Canoe Art

I found this work of ART(?) and I just couldn’t pass up a picture.

 

I guess this is what you do when you have a lot of aluminum canoes left over.

Camp is Back!

 Heres a short video from one of my camp visits.  

New President Announced for FTC and RFK

 

Californias New Safety Law to Protect Children

 Have you heard of AB506?

California passed a new law, AB506, requiring safety standards for any youth serving organization.  This law will also extend to all youth serving programs including churches for regular Sunday School and youth programs.  

The law has good intentions but, in some cases, leaves some questions unanswered.  Perhaps the law will be refined over the next few years to give more answers and more clarification.

For The Children has produced a special document for all of our chapters to better understand the law and how to integrate it with the current FTC requirements.  Our requirements exceed nearly everything in this law, but our Chapters still have to be in compliance with it.

For more information , please see the following.  

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB506

https://www.xpastor.org/strategy/predators/new-california-sexual-abuse-prevention-legislation-requirements-for-youth-service-organizations/

31 Year Volunteer!

For the last 31 years volunteer, Miss Mary, has been giving her time and her heart to the children in Lancaster CA.

In this photo she is wearing her original shirt from 1992 and celebrating the start of her 31st year as a RFK volunteer.  Go Mary!

Faith Letters from KIDS

Here is a short collection of Faith Letters from various sources that help us understand the various ways that children are growing in their faith within our programs.  

Training Continues Amidst Uncertain Times

Your support for Janet and I and FTC helps us train Churches and people to go and do the work on behalf of the children we serve.  All of our trainings this year have been virtual.  Virtual can be hard, it lacks observation and is less relational, however, it has allowed us to train more people and more Church groups!  At this stage, we'll take the positive wherever we can find it.

Our Director Training from Nov.

Extra family Pictures from the year

 

Driving to the wedding!

Loading up on Scooters Coffee!

Family prep for the reception

Judy with a kill

Kauai ATV ride!

Janae's 25t birthday

Jon's never ending project -'69 Mustang

Chapter Christmas Party

FTC Tampa recently held a Christmas party for the children they serve.  Here are a few volunteer profiles of people who serve the children.

'When this chapter launched, we only had camp and we couldn’t even see our campers over the course of the school year, which was hard for the counselors and the kids they had bonded with. They would see us in July, and then they don’t see us until the next July. Now with RFK Mentoring, we can see these kids on a regular basis, and we can be ‘Grammy’ and ‘Poppy’ throughout the year. Some of these kids don’t have grandparents in their life, and now we can consistently be that for them.’

‘I’ve been volunteering with FTC Tampa since 2018, first as a camp counselor and now with mentoring as well. A lot of the kids that I had in my cabin as a counselor come to our group mentoring meetings throughout the school year, and it’s been incredible to get to see them, to see them grow, and to continue to play a part in their lives. To me, one Saturday out of a month for a few months is nothing compared to the impact that you will have on these kids lives 40 years from now. This is something they will remember their entire lives. Every child needs positive interactions with adults that they can trust; these kids most of all.’

Mentoring Clubs Shift to Meet More Needs

Mentoring Games

Camper Letters

 

Montana Camp Visit

This summer I was able to visit with our Director's in Wyoming and do an actual camp visit in Montana.  I love this part of the country and the camp visit went well.  We made a strategic decision to visit some of the Chapters that we seldom get to each year and I was fortunate to get the Montana, Wyoming area.  Our visits are designed to stay connected with our Chapters, see the programs in action and learn from the ministry in real time.  Zoom calls and conferences are nice, but nothing beats walking and talking with volunteers and seeing kids run, jump, play and learn.

Great stage set up for group events and Chapel time.

Lots of extras for birthday gifts or forgotten essentials.

An obstacle course to burn off energy and a water slide to cool off.