What has happened up till November

 Dear Readers, 

Who actually keeps up with a blog on a regular basis? It always starts off strong, is a great idea, and then falls through the cracks. Who was I to think this one would be any different? I am here to say it is exactly the same. Well, here goes nothing. 

May: Nothing happened. Seriously, nothing happened. 

June: We opened up our lodging for families. We felt that people would still want to come get the camp experience, and Vashon Island does not have a ton of affordable options for lodging. We also are able to offer camping spots, also lacking on the island. 

July: Our first family lodging guest came over July 4th, and they tent camped! This was the first of many who stayed over the summer. Also introduced, our Monday Night Dinner grab n' go. We knew it was a great idea and would be successful, but we did not know HOW successful it would be! We sold out nearly every week, and made a lot of people very happy. This, along with our family lodging, increased our exposure greatly and people who never knew Camp Burton existed now knew what we were all about. 

August: A continuation of July. Our Monday Night Dinners came to a close the last weekend of August. We also hosted an outdoor wedding, it was beautiful and everybody was safe. Our kitchen also catered a wedding for a family down the road, they originally booked our venue for October but needed to change their plans. Need I mention how delicious the food was for both of these! We finally felt we were getting the hang of things, and the beautiful weather definitely helped. 

September: After a couple of weeks off, and back by popular demand, we started our fall Monday Night Dinner Menu. It was a success, but not as big as our summer session. We hosted another small wedding party for the weekend for some of our family campers. They had a great time and were happy to be at camp again. We opened up our lodge for students to have access to WiFi. Not a lot of people took advantage of it, but a generous donor noticed what we were doing and sent us some money to help with our internet infrastructure. Thank You!!!

October: This was a HUGE month for us. We hosted 2 lovely celebration of life events, and grinded like heck for our Haunted Halloween Drive Thru. This took a lot of planning, a lot of hours, long nights, headaches and cuts and bruises. But alas, was it a success? We would say yes, we had over 600 cars come through! People were laughing, kids were crying, it was great. We had huge support from John L. Scott and Thriftway in helping us with funds and preparation, and on site support from the Vashon Island Fire Department who had some spooky stuff, an ambulance, and a hanging witch! 

November: It's turkey time, and we are all filled up for orders for our Thanksgiving grab n' go. There was so much positive feedback from our Monday Night Dinners, that it made sense for Chef Bill to also do Thanksgiving Dinner. Gonna make a lot of delicious food! 

Well, that is a nice general recap of what has been happening at Camp Burton. If you haven't yet, leave a comment, a question, or submit a lodging request form. I would love to hear from any and all of you!

April in a Shell

April

My oh my, April has been a tough month for us here, but not without some silver linings. Let us begin with some of the sad news, which I will follow up with some good news. 

The drought continued for us, as the remainder of our groups heading into summer have cancelled. We were not in for a shock, but it was still very hard to hear. There is one event still scheduled for June that we all have our fingers crossed in being able to host. 

Beyond that event, we are looking at a dry spell all the way up until August, but even looking that far ahead we are unsure if the large groups we have in the calendar will be able to gather. We have had to make the tough call and cancel our New Horizons, Grade and Middle school camps. These were scheduled for early and mid July, and because we really do not know what we will be able to do and when, we would be facing a really big challenge securing counselors for the camps.

In keeping the bad news short and this post from becoming a book, I will not share the good news. First, we will be holding a grab n' go Mother's Day Lunch on, you guessed correct, Mother's Day! I will be posting a flier to our website as soon as a digital copy is in my possession. 

Our worries have, to the extent that it can be, been lifted as we were able to secure a loan from the Western Baptist Convention as well an organization offering small business loans. With these loans, our director Michele has worked out a budget, be it small, to keep us going through the end of the year assuming we are able to continue with business as usual in September. 

And finally, the moment you have all been waiting for. It is official. Cascade Meadows Baptist Camp (CMC) is now owned and operated by Camp Burton! Since the beginning of the year, we have taken over operations of the camp, sending staff up every weekend to host groups, and to work on various projects. This new chapter is really exciting for us, it will be a great expansion of our programming potential for Camp Burton as well being able to serve existing groups at CMC. Seriously though, we have a camp with ocean waterfront, and a camp in the mountains whose closest neighbor is the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Please take a moment and check out our website, which I will post at the bottom of this blog. 

Thank you all for checking in on us, stay safe!!!

https://www.cascademeadows.org/

    
     

COVID-19 UPDATE: March in a Shell

March 

     

     As today marks the beginning of this blog, but the events leading up to its creation begin in March, this will be a recap of what has happened and an introduction to what is ahead. Lets break it down. 

3/3/20: Our first blow is dealt, we have a cancellation in March. The calls and emails expressing concern for the pandemic begin to pour in. All we can do at this point is let our groups know that we are still going forward with business as usual. 

3/4/20: Our second blow is dealt, one of the 2 groups coming the weekend of the 6th cancels. More calls, more concerns, and more light reassurance. 

3/8/20: Our group heads home. They braved the scary times, though their numbers were lower than anticipated. They will be our last group. 

Week of the 9th: 2 groups cancel for the weekend. Reality begins to sink in that our business is about to go on a wild ride. More calls, more cancellations, and a festering growth of fear for the survival of Camp Burton. We decide to waive our cancellation fee, and offer to roll over security deposits to a reschedule date, or any 2021 reservation. Also marks the last week of school, and we begin to formulate a plan to host childcare here at camp.

Week of the 16th: Our March calendar is now completely shot, and our April calendar is falling apart. We speak with the principal of the elementary school here, and discover that our childcare idea will probably not be sought out by parents here on island. It is during this week that we cut back our hourly staff, and set a date to dissolve our intern program prematurely. 

Week of the 23rd: Hope surfaces for Camp Burton as options begin to emerge for obtaining a loan to help keep our doors open. Spirits begin to lift, and our salaried employees begin to expand their duties to work in other areas of camp. Our fields get mowed, some roofs get cleaned, and we begin to build a garden (always a thought, and now becoming a reality.) Cancellations continue in April, May and even June. At this point, we just have to let everything play out, the course of events are now far beyond our control. 

Week of the 30th: Our director Michele has worked tirelessly getting our Camp Burton and Cascade Meadows budgets together with different financial forecasts as we have no idea how all this will play out. With these laid out, we are one step closer to securing the loans we seek. 

Today is April 3rd, and we are still moving forward with our Summer programming. Our Program Director Jevne is working through our ACA renewal, as well as putting things together for our Summer. We are playing this out day by day, and as developments come in we will keep this blog updated. As of right now, our next groups coming are on May 14th and 15th. Both of these groups are playing it out day by day like us, and are really hoping to come. As I write this blog, I got another cancellation at the end of May going into June. 

That is all I have for now.