Family Camp News-Single Parent Camperships and More!

We still have plenty of room in our family camp session, July 26-29, so please help us spread the word!

Are you a single-parent who would like to bring your family to camp? A MFC donor has generously offered full camperships to help single-parent families. We also have partial camperships available for any family for whom cost would be a barrier, we want everyone to be able to attend Mountain Friends Camp!FamCamp3sm

See the Family Camp page for updated information and a new Frequently Asked Questions document. We’re looking forward to building community and lots of fun activities like nature hikes, creating art projects, story telling, music making, skits and cooperative games, Quaker worship, and time to relax and simply enjoy the beautiful outdoors and our camp community. Contact the camp director with any questions

Thanks to Brooke, Brad, Beverley and the Santa Fe Meeting for organizing a visit and photoshoot at the Tree House Camp this spring!

Board Weekend in Denver

Mountain Friends Camp thanks the Mountain View Friends Meeting for your warm hospitality during our annual board board meetingweekend March 20-22. Board members were joined by campers, young adult staff and a few interested local Friends for a fun weekend of worship, discernment and plork (play+work) for our Quaker summer camp. Nine of us traveled from four states plus DC, and nine came from around Colorado. Our focus for the weekend was visioning and planning the next 5 years. We spent time considering the locations we’ve held camp at so far and what we need and want in a permanent location (and how to discern the difference between needs and wants!). Our recent 501(c)3 status, camp policies, staff orientation, support for grieving campers, 2015 plans, finances and outreach kept us busy. We divided up board tasks into three main committees for the next year, and invited campers and others join and participate in committee work. Of course since this was about camp we also had great food, singing, games, worship, fellowship and outdoor time in the beautiful Colorado sunshine.
Big thanks to Paula and to Ruth for hosting so many out of towners, and to Penny and Judy for bringing us delicious that gado gado dinner Saturday! Most everyone stayed for Meeting for Worship on First Day, with a few of our camp staff taking the First Day group to the park for some camp games. Afterwards we enjoyed a bountiful potluck spread, and showed some pictures for a MFC Q&A. We left with warm hearts and renewed resolve from the many reminders of what we love about Mountain Friends Camp!board meeting
REMINDER: We still have plenty of room for campers age 10-15, family campers, and are looking for 1-2 medics and a few male counselors. Learn more, sign up, refer a friend, contact Ana, or donate to support our camp mountainfriendscamp.org

Letter from a Camp Mom

Dear Friend of Mountain Friends Camp,

I hope this letter finds you well and surrounded by love, light and laughter, wherever you may be. As the land sleeps and the days begin to lengthen, the MFC board is busy planting the bulbs that will grow into next year’s camp. We are so grateful to all the campers, families, staff, volunteers and donors who share their light with us each year. If you have one of those in your family, give them a big hug from us!

In this cozy season of gratitude, my own little family gives thanks for many things ~ among them our far-flung Quaker community, and Mountain Friends Camp. Even now, my 10-year old son Orion is singing snatches of MFC songs, regaling me with stories of camp that I have heard a dozen times, and planning epic skits for next year. (Anybody else remember “Manhattan Friends Camp”? Or Ana and Ari’s anniversary? Or spaghetti tacos!!??) In preparation of the new year, his father and I are also thinking of next year’s camp ~ the saving, prioritizing, and late-night conversations are well underway. What will best serve his growth as a person?

Here’s what keeps coming up about MFC:best reduced size (6)

  1. Fun. It’s fun. Like, really fun.

  2. Plork. Plork is so cool!

  3. Quaker Values. Nowhere else in his life encompasses the Quaker values of peace, community, simplicity, integrity, equality and stewardship all at once.

  4. Inner Light. MFC nurtures the light within him and strengthens that quiet inner voice so essential to a meaningful life.

  5. Staff. The staff is extraordinary ~ we want him to grow up to be like them!

  6. Teenagers. The teens at MFC are as rare and precious as gold. Where else can he learn to navigate the coming waters of teenhood with graciousness, simplicity, playfulness and service? They are silly, kind, thoughtful, and hard workers. They love themselves, each other, and the littler ones. He may not know he is looking up to them, but we do, and we are so thankful.

  7. Relationships. Orion is building long-term relationships at MFC with staff and other campers. Friendships based on Quaker values will help him keep a calm center in the storms of life, and give him friends all over the country who care about humanity, ecology, and service as much as he does.

So yes, Mountain Friends Camp is important to us.But here’s the thing:without scholarship help, MFC would not be a priority; it would be a pipe dream. Twice now, MFC has come through with scholarship assistance for us so that Orion could attend. Thanks to generous donors all over the region, (and some help from his grandparents) we have twice been able to say “Yes!” to Orion and watch him caper about the living room in delight. I am now honored to serve MFC in return by sitting on the board and working to make sure that every child who wants to can come to camp. I learned that Mountain Friends Camp has not turned away a request for financial assistance yet, and I hope we never have to ~ times have been hard and Orion might need assistance for another year as we get our feet under us. And there are far needier families than we, with children who have only dreamed of going to summer camp, for whom Mountain Friends Camp could be an island of peace and play in a year of hardship.

As lights of gratitude and celebration are sparkling within homes and hearts all over the world, please consider sharing some of your light with MFC in the form of a donation. Our financial needs are modest but substantial, as we work to insure that MFC can continue to welcome an increasingly diverse group of young people. In 2015, over 50% of campers received need-based financial aid, and we plan to increase our outreach to under-served communities in the region.

One of the testimonies we value at camp is stewardship~ of our precious environment and our own resources as a community. We envision a future in which my 3-year old will share his brother’s experience at camp, and their children will one day come home from Mountain Friends Camp with stories of their own. After four locations in three states in our first five years of camp, we dream of a home for MFC where we can settle in and focus on nurturing the light in each generation that comes our way.

Yes, those are some big, meaningful goals: Service and Sustainability. And with your help, we think we can do it. The board has been working very hard laying the groundwork, and is so grateful for all the support we have received. We have recently completed the process of acquiring our non-profit status, and your donations are tax-deductible just in time for the end of the year!  If you are called to donate to us at this time, here are some ways you can do so:

-$56 will pay for one week of food for one hungry, hard working camper

-$125 will pay for enough tie-dye and silkscreen supplies to decorate t-shirts all summer

-$546 is the real cost for one week at camp. (We charge $400 for the week, and offer camperships as needed to families who need additional assistance)

-$800 will pay for Wilderness First Responder training for a medic at camp

-$5,800 will pay for our space for this summer!
Campfire
Click here to visit our donations page, with options for donating by check or online via Paypal, as well as matching and other forms of donation.

Thank you all for sharing with us in all the ways that you do, and we hope to see many of you this summer!

Yours,
Bonny Moss, MFC Board Member and Mother of a Camper