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14th Annual Benefit Auction Report

Greetings friends!

Another auction has come and gone. Boy was it fun! Preparation always seems so stressful for the committee and staff. I left camp at 10pm on Friday night knowing there was plenty to finish on Saturday morning. Slept OK. Woke up thinking about all there was to do. Rushed up to camp after kissing my wife and daughter. Got out of my truck and took a deep breath. Immediately I smelled quiche baking and doughnuts frying. The air was brisk and the sun bright. Fog was rising from the valley below. I recalled a snapshot from a recent board retreat. Someone wrote “Auction Day.” That was a response to the question, “What do you love about camp?” I hadn’t thought about that much until that moment. And I realized that even though it’s stressful for me I just love auction day! Campers are back on site. Many of our most faithful supporters are here. Lots of volunteers hustle around to get food out. And there are new-to-camp folks checking it out for the first time. Sometimes just passing by sometimes from a nearby town.

What a wonderful mix of people! And all for the purpose of supporting a vision of a better world – a vision of giving local children a needed experience; young people who need a place to go and get outside and play. To experience God in nature and the people around them. To be inspired to hope and dream and love. Who doesn’t want to invest in our youth in a meaningful way.

And then there’s the food. Fresh made doughnuts. Quiche & fruit. Fresh coffee. Fresh squeezed apple cider. Popcorn just popped like at the movies. Add the people and food to the event itself – the auctioneers doing their thing with their crazy fast talk. What fun and fellowship!

Some stats:

$42,049 has been recorded so far.
80 bidder numbers were handed out to over 130 people.
95 raffle tickets sold (congrats to Rebecca Golding, winner).
180 doughnuts made and consumed in 4 hours.

See photos from the day on the main auction page. Coming to that page in a day or so will be the lot list with winning bids attached. It’s often fun to see how much items sold for.

And please please please plan to join us next year, September 23 OR 30, 2017 (committee will be deciding shortly).

Please also plan to join us as a volunteer during winter or summer programs. Or, sign up for monthly giving (email me brandon @ bethanybirches.org for the monthly giving form). No matter how you join in the fun, hope to see you here at camp sometime soon.

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey

Day Camp! Unique Themes Each Week

Day camp is back! Cheeks has been hard at work planning. I wanted to share with you her recent plans for themes at Day Camp.

From Cheeks:

Each week of day camp will include a lot of traditional BBC Favorites including eating ice cream out of a pig trough, the slip n slide, swimming in the pond, exploring nature, team building activities and more. Each day will have blocks of time dedicated to the theme for the week. Read below for more details on each week.

Classic Week: (6/20-24)

This week is all about BBC Classics! Day Camp Director Amber “Cheeks” Bergey will pull from her 10 years as BBC Program Director to have the best, age appropriate BBC activities for Day Campers. Over the years BBC has gone “around the world”, hosted “muddy Olympics” and “carnivals”, directed “cinemas” and examined a plethora of themes to help young people make connections between faith, nature, relationships and God. Each day campers will get a great taste of what it’s like to be a BBC Camper while making new friends and having a wonderful time!

Wild Week: (6/27-7/1)

This week will focus on the “wild” activity happening around us in nature. Blocks of time each day will be dedicated to examining the wildlife around us. Catching critters in the brook, scavenger hunts leading to different trees and rocks, along with other hands on events will help campers have fun while learning about the wild life around us. It’s never too early to experience how being immersed in nature can put us in touch with The Creator.

Splash Week: (8/1-8/4 or 5?)

This week of Day Camp is in honor of many residential camper’s favorite day: Wet N Wild Wednesday! At Day Camp we’ll be wet and wild all week. Chunks of each day will be dedicated to water activities. If you don’t like to get wet, not to worry! Each day will have options for hands off water activities. Campers will have fun with traditional back yard splash games and also have fun working together to accomplish slippery challenges. Moments each day will also be spent examining how some of the properties of water can help us understand faith and a relationship with God.

Birchmobile

I am excited to announce the first ever Birchmobile!

With a big thanks to board member Chad Yoder and Bergey’s for the donation on the truck, Alvin Landis and Landis Graphics on the design and supporter Rich Landis for bringing the truck to camp. I present the Birchmobile. It will be used for camper transportation, errands and other camp business and as a moving advertisement. May it live long and deliver many campers and staff safely!

Hope to see you at camp soon,

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey

Get your free 50th anniversary tshirt: #BBCTshirtday

#BBCTshirtday is going to happen every Monday from now through Feb 8. As we get ready for winter and summer camps in 2016 we want to hear from you on social media. So next Monday get your BBC tshirt on and take a picture of yourself somewhere fun, or even better, you AND your friends, and post on Facebook. Tuesday morning, we will select our favorite one and mail you a FREE 50th anniversary t shirt. Just like the ones in this pic.

