Support our Camp.
Hello, all. This is Meredith (Muffin) Hemenway. I wanted to share my feelings about the current state of the place that so many of us have called home--summer after summer. I ask you to read my words and to really think about them. This is a serious time for our little camp.
The community of friends that I have been a part of through camp, EYC and Happening still remain a VITAL and EVER-PRESENT part of my life. I am 31. In fact, most of the people that make up my social circle are some how affiliated with Camp Chanco. We have all been profoundly impacted by the true Spirit of Chanco. After all, isn't that what this very site celebrates?
It's time for us to really show our support for this community. If we don't, I fear that there will be no Chanco and all we will have left is the memories.
I don't want this to be the case.
Our camp has been at the center of quite a bit of controversy lately. People have come and gone-- I ask all of you that are reading this to put aside any hostility, resentment, angst and remember what this camp did for you. How you felt during your first Indian Night. How sad you were to leave your friends at the end of a session. What it felt like when you actually caught the trapeze at the top of the pamper poll.
We all need to do something. If we don't there won't be a reason for a Camp Chanco Alumni group or a purpose for this website.
There are members of the Chanco Board Executive Committee who don't even send their kids to this camp and who have never even attended this amazing place. How can they have our community's best interest at heart?
But, even in the midst of the controversy and the swirls of accusations, there are some extremely dedicated people, who want to see our camp survive, that are in Surry right this minute-- Jim Sitzler is one of them--John Berquest another-- Julie Neri Young a third. These folks need our support. This camp needs our support. We need to express how this place has touched our hearts and our souls and has shaped us into the adults that we are. We need to make the Diocese understand that WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION. WE ARE THE FUTURE.
WE ARE CHANCO.
Please support the staff members that are continuing this legacy. And, email Art Spooner, Treasure & Administrator for the Diocese. He is on the Executive Committee of the Chanco Board. And, from what I understand, he truly values our camp.
Please put all of the negitive feelings and angst aside and understand that if we don't do something now, there will no camp for us to honor.
Meredith Hemenway
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Camp Chanco supported
Meredith,
I can only agree with everything you said. We are working diligently to make sure that Chanco is sound financially, not just this year, but future years. The Chanco Board is fixing the problems, not just putting a bandaid on them. There is some initial pain, but the fix will keep Chanco around for a long, long time. And that is our objective.
Do you remember the old question: "Is your glass half empty or half full?"? Well, I think that we have made a significant improvement that no one seems to realize. There is now a full time Camp Director, dedicated full time to the camp -- like how I said that twice? But it is true. Camp Chanco now has a 100% dedicated employee just for the camp, just for our youth -- to concentrate just on the youth of this Diocese and the youth attending the camp. Chanco's glass is half full.
The Conference Center, the other business line of Chanco on the James, Inc., also appears to be doing quite well this year. Conference Center business is self-generating -- we really have spent little effort to get business, but it is coming to us. Why is this important to you? Because the Conference Center has a strong possibility of carrying the day -- generating sufficient revenues to offset any camp loss.
My goal, because I focus on the finances, is to establish a reserve so that we have the funds to replace camp equipment. Another goal, which was presented to the Chanco Board last night, is to dedicate the store net profits to a restricted account or endowment fund (provided that Chanco is in the black that year) to provide money for camp improvements. The April 15, 2008 Finance Committee Report will soon be posted on the chanco.org webpage and you can read the proposed resolution.
Sarah Scott Thomas, the Chanco President, and I are supporting reserving a seat on the Chanco Board dedicated to the CCAA representative. We want to encourage communications between us, especially concerns regarding the camp.
Thank you for your kind words and your support. One correction, my e-mail address is a.spooner@att.net.
Sincerely,
Art