Shrine Mont, 2013 – Renovating the camps

 

I returned to Shrine Mont this past June 14 for a brief 24 hours there. It had been 10 years but it was if I picked up where I left off. 

Here is a photo gallery  of my trip.

The visuals I remember so well- the springs that helped to create what is today Orkney Springs, the clear lake behind Maryland House, and those steady rockers on the hotel.  It’s great to have things you can count on. Then it was my turn to again make my way to the cross and finally the Shrine. The path seemed to have become steeper over the years.

I was there as a regional president along with 14 others. For 24 hours we heard various topics that are important both to the region and diocese. Yes one other thing was still true – the food is great and plentiful!

Most of what we heard was about the capital campaign for Shrine Mont Camps that starts later in 2013. Maybe the best thing was to have the two best people talking about Shrine Mont there – Bishop Ted Gulick and Kevin Moomaw.

Everytime Bishop Ted talks about Shrine Mont you just want open your wallet and say “just take it all.” Shrine Mont is in his heart. Shrine Mont is the place where we all grow up. And he did – from camper, councilor on through college, the ministry, Bishop of Kentucky and back to Virginia. Everytime I go, I grow up a little more.

As he stated at council “At Shrine Mont camps, we sew seeds of faith, and our experience over the last 50 years is of a harvest of a hundred fold!….Great things happen on the mountain for our campers.”

“Once upon a time a young girl whose faith had been deepened on Shrine Mont mountain wrote a heartfelt letter to a trusted counselor as she was about to go to college. Part of that counselor’s response contained these sublime words. “Remember your way home: wherever you are, never forget your place in a circle unbroken around a table, set in a stone shrine on a Virginia mountainside…He is waiting for you still.” The camper was one Paris Ball, the trusted director of St. George’s Camp, Henry Burt. Where would we be without the transformation that God has accomplished on that mountain, at that Spiritual Home?”

Back to the capital campaign – I want to appeal to everyone to fill out the questionnaire you received in the mail about Shrine Mont that will help to determine how much money they can raise. The target now is $3MM but the questionnaire will give them a more definite goal.

The wonderful thing about the campaign — it’s about both people and place:

1. Half of the $3MM is intended for a revolving scholarship to help students attend camp. It’s too expensive now

Every child should be able to attend camp. As the bishop wrote “We need to lower the sticker shock of summer fees for folks in our ethnically defined congregations, our mountain missions, and our urban congregations. The only reason to have a campaign for Shrine Mont is if it will advance and broaden the mission of God in Jesus Christ for this generation and for the generations to come."  This is the fund that will produce interest to enable more people to visit the mountain.

2. The other half is to renovate the 50 year old camps which won’t take away the rustic nature of camp life

10 Improvements -St George’s Camp

1. Solve storm water management issue – moving water. Drainage improvements

2. Reshingle roof

3. Rework foundation

4. Ceiling fans, better screens

5. Add Staff housing

6. Remove and dispose existing bathhouses and

construct new bathhouses

7. Provide furnishings for screen porch/meeting areas.

8. Renovate platforms

9. Renovate cabins Moomaw Lodge and Lincoln Pavilion

10. Sand, stain floors

7 improvements for Bear Wallow Camp

1. Site work – regrade roadway to Woodward Camp and upgrade lighting

2. Renovate cabins

3. Provide additional bunks in cabins

4. Build two new cabins

5. Build new staff housing

6. Make Rec Hall imrpvoements

7. Provide furnishing for new staff housing

Nothing is to excess, all is necessary after 50 years of wear and tear to make it ready for the next 50 years.

I will hope that you will consider completing the questionnaire and then later give what you can.

Shrine Mont provides life long memories for campers and it is a “lab for leadership” for the young adults who work with these campers.  We are never the same after this experience and we keep coming back in our process of growing up.

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