Change of Heart

This past weekend, the wedding team (A,M,B and I) spent the weekend at camp. We were walking through all of the details of the ceremony and reception, decorations, signs, etc. The weather was warm and sunny and I alternated between giddy excitement and utter depression. I’m SO excited for the wedding. But I can’t wrap my head around camp closing. All summer long, it was far in the future. It seemed forever away.

We’ve spent a month hanging out at the office- doing nothing, waiting for answers. It’s been nice to plan a wedding, but boring.

And now the end is almost here. ‘A’ will be without a job and I will be left in the office by myself with a camp to close, a foundation to create and absolutely no direction or answers about how to go about either.

As I walked around my beloved camp, I just kept thinking, “no. NO. THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING.” 67 years this camp has been here. And I’m the one who is going to let it close?!

It’s just such an amazing place. It can’t close.

And the thing is, it’s relatively simple, when you break it down.

Two years ago, we took out a loan and in October (like 2 weeks from now), we have to pay it back. But we don’t have $200,000 to do that. So we’re closing down.

Over the past 7 years, our enrollment has improved. Our fundraising has improved. Our reputation has improved. We’ve made updates to the property. EVERYTHING has improved. Not so much that we have enough to pay off the loan, but enough to step back and realize that closing camp now would be ridiculous. Camp has been WAY worse off. Why are we closing it now?!

In May, a neighbor approached camp and offered to buy the property. But he’s come back to the board and changed the deal several times. It’s not going to work out with him.

We decided to sell the property because it seemed like it was time. We’ve struggled for years, and while we are making improvements, it’s still a 67 year old camp in need of major updates. It’s hard to recruit kids. It’s hard to fundraise the amount of money we need each year. And we didn’t have a plan for the loan. And we had a buyer. And quite honestly, all of us are just tired. Many of our board members have been on the board for 20 years (some 30-40 years!).

But we’re really talking about $200,000, which is a lot, sort of. But there are organizations out there that raise that at one fundraiser, so in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not very much.

So I’ve been laying in bed, dreaming up ways to save camp. This can’t be it. I don’t have $200,000, but come on, that’s not very much money. It’s not “close a 67 year old camp” level money.

I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next 2 weeks, but I am fired up. I am re-energized. And I can’t let this camp close down.