Our new property manager could not have joined Camp Rainbow Gold at a better time as these past few months have seen a flurry of activity at Hidden Paradise, our new property in Fairfield, Idaho.

Volunteer Appreciation

We hosted our annual volunteer appreciation party in early September, welcoming all our camp volunteers—the backbone of our programs—to tour the camp and see the place we’ll eventually call home. It was a wonderful afternoon of celebrations, sharing stories, memories and laughs from this past camp season and dreaming of the years ahead when we’ll host camp at our own facility (and have bathrooms INSIDE the camper cabins)!

Blue Cross Work Day

The following week, a bus-full of angels arrived in the form of Blue Cross employees. Nearly 60 volunteers spent a full workday helping us clean buildings, shovel out the barn, wash windows, dig trenches, and a myriad of other projects to jump-start our to-do list. Their time was invaluable and their enthusiasm and care for this camp resonated throughout the 172 acres.

We’ve been so fortunate to have such a generous community who has helped over the past few months. We’ve had movers and trucks pitch-in to relocate storage items and furniture to the new location, neighbors sharing odds-and-ends equipment or connections, and businesses providing generous donations. Thank you to everyone who has been involved!

Open Houses

Once we had a little cleaning done, we invited all of our new neighbors to visit the site. On September 19th, we had about 100 folks from the Fairfield area come tour the property, listen to short presentations on the building plans, and enjoy cookies, coffee and milk. A lot of the visitors had not been up to the property in years and shared stories of the old days—golfing on the property, attending weddings in the grove of aspen trees and holding proms in the old lodge. Everyone seemed quite excited to have Camp Rainbow Gold as their new neighbors and to see the property getting cleaned up, fixed up and used again.

On October 29th, we’ll be taking the show on the road and holding an Open House in the Wood River Valley. Sun Valley residents have been some of Camp Rainbow Gold’s longest and biggest supporters and we want to share our plans for the new home we are building for Camp Rainbow Gold and other medical camps. If you are in the area, swing by the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum on Tuesday, the 29th from 4-7 p.m.  We’ll have displays with photos of Hidden Paradise, maps of the proposed camp and other details.  We’d love to see you there!

Get Involved

We’re getting ready to hunker down for the winter but planning and projects are ongoing and calendars are booking up for the spring. If you’re interested in volunteer opportunities, sponsorships or donations, or know any local or national business we should speak with, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our capital campaign manager Lonni Leavitt-Barker at lonni@camprainbowgold.org or 208-350-6435.