Wakon Da-Green!

Hey! Its May!

And that means Summer Camp is just around the corner. We have 22 campers and 1 family registered to attend camps at Wakon Da-Ho this year! And it’s not too late to sign up. While the early-bird cost advantages have passed, there is still time and room to get your applications in and make some great new friends this summer.

Last weekend 7 youth joined me, as well as 3 youth and 1 adult from Clintonville, in a work/retreat at Camp Wakon Da-Ho for our annual Lumber Jack/LumberJane weekend. We joined up with churches from across the region to have fun, play games, worship and work together to get our camp ready to receive campers this summer. We had 86 volunteers in total; and we made some great new friends while giving of ourselves to making camp great this year.

In addition to the regular clearing of cobwebs and ladybugs from the cabins and gathering fallen trees for campfire wood, we took on a few tasks to help Camp Wakon Da-Ho go a little greener.

Last fall the old barn was cleaned out and organized so we were able to build compost tumblers and stands. One crew worked to redesign the disposal methods for the dining hall so we can now separate out compostable materials. The rich, organic substances we compost will help nourish our delicious and nutritious vegetables in our upcoming vegetable gardens. The produce grown by youth who help care for the gardens in the upcoming summers will return to the food line in future meals.

Another crew re-screened windows so we can open up the dining hall on milder days instead of using air conditioning. To cut down on the need to spray for mosquitoes, crews cleared out ditch-lines and re-routed standing water sources to flow down the hill to the creek. As we drove down the gravel path to return home, many youth pointed out the free-flowing water running downhill in streams and declared with pride, “look everyone, we did that!”

I cannot think of a better way to spend an Earth Day weekend!

Moving to Greener places,
Tracy