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #BBCTshirtDay and tag Bethany Birches Camp to get in the running.

Good luck!

Tuna

Leaf Vid

This past weekend was grrreat. Teens and staff at camp playing games, learning and growing together. Hard to beat. We raked some leaves and piled them high. Part of the reward for doing the work was jumping in them! Here’s a video we made doing just that.

Bethany Birches Turns 50! Join the Fun Sat. Sept. 26

It’s true. BBC is 50 years old! The first summer of camping was 1965. Wasn’t long after that and winter camp was added to the mix. Then facility rentals for weddings and other program groups and activities. We haven’t looked back since. We’re celebrating and honoring the past on the weekend of September 25-27. The full schedule is here. Won’t you come and join the fun?

Speaking of fun, the big day is Saturday September 26. The day kicks off with a pancake breakfast. The breakfast is for those staying on site. You can rent your camping shelter here. The shelter is $50 for the weekend and meals are covered on Saturday.

After the breakfast is the Annual Benefit Auction. And then an afternoon of fun! Here’s the schedule:

All afternoon! Pond Open (Boating, Swimming, Fishing-Pick Up Rods and tackle at the camp store) (Everyone under 18 must be accompanied by someone 21 or older)
All afternoon! Table Activities
All afternoon! Yard games (Whizzball, Gaga, Kube, Volleyball, Basketball, Playground, Disc Golf-Start at South side of Pavi at the Disc Holder)
1:30-3:30 Water Slide Below the Gaga court with Whitt
1:30-2:00 Pavilion Tour Start in Parking Lot with Tuna
2:15-3:00 Then-Now Photo Tour of Camp Start at the Bell with Cheeks
2:00-2:30 Hay Ride Start at the Bell with Nanuk
2:30-3:30 Hike to Perimeter Trail / Tree House Start at the Bell with Rouke
3:00-4:00 Craft at Craft Hut Craft Hut
3:00-4:00 Dutch Blitz Tourney (All ages welcome!)
3:30-4:00 Pavilion Tour Start at the Parking Lot with Chad Yoder
4:00-4:30 Hay Ride Start at the Pavi with Nanuk
4:00-4:30 Gaga Variations (Never ending, Teams, etc) Gaga Pit with Chick
4:30-5:00 3 v. 3 Gaga Tourney (Come with your two teammates! All ages welcome! Winning teams gets a prize!) Gaga Pit with Chick
5:30-6:30 Dinner
7:00 Fireside

I do hope you’ll join us for all or at least part of the day. There will be 50th merch and all sorts of goodies.

Happy Birthday BBC!

Tuna

Cheeks is Pregnant!

Yes, it’s true. Her due date is June 26. We’re posting here to make sure the whole Bethany Birches family knows this exciting news. This will be our (Tuna and Cheeks) first child. We were so busy with camp for many years that we didn’t consider children. One day, Cheeks turns to me (Tuna) and says by the time I’m 30, I want to know if we’re going to have children. I said OK. 30 came and went. So did 31. By the time we were 32 we were ready for a child. And in our 33rd year, we will have a baby, Lord willing. It’s amazing how God works in our hearts and adjusts our perspectives over time.

As you know, June, July and August are the three busiest months of the year here at camp. Probably not the ideal time to welcome a new person into the world. But, we are. And we are thankful for the opportunity to have a child. So the camp started looking for an interim program director since Amber will not be able to do her job this summer. We offered the position to Dan Laubach and he accepted.

The full story on staffing at camp, in case you’re wondering:

I (Tuna) will continue to be the Executive Director
Cheeks may or may not return to her post as Program Director (she is allowed a little more time to decide that)
Dan, the interim Program Director, is committed through October at least.
Many of the summer staff are returning from prior years.

If you’re at camp this summer, you will recognize many of us from past summers. And you might even see baby Tunacheeks!

Hope to see you at camp soon!

Tuna

(aka Brandon)

BBC Trivia in your Mailbox

You should have received this brochure in your mailbox. There are 2 errors in it! If you match the dates in the brochure to the website (bethanybirches.org/summer-camps) you’ll find it. The website is correct! FIRST PERSONS TO EMAIL THE ERRORS to camp@bethanybirches.org receives 10% off camp registration! Don’t feel like digging through to find the answer? SHARE THIS Blog POST on FB and get 5% off camp registrations!

We’re thankful to Kellyn “Benji” Boyden for creating such a beautiful brochure. Next year we’ll proofread more carefully!

Hope to see you this summer!!

Halloween Weekend For Teens at Camp

In a little over a week, the October Teen Connect will be hosted at camp. At the teen connect, there are a bunch of things going on. Cheeks and Sparkles have been making videos about some of the activities planned. Come and bring friends!

PART 1

PART 2

Register Now Facebook Event

PART 3

PART 4

Register Now Facebook Event