Christian Camp and Conferences Association (CCCA)

I had the opportunity to do a 1 hour Webinar on understanding children from hard places for the CCCA.  They have hundreds of members who operate Christian Camps each summer and many have Foster children attend their camps.  We put together a webinar to help their members have some better tools for understanding foster children and their unique needs. 

Oregon Camp Property???

Story - Lace-up Shoes

Beautiful Bellingham

Camp #7 Hosted by Hillcrest Chapel in Bellingham WA. will host its 25th year of camp this summer.  I was invited to their fundraiser golf tournament to speak and help raise awareness and dollars.

It was a great time for me to connect with one of our stronger camps that has had a great connection with their community and with a National presence.

On this trip I was able to not only do the fundraiser golf tournament, but while there we also recorded a radio spot for their Drive By Giving event, I connected with two of our National Trainers, toured the camp facility as a potential training location in the future and met with the Pastor staff to thank them for their years of hosting RFK in their community.

Eddie Mack from Cruisin Coffee does a "Drive By Giving" fundraiser each year where people literally just drive by the Cruisin Coffee locations and drop off donations for camp. 

 Recording radio commercial with "Dave and Mandy in the Morning" on KAFE 104.1 FM

Radio commercial on KAFE 104.1  My spot and a caller who has sent kids to the Bellingham camp.

Visiting the Firs campground.

A local Camp supporter donated my stay at the Moondance Inn.  Nice place right on Lake Walcom.  Me at the end of the pier taking the following shots.

 Self-portrait / Shadow portrait

 Thursday morning was absolutely calm on the lake.  Still and quiet!

 Friday morning was a bit chopping, but the sun rays danced of the waves.

LIFT Conferences 2018

We held another round of our LIFT Conferences this past March. 
For 4 weekends in a row, we held an all day training session for leaders and volunteers of our Camps and Mentoring Clubs.

It's a ton of work and requires tremendous hours by the national office and local volunteers who desire to gather together and learn and mutually encourage each other.

This year, Wayne Tesch, Founder of Royal Family, brought the devotional thought "Elevating Moments to Memories. 

We had about 600 volunteers at the four locations attending the general sessions and numerous breakout sessions.

A blessed time for us so we can all get better at helping Foster Children get better too.

From foster care to the Olympics

Simone Biles:

I went from foster care to the Olympics

By Simone Biles

Updated 12:52 PM ET, Wed February 7, 2018

 

People love to ask: "What's your secret?" …they want to know how I went from foster care to the Olympics.

My answer to both is the same: a mix of talent, hard work and grabbing the right opportunity when given the chance.

I was blessed to have both a gift and the chance to develop it. But many people aren't so lucky.

Did you know that in the United States there are nearly 400,000 children and youth in foster care? In my mind, those are 400,000 talents waiting to be discovered.

 At RFK, we are doing our part to help Foster children have some opportunities that they may not have had otherwise.

See full article: 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/opinions/foster-care-education-olympics-opinion-biles/index.html

Janae's Ireland Trip

Janae went to Ireland this summer with several other Vanguard Students to work with a local church and their outreach kids camps.  I don't have pictures of the kids, but here is some excitement from the trip.

Australian Adventures

Wayne Tesch and I ventured down under to Australia to speak to the Directors at Southern Cross Kids' Camps in October. 

Below is a short video of the stories and adventures we accomplished. 

For more info and videos from the Australian Camps, click on this link.

https://www.sckc.org.au/

Southern Cross Kids' Camps numbers:

Camp and Mentoring Club Stats and Facts

Here are some of the numbers from Camp and Mentoring Club this year.  

Each number has a lot of history behind it, either a life touched, a life volunteering or money or time being expended.

Thanks for all you do to help make these numbers a reality!

MUD Matters

Here are two versions of the devotional I delivered this spring at our Regional LIFT Conferences.

My goal was to not only give a good devotional thought to those attending, but also to make it memorable and transferable so the Directors could take it back and do the same devotional for their volunteers during their annual training.  

After the videos, there are several photos from around the country of volunteers participating in the Mud that Matters.

The first version has been shortened to 7:30, followed by the original 21:00 version if you have more time.

7:30 version

21:00 version

 So California

 Texas

Montana

Illinois

Nebraska