Camp Daniel Update

We have been very busy around here lately. Tony and the guys went over to Jen and Marceaux's house and installed a ramp to get into their house. Now Justin doesn't have to go up the stairs when he goes over their! He tested it out and it works great!

Tony and the guys have also been working on building dry wells and gutters so the water has somewhere to go when it rains. The have been some patches of ground where the grass wasn't growing, so Tony and the guys planted over 40 pounds of grass to fill those patches.

Tim Mandich has been busy preparing for The Able Hour at camp this year. The Able Hour will be replacing morning chapel and will be a chapel service run by and including the campers. He has also been busy preparing for the weekly Friday night service at Able Church and Tuesday night men's Bible study that he runs with Justin.

Justin and Anthony have teamed up this year and are going to be the DJ's at the Dance 4 Disability this Sunday June 2nd at 6:00pm at the Bay Beach pavilion. They have been testing all of the sound, light, and DJ equipment to make sure it works for Sunday.

A while ago, we had a group come up here for a work day. Some people in that group started to put polyurethane on the walls in the Trapline Lodge. They didn't quite finish so Molly and Jen have been finishing it up.

Along with that, Molly has been doing some yard work and working on the thank you cards the campers make. Jen also finished up the newsletter that she and Marceaux send out.

Marceaux has been getting all of our spring equipment fixed, running, and ready to use. This includes the bulldozer, skid steer, and dump truck. He has also been repairing the golf carts and keeping them maintained. Marceaux is also taking off the decals on the semi trailer and sanding it so it can be ready for painting.

Trish is busy getting ready to run the kitchen this year. She has been making meal plan checklists so she doesn't forget to do anything while working in the hot, busy kitchen. She has also been doing a christmas cookie drive to collect cookies for our christmas lunch theme at camp. She still needs a lot more cookies! Trish and Karol went to the food bank to pick up food and drinks for camp this year. They brought back an entire trailer full!

Karol has been busy doing a lot of yard work around camp. She has been mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, fertilizing, and planting. She also has been preparing for all of the themed meals we have for camp. She has also been preparing for the Dance 4 Disability by getting together decorations, banners, and signs.

What We're Doing

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! It was MJ's first birthday yesterday and it was great! Everybody here and MJ's grandma, grandpa, and aunt went to Jen and Marceaux's house to celebrate.

 Opening Presents

 A Ball!

Jen and Marceaux's anniversary is on the same day as MJ's birthday! So today, they left for a couple of days to relax. But what about MJ? Well, Trish went over to their house to babysit. She is really excited to spend the whole day with him.

Every once in a while, people will come to us asking if we can do things for them like paint, stain, or build something. Well, the last couple of days Karol has been going into Crivitz to do some painting. She has been painting doors and hutches.

Today, Tony went up north with his mom and dad to visit Dan's grave and decorate it. He took Anthony with him and will be back on Saturday.

Since everybody else was gone today, Molly did some cleaning work in the office. She also is finishing up going through all of the supplies for the thank you cards that the campers make at camp.

The Able Church Workday

This past Saturday, we had an Able Church workday! There was about twenty people that came up to Camp Daniel to help us get stuff done.

 Pastor Tim was working on the John Deere and turning it back into a lawn mower.

 Jake, Jim, Tony, Dale, and Marceaux were sanding the semi trailer and getting it ready to be painted.

 Kenny, Jeff, Nick, Richard, Crystal, Brian, and Ben were putting dirt up by the dorms, so we can plant grass and plants up there.

 While we were all outside working, somebody had to make lunch. Trish was in the Hartley House making spaghetti and garlic bread. She was having some trouble with the burners, though. They wouldn't start. Eventually, she got them working and the food was excellent!

 Karol was doing a couple of different things. In the picture above, she was decorating treasure chests for our pirate themed meals at camp. Below, she was helping Jen, Richard, Janice, and Dawn grout the tiles in the Trapline Lodge.

 Molly, Justin, Chuck, Katie, Peter, Dawn, Pete, Cheryl, Linda, Jenny, and Amy were putting mulch in the gardens in front of the office, Hartley House, and behind the snack stand. They also swept the pathway, raked out the bocce ball court, and put some dirt on the lawn so we can plant some grass where there are bare spots in the grass.

