A Talented Gift To Camp Whitman: Take It Home!

A Talented Gift To Camp Whitman

A Local Artist Takes Interest In Camp Whitman

At our last Presbytery Meeting in May, John Domm presented an amazing Camp Whitman watercolor painting by artist, Chip (Roland) Stevens. We have this amazing donation in our Presbytery office of Camp Whitman’s boathouse! The Presbytery has been given full rights to use this watercolor in  ways we see fit. One way it has already been used is we have new postcards available for campers and their parents to use that are the image of the watercolor available at camp. We also have those for sale in our presbytery office! It has been a great addition to our Camp image! We are so grateful to Mr. Stevens for this gift!

A Bit More About Chip:
Chip was born in Chicago October 23, 1940. He grew up loving to draw and in fact was featured in a one person art show when in the first grade. He became an architect and continued to hone is artistic talents doing renderings for architectural clients. Upon retirement, he began concentrating on his watercolors. He has studied with Jossie Bilan, Fred Graff and Judi Betts. Chip is a member of the National Watercolor Society. He is also a sought after instructor.

Our Presbytery Connection:
The connection between Our Presbytery and Chip is through John Domm. Chip does not work with digital technology so he has asked John to do some of his digital work and John loves working with him. Chip offered to do some paintings for John and he suggested the Camp Whitman Boathouse Project. Chip and his wife Georgia are residents of Pultneyville on Lake Ontario and members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ontario Center.

Buy some of these amazing postcards from the Camp Store!

Phelps VBS Supports A Camp Tradition

Celebrating Community!

This summer, theUnited Church of Phelps had a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School. During this week, their mission project was to fill a treasure chest with white t-shirts for the campers at Camp Whitman. They donated an amazing amount (overflowing their treasure chest) of white Ts to Camp Whitman. For all their efforts, they got to each dunk Miss Krissy, our VBS Director in a dunking booth at our closing program.

The shirts have been an amazing gift each week at Camp Whitman. They are used for campers to tie-dye and use their creativity for a project they can take home and remember the fun they had at Camp Whitman while they were there!

THANKS SO MUCH TO EVERYONE AT UNITED CHURCH OF PHELPS!!!!

 

Local Connections To A Local Mission...FRIDAYS!

 Camp Whitman has started a summer campaign for the Bradford Food Pantry!

When parents or staff drop off their campers on Sundays, they are learning about a local food campaign for Bradford’s food pantry that the camp is running this year. On Fridays, when campers are picked up to return home, we are asking that folks that are picking them up bring a food item or book for the Bradford Food Pantry.

This is our way of running a summer-long local mission to help one of the amazing ecumenical projects in our area.

Earlier this year, the Bradford food pantry was officially dedicated at its new location. After serving people in need in the village hall of Bradford for over 15 years, limited space indicated a new location was needed. Under the food pantry’s umbrella organization, the Mustard Seed Ministry, many hours from volunteers resulted in acquiring the use of the pavilion on the grounds of St. Stanislaus Church. After months and months of paperwork and physical labor, a portion of the pavilion now contains an enclosed, well-insulated food pantry. Serving those in need in our area is now happening at the new facility!

Our Presbytery Connection:

Richard Schied, Pastor of the Weston Presbyterian Church, worked with the Presbytery of Geneva to provide some of the funding for this new food pantry location. We also have Greg Dibbles who helps us at Camp Week at the weekly dances as the Camp DJ, whose mom helped start this Food Pantry!

So when you come on down to camp, don’t forget to give back to a local mission project! Bring any food or books to donate to the Bradford Food Pantry and thanks to the Mustard Seed Ministry for all of their hard work!

Bradford Food Pantry:

7625 Cty Rte 20 Bradford, NY 14815 607.583.2012

Explorations July 15-20

Hey Everyone!  This is Amber and this week I was a counselor in Explorations.  This camp is designed for some of our older adult campers and we have done so many great activities in the last five days.  Some of the most successful activities that our campers really seemed to enjoy included line dancing, where campers learned the steps to several of the songs that we play at the dance on Thursday night.  It was awesome to see our campers enjoying themselves so much!

Some of our campers and staff dancing

One other activity that was really succesful this week was the baking session that our campers had the opportunity to sign up for.  On Wednesday, some of the campers and I made a yellow sheet cake that had brownie mix and raspberry pie filling baked in.  The campers had a great time decorating the cake with swirls, and getting creative.

On Thursday, the campers then decorated the cake before giving it to the kitchen staff so that they could serve our cake up for dessert for lunch.  The cake was a huge hit among the other family groups and it looked fantastic!!

The Final Product :)

Campers comment on their personal Camp Whitman experiences

"Over the five days, we went sailing, swimming, we tie dyed, and played many fun games while talking about our Lord. We had many fun things to do all day long!"

"Camp is a great time to do fun things and meet new friends. I think the best part about Camp Whitman is that you are doing something fun even while you are waiting for lunch. The activities at Camp Whitman are also great. Banana boating, games, ropes course, sailing, cookouts, canoeing, boating, ice cream, tie dye, fishing and frisbee golf are just a few of these activities. I would highly recommend Camp Whitman to anyone who would like to go to camp for the first time or are just looking for something to do. Also, the counselors are really nice and make sure you have fun."

"Camp is a great place to go to meet friends, go sailing, swimming, banana boating, and play games. Camp means a lot to me because it's a tradition. It's lots of fun!

Catching up with camp in July

Hey Everyone,

Two weeks ago we had campers come to Camp Whitman for our opening week of camp.  The themes that week included; sunfish sailing camp for middle schoolers, camp quest for 3rd graders, Leadership in Training for high schoolers, Adventures for 4th and 5th graders, and Explorations Camp for Adults with Developmental Disabiilities.

LIT campers completing the "Magic Carpet" ropes course element

Camp has been very busy over the last couple of weeks and we have had a lot of great  campers.  During the first week of camp I was a counselor for our 3 Leadership-in-Training campers. 




During this camp, they completed a range of activities to improve their leadership skills.  My favorite activity to watch campers complete was our session that focused on communitcation.  The campers were either blind,  deaf, or spoke a different language and had to show each other how to make a Peanutbutter and Jelly sandwich, and work through these communication barriers.  Here are the results of that exercise:

Mac who spoke Yiddish is trying to teach Rachel how to make a PB&J

Zack is being taught how to make a PB&J by Rachel who had to pretend to be deaf

These campers also enjoyed all the regular fun camp activities, like making homeade ice cream, and tye-dying.  This week was a good beginning to a summer of fun and exciting camp experiences.  This week also included many of our traditional camp activities like the dance and the talent show. 

Counselors and Campers enjoying the Dance

Stay posted for more exciting activites from camp :)

Staff Training & the Start of a New Summer

Two weeks ago, the 2012 Camp Whitman staff came together for a week of training, bonding, and preparing for the upcoming summer. We participated in a variety of camp activities, such as several ropes course elements, boating, cookouts, and a night hike, as well as several training sessions designed to prepare us for the weeks ahead. We left at the end of the week feeling excited and ready to take on the adventures ahead of us this summer!

Counselors Ileya, Amber, and Kim watching the sunrise on the last morning of training week.