Camp Tamarack 2018 Season Starts NOW

From Kim Williams
Director of Facilities, Technology, & Communication

Putting together a summer at Camp Tamarack is a group effort from start to finish. From the moment one camp ends, next year’s camp is already beginning. Months before kids start making name tags on their first day of camp, volunteers are helping clear the winter-ravaged roads of debris (even adding new gravel this year making it the smoothest drive in in years!), putting together the platform tents, cleaning out the winterized kitchen and making it a place for laughter over KP, a headquarters for cooks creating delicious grub — and a hiding place for a stressed out camp director to go when maybe things get a little too extra-ultra mid-week.

Untying a human knot. Photo from Rebecca Schuller

During the week of July 16th through 22nd, Junior High camp was filling the cots, hiking the trails and swimming the creek. Kids were meeting God face-to-face, and feeling the spirit in a short-term but intense community of faith.

A week at Camp Tam can be transformative, and not only for the children.

By the last day of camp, the staff were already raising their hands in an excited commitment to come back next year, starting the cycle of the great work of the NCNC-UCC’s Outdoor Ministries over again. As this is being typed, Senior High camp is almost halfway through their week, and there will likely be a similar raising of hands at the end of the week of camp staff already making their plans for next summer.

Not all of us are able to go to camp. Sometimes it a physical reason, or we can’t get the time off work. Grown-up lives are not as carefree and easy as they looked from the camper side of the campfire. Of course, even with all of the limitations of our adult lives, there are still ways to support the camping program.

Group photo from Camp Tam Junior High Camp 2017. Photo from Cassie Mytton

You can sponsor kids to go to camp next summer or let you family members with camp-aged kids know about the program — we can’t have a camp without campers, after all! You can always make a donation to the NCNC-UCC Outdoor Ministries by visiting their website and specifying that you want the money to go toward keeping Camp Tamarack open for generations to come. Or, you can throw your hat in the ring now to be on staff for camp next year. There isn’t a more rewarding summer
getaway.

Camp Tamarack is a beautiful, wonder-filled, sacred space. We are lucky to have it as a spiritual site for our kids during the summer. Preparing for the new camp season starts now as the old camp season draws to a close. How can you help make sure we can continue the traditions of the Announcements song at dinner, human knots and the Camp Tam Olympics, and star gazing in the meadow?