Monday, November 25, 2013

Bell Choir

A few Sundays ago, the Camp Daniel staff and many from the Able Church, were proud to be invited
 to the United Methodist Church in Oconto.  The invite was specifically for the bell choir.  The service featured two different bell choir songs.  The first one featured Camp Daniel and Able supporters, but for the second number, we invited those from the congregation to join in.  You can see that in the second pic.  The pastor was also gracious enough to give Tony 10 minutes to present Camp Daniel.  Wow.  He can really talk fast when he needs to.  He covered the history of CD, summer camps, the grounds, Able Church, how you can help and our philosophy of disability ministry!  It is a super friendly church, and they were very responsive.  We were even invited back again another time.
After the service the church put on a wonderful potluck dinner, during which we were able to get to know the pastor and some others from the congregation better.
Thanks goes out to Judy Schuessler, for organizing and being the middle man in all of this.  Also, thanks to all those who participated.  We were very excited at the excellent turnout!

We are also excited to continue the relationship forged with this congregation.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Going back to October...

Going back a bit in time for today’s blog.  Camp Daniel hosted a work day Oct 26th.  While leaves were being raked outside, Karol was working inside on the frosted glass for The Factory’s front door.  First, a design was made with specialized computer software.  The design features The Factory in a stencil font with different shapes and sizes of gears arranged around the perimeter.  Then the design was cut out of vinyl with the digital cutter machine.  The positive elements were pealed away leaving a sticky vinyl stencil.  The stencil ( in green in the pic to the right) was firmly applied to the door.  Then the areas of the door around the window were all taped off, so that the spray on etching could be applied in several light layers.


Here’s the end result!
We are still working on The Factory.  When it’s all done, we will do a post showing the progression of the project.  So look for that in the next few weeks!
A group from The Able Church comes to Camp Daniel each fall for a work day of raking leaves.  We really appreciate their dedication and support. Not only did they get all the fallen leaves raked, but they also did  some other outdoor projects.  They shoveled gravel into wheel barrels and moved the rock to Trapline Lodge, where many hands were at work putting in a length of plastic garden edging, weed barrier, and finally gravel.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Last Work Day for Fall 2013

 Last Friday and Saturday, Camp Daniel hosted it's last official work days for the year 2013.  We were blessed to have multiple groups involved in the many projects that were tackled.
Friday afternoon 8 people from Word of Grace church of Sheboygan arrived ready to work.
They started by priming the new/temporary work room.  It's the old shed roofed wood shed on the backside of the garage.  It was enclosed this summer, and the guys have been working hard to get it ready to paint.  While some were busy there,
the rest got a tutorial on how to tile a wall.  Karol and Nick Sterry worked with the volunteers, and working together, they got far.


 When volunteers were working on projects, Trish was busy in the kitchen preparing meals for everyone.  Over the course of the weekend, she served over 120 meals!
On Saturday, a group from Woodland worship Center added to the mix.  We continued with tiling, and after the workroom (which will eventually be a backstage area of the future dining hall) was painted, the crew began to move all of the tools from the dorm.  
An additional group started on the tongue and groove on the ceiling of the Hartley House porch.  This is a job that we've wanted to have done for quite a while.  As you can see in the pic above, they had a good system going with the guys using the nailers to install the wood, while the ladies' were in charge of measuring and cutting.  This was a big job that will have to be finished in the spring.

Below, is Tony really pondering something profound, or is he just trying to figure out why the tile doesn't go the edge of the wall?


Overall, this workday finished out the season with a bang.  We were very happy with how many different things were done.  We had as many as 35 people working at once! That takes a lot of coordination and preliminary work, but when it's all done, there's few things more rewarding than seeing how much was accomplished.
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE VOLUNTEERED AT THE CAMP DANIEL GROUNDS THIS FALL!!