Neighborhood Camp Big Sandy

Grace Communion Big Sandy was blessed to hold our first neighborhood day camp. We had a great time with the young people that attended and are grateful for God giving us this opportunity to participate in Jesus’ ministry in our community. It took a lot of planning and work, but it was definitely worth it!

Below is a description from our Love Avenue Assistant, Anna McIver.

Jerome Ellard, Pastor
Big Sandy, TX, US

 

 

 

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The camp was held from Thursday, June 8 to Saturday, June 10. Each day began with a free lunch at noon; activities started at 1:00 pm, with a brief snack break at 3:00 pm. The day ended at 5:00 pm. The theme for Thursday was Challenge Day: Mind and Body Challenge Games. The games on Friday added the challenge of water elements.

Camp ended on Saturday with a Family Day. Campers played a game called, Minute to Win It, learned dining etiquette, and helped prepare and serve dinner to their families. During the free spaghetti dinner, the campers and their families enjoyed a slideshow of camp. Fifty-two attended our dinner, including the staff. We also presented a few awards for the campers and mini campers. Afterwards, roughly 30 stayed for a movie. Some of our guests preferred to stay in the dining hall to continue their conversations.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

• • Throughout the three days, we had 25 volunteer workers. Staff jobs included: registration, food crew, medics, activity directors, security, crafts, tech, and spaghetti dinner prep. Most staff doubled as activity assistants.
  • Pre-registration opened online a week before camp. A QR code linked to our google doc. Thirteen campers pre-registered, which helped the registration team and shortened the check-in time.
  • Thirty-one campers attended. We anticipated 25 campers as our max capacity, with a target audience of 5th – 12th grades. However, we only had 16 in this age range. We had 15 campers who were 5th graders or younger.

We had a great turnout for our first attempt at neighborhood camp.