Camp Update

We are getting ready to pour concrete around the camp! We are going to pour some by the Hartley House, around the Trapline Lodge, and by the garage. Justin is really excited because his wheelchair doesn't like the sand very much. Tony and the guys have been putting together the concrete forms to shape the cement.

Karol, Jen, and Trish have been working on T-shirts for this year's summer camp. The Factory (craft cabin) is now being used for it's intended purpose, crafts! All I'm going to say is that the shirts are really cool!

Karol, Trish, Jen, and Molly also took a food safety class for this summer. They have also been meeting with each other to start planning meals for camp. They have been working in the garden in front of the office pulling weeds and making it look nice.

Durring camp, Molly is in charge of thank you cards that the campers make. We send out these thank you cards to people who donate their time and money. She has been printing out blank thank you cards for the campers to decorate and making sure we have enough supplies for the campers to use.

We have an Able Church work day this weekend and we are using the bus to transport everybody. However, it didn't work, so Marceaux had to fix it. Now that the snow is gone, the snow blower can come off of the John Deere, and the mower can be put back on. Marceaux is going to be working on that.

Dance for Disability is coming up on June 2nd! We ordered some new speakers and stand for the dance and camp. Justin and Anthony put them together to make sure that they will work. Justin also created a new page on our website about the dance. The page is called D4D. The Able Church is meeting tomorrow night and Justin is giving a message about anger. He has been getting ready for that.

Camp is Coming!

We've been pretty busy here at Camp Daniel. A lot of things need to get done now that camp is soon arriving.

A lot of camper and counselor manuals have been coming in and need to be entered into the computer. Molly has been working on that. She has also been working on Camp's new counselor manual. Molly also spent the week babysitting for some friends of ours while they went on vacation.

Trish and Karol have been working on the grounds fertilizing, cutting the grass, and gardening. Trish has also been raking the leaves with the guys. We need christmas cookies for camp this summer, and Trish has been trying to find people to help make them.

Jen and Marceaux have been working on getting out information for the Dance 4 Disability. They have been attending the Bible class for adults with disabilities in Marinette that meets bi-weekly and are continuing to make connections with the disability community in Marinette. Marceaux has also been fixing the lawn mowers and golf carts. Some other exciting news: MJ started walking and will be turning one on the 22nd!

We just recently purchased the new operating system for the Apple computers. Justin and Anthony have been installing it on the computers. Justin and Molly recently traveled to Minneapolis for a doctor's appointment for Justin. They stayed at Larry and Carolyn Campbell's house and had some time to catch up with them.

Tony and the guys have been going around camp and planting 400-500 trees!! They are all planted too!  They have also been getting ready to start pouring cement down by the garage, up by the dorm, and up by the house too.

A couple of Saturdays ago, we had a work day. A group led by Katrina, and Jen's two cousins, came up to do some grouting!

Spring is Here!

Spring is here and camp is only two months away! It's time to get ready! So, what have we been doing to get ready? Well...

Marceaux has been getting everybody's golf carts up and running after a long winter hibernation. For some reason, they all seem to break during the winter when they're not being used. Karol's cart was the only one working just fine. Tony's muffler had holes in it and was broken off. Tony Sr's wasn't running correctly, and Justin's battery doesn't hold a charge and the belt keeps slipping.

Justin has been printing off address labels with Molly so we could send out brochures about our fourth annual Dance 4 Disability. He also finished importing all of the contacts from Tony Sr's computer into all of our Mac computers. We have an old Dell computer that has never been backed up before and has vital information on it that we use for camp. It's now backed up.

Trish has been busy in the kitchen as we have had workdays here for the past three Saturdays in a row. She has also been studying and getting ready for a food safety test. Also, she has been working with the guys out side putting out all of the picnic tables, chairs, and benches.

Jen and Tim have been looking for sponsors and participants for Dance 4 Disability. And Molly has been going through all of the incoming applications for this years camp and updating them in the computer.

These past couple of weeks, Tony and Karol have been on a well deserved vacation to Cancun! While they were down there they met up with a couple of friends of theirs. They had a blast! The best part about this was that they brought back all of this warmth and sunshine with them. The lake here at Camp Daniel is now officially melted! Pretty soon our lakefront is going to look like this again!