— By Stacie Tornga, Volunteer Manager –
It was another amazing spring and summer camp season filled with laughter, tater tot casserole, and incredible people who bring out the best in each other. I wanted to share some highlights and updates about the season, review our newly implemented changes, and reflect on things to come!
Before I dive into the summer camps, let’s first talk about Spring Family Camp. It was amazing when the leadership and volunteers pivoted so quickly to hosting Spring Family Camp in Boise. Because of construction up at Hidden Paradise, we had our families stay at the Riverside Hotel and enjoy outdoor activities around Quinn’s Pond. It took a lot of flexibility and positivity and as always, our volunteers exceeded expectations. Thank you so much for your hard work and for creating such a special camp for our families!
Our summer camps did an amazing job handling last-minute changes, interesting weather, and creating fantastic themes and activities! Youth Camp’s theme was Disney and the team created the most magical place on earth at Hidden Paradise. The Youth Camp volunteers did an amazing job creating magical moments and making sure their campers got to experience it all. The Teen Camp’s theme was National Parks and they did such an incredible job decorating and educating the campers on different national parks and creating activities that allowed the Teens to show their personalities and make connections. Sibling Camp’s theme was enchanted forest, and they created a magical place where siblings got to be the stars for the week and build them up with encouragement and love. It’s amazing to see how different the camps are, but one thing they all have in common is that their campers leave with memories that will last them a lifetime.
This year we had a total of 119 volunteers (This includes Spring and Summer Camp volunteers) and we had 32 new volunteers and 87 returners. That means our return rate for volunteers is 73% which is amazing since the national average return rate for volunteers is 65 percent. So, we not only had amazing veteran volunteers, but we also had 32 new faces who brought new energy and ideas into the mix. With these numbers, we could ensure each cabin had at least three talented cabin counselors.
We had a few new developments at Camp this year that included using our brand-new cabins, hosting volunteer training at Hidden Paradise, and we lowered the age to volunteer as a supervisory adult, to a minimum of 20 years old. We also had a new volunteer position, our Costume Director, and it was incredible to see the kids dig into costumes again with such ease due to the amazing organization and systems that the Costume Directors put into place. It was so cool to see these changes implemented and I want to thank everyone for trying them out with us and being so amazing while we try new things!
I wanted to thank everyone for leaning into training at Hidden Paradise. It was great to have training at Hidden Paradise and for everyone to have a chance to meet their teams before the campers arrived! Please fill out your camp evaluations and add any notes on training! An email with the evaluation link should be in your email but let me know if you’d like me to resend it.
I also wanted to share that we had five JV volunteers, eight college scholarship recipients, and two board members volunteer this summer and it’s so great to see 23 volunteers, who were past campers, return and have them help shape our future! We also were able to write 24 letters so that St. Luke’s employees didn’t have to use their PTO to volunteer at Camp!
As we get bigger, better, and face more challenges, it has been amazing to see you all rise to the occasion and create more room for even more campers in the future! I hope everyone is incredibly proud and can remember, throughout the year, what amazing work you have done for our campers and their families. I know you all know this, but Camp is more than a week of fun, it builds connections, support, vulnerability, openness, and it heals.
I wanted to share a few announcements as we head out of summer camp season. We are still looking for volunteers for Fall Family Camp which runs from September 26th-29th. If you are interested, please email me.
Our Volunteer Appreciation Party is at Kristin Armstrong Park on August 29th from 6-9 p.m. Snacks and activities will be provided.
Preparing for next year – If you know anyone interested in volunteering with us, please email me for any brochures, info, or posters! If you have a bulletin board at your workplace that could use some beautiful camp recruitment posters, please let me know!
We are also looking for volunteers interested in becoming lifeguards (with waterfront certifications) and ropes course certified. If you know of anyone interested, we offer to pay for a lifeguarding course and our ropes course certification is free for volunteers and is hosted at HP, usually during April or May. We would love to start building these programs so please email me if you are interested!
You can email me at stacie@camprainbowgold.org. I look forward to hearing from you!