilled carpenters to help complete the project! (The exterior of the cabin was mostly finished until work came to a screeching standstill with back-to-back closures and lingering stay-at-home orders.) Now that a return to normal operations looks promising, let’s finally get this thing finished! If you are willing to lend a hand, contact info@driftcreek.org or call 971-600-1244.
Thank you, camp community, for your gracious and generous support while we navigate the unknowns of a global pandemic. The last few years have been so very challenging. But we are so looking forward to seeing you again soon!