Pavilion Explained

A CASE FOR SUPPORT

Will you please take this survey before November 22, 2011?

Bethany Birches exists with a mission to help young people develop their relationship with God by providing them with a Christ-centered camping experience in a natural and nurturing environment.

Our priorities are:

– To serve young people, with or without church or religious experience, living in Vermont and surrounding areas.
– To insure a physically and emotionally safe environment for everyone under our care.
– To maintain the lowest possible fee structure for the Bethany Birches Camping Experience.

We intend to do this more. We want to do this better. Right now, the two biggest challenges are that we cannot add much program beyond summer due to facility constraints, and that the facility we use in the summer is breaking! We want to address both issues with one project: A new pavilion. What we hope for would gain us these things:

* A WINTER PROGRAM that we can’t have currently.
* A repaired building that is currently broken.
* More space for rainy day activities.
* Cooks who can work shorter hours in less than 100 degrees.
* Ability to take care of our sick campers adequately.
* Providing our staff with an office.
* Increased and accessible storage space.

A BIT MORE ABOUT INCREASED PROGRAMMING:

In community, relationships with God and each other grow and thrive. Parents, campers and staff continuously ask for more camp and longer camp sessions. For many campers, BBC is an important community. For some, it’s their only community.

Through this community, a camper comes to feel “At school, I’m not cool. Here I’m cool. That’s why I like it here.”

Another camper prays out loud in front of the whole camp, “Thank you for giving my life meaning”.

Staff write on Facebook “It was the best summer of my life.”

A parent suggests, “Kids don’t always appreciate what their folks have to say about values—they need good role models outside of the family. You and the BBC team have been that for our kids.”

This new pavilion will make more programs, especially winter camp, possible. It will make our jobs as staff and volunteers reasonable so we don’t need to be super humans.

As stated on the last page there are two main reasons for this project:

1. Increased mission fulfillment through more frequent program so campers can keep growing through this community of love. Here is one such story in video form:

2. To replace a very broken building. The replacement will have much greater function for the summer program that has developed over the last two decades. MORE DETAIL PROVIDED ON THE NEXT PAGE.

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Renderings of what could be constructed to match this vision can be seen below, a larger pavilion with space for muddy boots and wet clothing, proper roof line and drainage, adequate kitchen space, offices and room for indoor activities. In the winter, much of the pavilion space can be winterized and efficiently heated by an aircraft hanger-type, bi-fold door. The estimate cost for such a facility and related program improvements would be about $1.5 million.

Specifically, the problems this building addresses are these:

* Water inside during rain storms. The new building will have a proper overhang and slope away from the building so it will stay dry inside.
* Increased space when all the campers are inside (which happens at least once each week and sometimes for up to two whole days). The new building will have more under roof space for all the rain in a Vermont summer.
* Improving our current residential grade kitchen with its broken surfaces, traffic flow issues, extreme heat, insufficient freezer/refrigeration space and health concerns. The new kitchen will be designed well, include adequate ventilation and appropriate walk-in coolers.
* The need for a sufficient camp office. We currently have 3 persons working in a 9’X13′ hidden basement space without adequate heat or room for supplies. The new pavilion puts the office as the closest room to the parking lot, making it visible to guests.
* The need for a dedicated infirmary and nurse’s station.
* Room for a camp store.
* The need for increased storage.
* Space to run summer registration.
* Rotting timbers and shifting posts in the current pavilion. Our architect is concerned the current building could be lifted off the ground by a wind storm.
* Inadequate space to dry clothing during winter programs. With proper drying space campers will be outside more and stay warm longer.
* The need to relocate the dumpster to a secluded place.

We long for a long-lasting durable, simple structure that meets current program needs and is not broken! We long for a building that is efficient, accommodates our staff and campers well and takes full advantage of all efficiencies available–from passive solar to any renewable energy source that is appropriate.

Will you please take this survey before November 22, 2011?