Question for those involved in Youth Camps

jdavis · Postby **jdavis** » June 1st, 2008, 2:54 pm

We own it. Our region is small church wise and it is a struggle to keep up the expenses. Local churches are asked to place the campground in their local budgets and some do and some do not. The regional office has underwritten the campground and camping ministry for years. We are at the point where there are no more funds to do that and we have raised the cost to those who use the campground in order to try to at least break even and keep the property. If we did not have our own property and rented a place to have camp it would be at least $200-250 for a week. We don't like charging volunteers but we felt that a person would spend more than $5 per day to feed themselves whether at camp or home.

dawgs10 · Postby **dawgs10** » June 1st, 2008, 3:29 pm

100.00 in georgia. and being that we have by far the camping ministry in the church it is amazing that we have the lowest cost.

Full Quiver · Postby **Full Quiver** » June 1st, 2008, 4:08 pm

Do you guys try and rent the site out to other groups throughout the year? Are other events such as family camps and retreats (men/women/youth) utilizing these facilities?

jdavis · Postby **jdavis** » June 1st, 2008, 4:58 pm

Full Quiver wrote:Do you guys try and rent the site out to other groups throughout the year? Are other events such as family camps and retreats (men/women/youth) utilizing these facilities?

We are trying to rent it out but we don't have an on site caretaker so it is difficult. There are no local churches left in the area. We do have family camps, mens retreat, and churches rent it also. These are all some of the areas that we are working on along with the price increases. We love the campground. It is 40 acres of rolling hills in central Wisconsin. 10 miles north of the Wisconsin Dells. It is rustic but can sleep about 80 campers plus staff. If we could get these other sources of revenue coming in we wouldn't have to ask the staff for help. Right now though we need the income to pay operating expenses.

john

Billy n NC · Postby **Billy n NC** » June 1st, 2008, 5:49 pm

Here in NC we own our campground. When we purchased the property back in the mid - late 60s it was out in the boonies. Now we can see the fireworks display from the city Mall out on our Ball Field. Not to mention the 250k homes backyards acros the fences.

And yes we rent our facilty out thru out the year to other church organizations. Also some of the COGOPs within close driving use it also thru out the year.

This past week we had our Adult Camp JOY Just Over/Older Youth on Thursday and Friday with our State wide Family day on Saturday.

And we are blessed to have an onsite campground manager to do the upkeep and managment of the property.

Here is a link to a google Map

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&g ... 3&t=h&z=17

If you take the satellite view you can find the two ballfields and fishing pond and other building.

soulsearcher · Postby **soulsearcher** » June 1st, 2008, 6:19 pm

We rent a beautiful campground (Lake Swan). The cost per camper is $250, and they have no problem filling the camp every year, with a waiting list to boot.

FLgirl · Postby **FLgirl** » June 2nd, 2008, 2:32 am

Penny wrote:
Plus the dreaded SNACK-BAR.
WHAT wrong with your snack bar

They charge $2 for a Gatorade, soda, etc. My 16-year-old runs up quite the tab as you can guess. I give him an extra $20 and after it's gone, water fountain, here he comes!

stevenson · Postby **stevenson** » June 2nd, 2008, 3:10 am

jdavis,
Our Regional Overseer sold our campgrounds. It needed updated really bad. So he sold it and invested the money wisely. Every year they take some of the profits from the investments to help offset the cost. It works great. We rent a beautiful facility with basketball courts, swimming pool, canoeing, paddle boats, horseback riding, etc.... . The cabins are set into a beautiful wooded hillside. It's pretty awesome!
The campground provides staff to cook the meals and do general cleaning. So we only need to find volunteer cabin leaders and a camp nurse. It really is a great deal!

pastorsa1 · Postby **pastorsa1** » June 2nd, 2008, 8:12 am

In the NWT (North & South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming) Sr. camp was $110 for 4 nights (Mon afternoon - Friday morning) and staff paid $80 to keep the cost down for the campers. Plus some travaled as long as 9 hours each way to get to camp.

stevenson · Postby **stevenson** » June 2nd, 2008, 8:14 am

I couldn't do it! A few years ago I had 4 kids in camp plus my wife & I volunteered!

JustJay · Postby **JustJay** » June 3rd, 2008, 11:59 am

Senior camp 95 bucks
5 nights.

Tshirt extra.

It starts this Friday afternoon.

Pray for us.

Jude 2