the green spot blog

Well folks, high fives all around. Rise 'n Shine Round 2, on February 24-26, was such a sweet weekend; it went off without a hitch. We had an awesome time with our speakers for the weekend Mat, Mike and Mericha. They came to join us from Prairie Bible Institute , and we shared some good laughs and stories. Along with the gang from PBI, we were blessed to have a worship team from Briercrest Bible College , led by our own Becca M. They were a great addition to the weekend, leading us in songs and a generally fun worship time. (You can listen to Becca on her myspace page , or watch her singing on her youtube page .) With youth and sponsors from Dalhousie, Linden, Highland and Coaldale, we had over 60 people on site. We also had amazing volunteers, as usual: here is the shout out: thanks REILLY, Cam, Nick, Sho, Cody H., Sarah, Steph, Julia, Ashley, Bradley, Kim, Amberly and Kathrina! Thanks to everyone for the sweet weekend, hope that the zip line, archery, skating, tuck, jug ...

Weird spring, right? First the wildfires (our hearts ache for the people of Slave Lake) and now ridiculous amounts of rain? Back in 2005*, Camp Evergreen (and region) experienced a crazy huge flood: we haven't used the lower playing field for anything but rocketry since, and we very nearly lost our canoe pond. Chunks of the old minigolf course turned up in distant woods for ages and ages. (Next time you canoe here, see if you can find hole 4, embedded in the woods by the lagoon.) It's highly unlikely we'll see a flood like that again anytime soon. Nonetheless, some kind of flooding is happening as we speak. Emily and I drove the gator down to check out the action (we kept a very safe distance from the actual water: we would not want to risk being swept away). You can't get to the teepees right now (the road to the teepees has been replaces with a rushing river) and we're about one foot away from the creek overflowing into the canoe lagoon. It's Rain 'n Jog w...

Cody and Emily spent the better part of two and a half days last week rolling tee shirts ... and not just any tee-shirts ... our 2011 camper tee-shirts! Apparently they have some kind of multi-media extravaganza planned to present their labour to you all, but in the meantime, we're going to be rocking the jewel tones in 2011.

This year, for the first time, we ran two Rise 'n Shine junior high retreats: one at the end of January and one at the end of February. Mike Perschon spoke for both retreats, and Jasmin, Jeremy and Josh, from Dalhousie , led music through worship for both weekends. The pictures are from the first Rise 'n Shine. We don't have much for photos from round two ... although I heard rumours that Rachel from River West was wandering around with a camera. Rachel, can you hook me up with some photos? In addition to Rise 'n Shine, our staff packed up and headed down the road to another camp for our annual CCI / Alberta Conference . CCI stands for Christian Camping International, and it's one of the camping organizations we're part of. It's great to get together with camp staff from across the province to exchange stories, ideas and encouragement! Emily is our new blog queen -- I'm loving that she has lots to say. Thanks, Emily! Here's Emily's pe...

As the frost shimmers in the sunlight and the wind picks up blowing the -30 temperature at my face, I lower the plow and head down the driveway cleaning up the snow from the day before. For some reason I think that may be the best introduction to who I am and to one of the many things I love doing here at camp during the winter season. My name is Emily and I love working outside. Temperatures don’t seem to slow me down much and weather conditions mean nothing to me. Now I’m not saying I’m invincible or untouchable. Rather, having rosy pink cheeks and feeling the pure exhaustion of hard work and walking with heavy winter boots and all the layers all day is somehow comforting and reassuring that hard work pays off in the end. Working on maintenance during the winter is such a beautiful thing. In the winter, we have time to accomplish the tasks and repair jobs that have been waiting months for even a quick assessment glance. So far this winter has been very busy, from the very first sno...

LIKE I PROMISED, it's time for some who-works-at-Evergreen fun! We'll start with something super camp related. You've met Emily before . And once before that, too . (Those sentences are links to previous Emily posts, just in case you weren't sure.) Emily has been kicking around at Evergreen for a while now - this is her second winter. She's been here, if I counted correctly, for one year and nine months. Wowza. As I type this, Emily is at the skating rink, flooding. She's working with our Site Manager, Dave, this winter and so one of her biggest orders of business right now is preparing for the Pond Hockey Tournament on January 15 . Asked what her favourite skills to lead are, Emily says the "zipline, wall and ITCs [initiative tasks course]. I like these three the most because I love seeing people challenge themselves as individuals and also in a group setting. Watching the 'light' go on for people even when it takes time is cool." Th...

Name: Emily Poulin Hometown: Lac Louisa, Quebec Where we'll find her this spring & summer: Everywhere! How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: We're at 13 months, straight. Three favourites: 1. Climbing. 2. Backpacking. 3. London fogs. Three not-so-favourites: 1. Not being able to look around every day ... at nature, of course. 2. Having to say "good-bye". 3. Laughing at something so hard that I cry and forget to breathe (at my roomie). Best camp memory: Adventure Classic last summer (2009), the Pond Hockey tournament , cutting trees with the boys. What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Learning more about how faith looks when practiced in a community and I'm just stoked to see God work. She can't make it through the day without: Laughter, music and new stickers ... heehee. In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... how he works not only in our lives but all around us. Emily would also like to share ... th...

Winter is always an interesting season out here at Evergreen. First of all, when the snow comes and stays it is SO PRETTY out here. Secondly, our lives move in waves of quiet and busy-busy. You hear a lot about retreats (busy-busy!) and you know we do guest groups, but I thought I'd give you a quick overview of how we keep the seasonal staff busy here on the quieter days. Colter and Julia have been sorting through the thousands of slides, that include pictures encompassing 1963-1999, that have been living in the Nurse's Station for the last several years. They're putting the slides in order, tossing fuzzy ones, and we're going to be scanning them ... we'll be showing the pictures at our upcoming (June 11-13, 2010) All Staff Reunion, and posting some of them in our "Camp Evergreen - History in Photos" Facebook group. Colter also works with Dave frequently (fixing, building, maintaining) and Julia is planning Trails Away and working at the barn. Alexis ...

Emily is amazing. She's our French Roughin' It girls leader and she's funny and super and has superior outdoors skillz and is a ridiculously hard worker. We love Emily (and so will you)! hometown | Wentworth, Quebec favourite band | "Don't have one ... I just love music." favourite book | Rush of Wings favourite move or tv show | Gone in 60 Seconds , NCIS , the Unit favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Dream about jumping into mud puddles and watch the stars." favourite skill to teach | "Fires, because there are so many ways, and fun ways, to [safely!] light them and rock climbing because it's such a good analogy for how my faith looks." i can't make it through the day without ... | "London Fog and a smile." favourite bits in the Bible | "Undecided as I really just like a lot of them." how many years i've been coming to evergreen | "This is my first year in the making." something ...