Looking Back … and Ahead

At Camp Canaan, we are excited to reach the conclusion of another very successful camp season.  As the camp grows each year, so do the demands on our staff and on the facilities. This year we made some valuable additions to our staff including the addition of a highly experienced program director and a camp nurse.  We built a new Welcome Center that has an infirmary for the nurse as well as, changing stalls and cubbies for day campers, and a  camp store!  We also added to our facilities by putting a roof on the outdoor basketball court, and we added the all-new Lake Canaan.

These additions to the Camp were possible only because of the generous gifts and support of Camp families and local area businesses.   Thanks to the growing support and popularity of the Camp, we have had a waiting list of over 400 children in each of the past 2 years. Our hopes and vision for 2020 are to up-fit the basketball facility to create a dining area for both resident and day campers. (Live Stream reveal of Rendering coming soon!)

This will include adding electricity and some light construction to accommodate the needs of our food provider, Waiter’s Choice.  With this improvement, the campers would have hot meals provided on-site and also a full-service salad bar. This would also allow us to delay the costly construction of a dining hall and to direct all available funds to build the much-needed residence cabins, making it possible to serve more of the campers on the waiting list.

As most of you know, the Camp suffered a financial setback in June when Duke Power had to release flood-level water that covered the bridge and flooded the island.  All the campers were safely removed but the water damage and lost revenue due to refunding the campers fees resulted in a significant loss.  

To recover this loss and to complete the up-fits to the basketball/ dining facility, and to hopefully begin the construction of new cabins (Live Stream reveal of Rendering coming soon!), we are humbly asking our friends to consider giving us financial support.  Camp Canaan is proud to say we are debt-free and committed to remaining that way. The Camp has been profitable from operations in recent years, but the flood loss was unexpected and the growth and demand from more campers mean that we need these new facilities.

To summarize the financial needs of Camp Canaan, we lost approximately $125,000 as a direct result of the flood; the estimated cost to up-fit the basketball facility to accommodate food service is $250,000, and the estimated cost for one new residence cabin that will sleep 60 campers is $750,000.   Our total financial need is $1,125,000. Would you consider helping us with regular monthly giving or making a tax-deductible capital gift?

Lastly, we also invite you to join us for the Fall Fundraising Banquet planned for November 8th, right here at beautiful Camp Canaan.  This is wonderful time outdoors in a camp atmosphere, celebrating with great food, music, and a silent auction.