the green spot blog

Hi friends! We have a couple of staff updates for you! DIRECTOR STUFF Today is Kerry's last day in the office and Andrew Baerg will be taking over as interim director for the next while. Our Board of Directors is still looking for a new, permanent director (and Andrew is still heading up that search committee -- email him at andrew.baerg@gmail.com if you want to talk about that), but Andrew's got things covered in the meantime. We'd appreciate it so much if you can pray wiht and for us as we continue the search for a new director! Just a note: if you're on spring or summer staff, or still applying for summer staff, please be in contact with Courtney at program@camp-evergreen.com or on Facebook about your application! SITE MANAGER STUFF As you may recall from a few blog posts ago, Dave resigned back in January. Well, we are super thrilled to announce that Rolf will be taking his place. Rolf is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades and he's also be part of the Camp Evergree...

It's been a while since we've blogged about the cabins. Don't take that to mean nothing is happening, because you know what? SO MUCH is happening! The bunkbeds are in the first two cabins; they can be used. Amazing! You'll notice that the bunkbeds at the front of the cabin, on either side, have a double bed on the bottom. Back in February, Bob, one of our board members, put together a fantastic Cabin Fever! fundraiser at Lendrum church in Edmonton. It was hosted by Dr. Phil ( Gery Schubert ). We're so thankful to all the folks who came out and made generous donations! The night raised over $11,000 toward the Cabin Fever! project ... and it was a very funny, entertaining night! We're now waiting to hear from the Alberta government about a $25,000 grant, which would be fantastic and fundraising for this project continues! And they look so pretty at night!

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 ...

Last weekend we hosted our first of two Rise 'n Shine junior high retreats. Yeaaah! We had a BLAST. We had an amazing team come down from Peace River Bible Institute . They lead us in worship, performed some super funny skits, and told us their stories. Shane (PRBI's Dean of Men) spoke. His talks definitely encouraged laughter, lots of questions, and great conversations. Youth & sponsors joined us from Bergen, Gem, Rosemary, and Crestwood. We had 40 people out, plus our staff and volunteers, to make it a wonderful and exciting weekend. Here's what some of our retreaters had to say about the weekend ... "The whole weekend is well organized with some free time. The focus is on God and getting to know him better and learning to follow him better. That's awesome!" "Great speaker, awesome and funny personal stories to lead into scripture and talks. Simple truths of God...

This is a BIG news blog post because Camp Evergreen is going to have some transitions this year! Two of our managers are moving on to new horizons ... Kerry , our Executive Director, is heading back to the city after nearly four years at Evergreen. While we're sad to see her go, we also know she's excited for the future and that she leaves Evergreen with a lot of love for the ministry and its community. In her own words, "I'm going to miss you guys! It's been a real privilege working in this community: with our board, managers, and amazing seasonal staff. But I'm also confident that this is the right time for a transition in this role at camp." The board of directors is searching for a new director. You can contact Andrew at andrew.baerg@gmail.com if you would like to recommend someone, or to submit your own name. Kerry will transition away from Camp Evergreen when she finds a new position, or when the board finds a new director ... which ever happens fir...

We had the great pleasure of hosting our third annual Three-on-Three Pond Hockey Tournament on January 14, 2012. We had nine teams, up from eight in 2011 and six in 2010, and we also finally had perfect pond hockey weather! We also had The Golden Skates: an actual, kissable trophy. (We know it's kissable because that's what Eric and Kyle did when they won, see?) You may recall that Pond Hockey Day 2010 boasted a high of 8C and melty ice, while Pond Hockey Day 2011 was a frozen affair: -24C for the better part of the day and the kind of cold that chills you right to the bone. This year though? 2012? It was heavenly. Cold enough for good ice, warm enough that it was fun to watch the games. Yeah! And we had super awesome volunteers, like Jason and Carissa (below), Leanne (who cooked) and Trenton (who took fantastic photos). We have to shout out to our amazing, friendly, competitive players, who came from far and wide across Alberta this year: you raised an amazing $18,114.46 ...

Somewhere along the line here, summer 2012 started creeping up on us! It's seriously right around the corner. We're well into staff recruitment and camper registrations are rolling along nicely ... we had more registrations in January than we ever have before! In anticipation of the coming summer, I have a tale to share with you, submitted by Alyssa. It's her take on her experience as an ARISE camper in summer 2011. ARISE is our learn-to-be-staff camp and it's three weeks of lots of fun, lots of hard work, and lots of relationship and community building. ARISE campers spent one of their weeks in a cabin, working alongside one of our veteran cabin leaders, and they help with games and dishes and cleaning. They also do lots of intensive Bible study time and more! Here's what Alyssa has to say: Before summer, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do ARISE but looking back, I wonder why I ever doubted it. It was the best 3 weeks of my year. One of the biggest things...