A Face Lift for the Dining Hall

That’s a nice front view of the new porch addition to the dining hall.  Since we’ve added more campers and staff we needed more space in the dining hall.  So during the off season we knocked out walls and added the porch area.  But that’s not all being done to the dining hall!  We figured this was a great year to refinish the floors. All the tables, chairs and other miscellaneous items have been moved into the kitchen so the job could get done.  So far, the workers have only sanded the floor, but it looks like new already!  Take a look for yourself:

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Moving Into the Bear Trap

During the work weekend furniture was moved from the dining hall to the Bear Trap. This is just one more thing telling us that summer is almost here!  I took some pictures (because now we take pictures of pretty much everything) of how the building looks with furniture in it.  Here’s a look at the downstairs offices:

                             Now the upstairs…here’s the staff lounge:

                                                  and the VD office:

                               Notice the nice counter top village directors?

Of course this isn’t how things will look when everyone arrives for the summer (everything will be much more organized), but it’s a great start!

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Work Weekend

As most of you know, there’s been a bunch of construction going on here at Crestridge (if you’re not familiar with all of it, then take some time and read some older blogs about the cabins and new Bear Trap).  And with all the construction comes many more little details that need to be done before any campers or staff arrive.  In order to get things done in time this year , we added another spring work weekend.  Around forty people showed up and we had a ton of fun!  It was a good mix of former staff, current staff, new staff, alumni and camp friends.

The main thing for the weekend was putting together bunk beds for the new cabins…which the above crew knocked out in no time!  Other things that got done were moving furniture into new buildings, clearing out the dining hall completely so the floors can be refinished, raking leaves (always plenty of that needed after the fall and winter), and a few other little things.  With the bunk beds assembled the cabins are definitely ready and just waiting to be used now!  Check out how the cabins look with beds in them:

Thank you to everyone who came and helped out!

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Paving a New Way

So much is happening during this off season.  The big things of course are the new cabins, the new Bear Trap building, and the dining hall renovation.  There’s still lots of little things to do before the staff and campers arrive, but now we can cross one more off of our to-do list…paving the road leading up to Chipp/Chick hill!  Check out the pics below.

Before any of the questions start, we didn’t pave the entire loop, only that first little bit on Chipp/Chick hill that you see in the above pics.  

Now maybe during sock war all you campers who just have to charge down the hill won’t fall and trip as much since the loose gravel won’t be there!

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Cabin, Sweet Cabin

We realized that it’s been a little while since we’ve done a post about the new cabins, so here you are!  At this point, not much else needs to be done to them in preparation for the summer.  The plumbing in some of the cabins needs to be completed.  Then final inspections and lastly, moving in the beds and other small furniture pieces.  Below are pictures of how they look right now.  

So there you have it…this is what will be home, sweet home for some of you this summer!

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Let There Be Light!

 It’s the little things in life that need to be celebrated, in my opinion.  And another little step towards finishing construction has been taken…we now have electricity in the Bear Trap!  

Each thing that’s done only brings us closer to summer being here!  It’ll be here before any of us know it!

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More New Skill Options?

Last week I uploaded a couple clips showing some new skill options for camp.  Of course, when we thought of these skills it was in the middle of winter so they would really only work if camp stayed open year round.  Even though that’s not going to happen anytime soon, it was still fun playing outside in the cold and icy weather.  

These two clips are a couple more options for new skills that we came up with.  The first one is a type of strongman competition.  Instead of a log or caber toss, how about an ice toss?  The person who can carry the biggest slab of ice and throw it the farthest wins. 

Hayne, one of our local go-to guys, wins this round. For those of you might want to try this at home, wear gloves! Hayne’s hands were freezing and remember…safety first!

Now watch the boys intern, Stewart, try and make his way across the frozen lake in a canoe. 

For those keeping a tally sheet, that makes:

1.  Ice Fishing

2.  Ice Disc Golf

3.  Ice Throwing

4.  Ice Canoeing

Which was your favorite?

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Introducing the 2009 Village Directors

If you haven’t checked your calenders recently, campers will be coming in 12 1/2 weeks. It will be here soon! We would like to take this opportunity to introduce the 2009 Village Directors so you know who is going to be leading you this summer!

My name is Lizzy Peterson and this summer I will be the Chippewa Village Director. I am from Charlotte, NC but I go to Denison University, which is a small college in Granville, Ohio. I am currently a freshman at Denison and as of now, my major is undeclared, but I am looking heavily into Psychology and Educational Studies. This upcoming summer will be my ninth summer at Crestridge; I spent 7 summers as a camper and 1 year on staff. Crestridge has meant so much to me over the past years, both as a camper and as a staffer. I am so excited to see what God has in store this summer. Even more, I am eager to meet all of the girls in, and out of, my village. Every girl that comes through the gates of Crestridge is unique in her own sense. I am most looking forward to watching these girls grow in Christ. I cannot wait to meet everyone in just a few months!

My name is Catherine Green and I will be the Chickasaw Village Director. I am a sophomore Biology major at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. This summer will be my 5th summer at camp, my 3rd on staff. I am most looking forward to building relationships and loving on the campers. One of the best things about Camp Crestridge is the awesome relationships that you make with your campers and the other staff because you are with them for at least 2 weeks! God is gonna do some amazing things this summer, get ready!!!!

Hello my name is Kelly Lipscomb and will be the Cheyenne Village Director. I just completed my freshman year at the University of North Florida, go Ospreys! I am currently undecided in my major and keeping my options open. This summer will be my eighth year at Camp Crestridge. I am looking forward to spending the summer with new and returning campers. I can’t wait to worship and praise the Lord through all the activities we do at camp. I am excited to sit around the campfire and sing along with the campers. My prayer is that the campers grow spiritually, kindle new friendships, and experience the love that Christ has for each and every one of us.

My name is Sarah Knowles and I will be the Choctaw Village Director. I am a junior at the University of Florida (Go Gators!). I am majoring in Elementary Education and hope to teach 2nd or 3rd grade. This is my 12th year at camp. Crestridge has been a huge part of my life and can’t imagine how my life would be different had I not attended Crestridge! I absolutely love working with kids. I have always loved working with younger kids (which led me to be an elementary education major) but this past summer, as a Choctaw counselor, I learned that I LOVE working with this age group! Choctaws taught me so much, and I had so much fun laughing, loving and learning with them. I am so excited to spend another summer with these girls who love to have fun!

My name is Caroline Knowles and I am so excited and blessed to be back at Crestridge this summer serving as the Cherokee Village Director! This will be my 12th summer I’ve spent at camp, my third year on staff. I am really looking forward to challenging these girls and digging deep, going beyond the superficial level. As a camper I built some great, long lasting relationships with my own counselors and village directors and treasured those. I am looking forward to doing that again with these girls this year. I am finishing up my Junior year at the University of Florida, majoring in Elementary Education and hoping to teach early elementary grades in the future. Looking forward to a great summer and seeing what great things God has in store for each of us!

We are so excited for you all to be here this summer!

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The Bear Trap…With Floors

The floors were finally installed in the Bear Trap and I must say they look good!  Now I know that I’m a little bias, but look for yourself at the pics below.

Check out that nice shine on the hardwood floor!  The same flooring was added in the staff lounge and VD offices upstairs.

Also added were the combination locks on the upstairs offices…                          

Things are definitely coming together for the summer.  There’s a few minor things that need to be done and then it’ll be time to move in all the furniture!  Then before you know it, it’ll be May and the building will be in use!!

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New Skills?

If you’re part of our facebook fan page, then you know that we’ve asked campers and staff what new skills they’d like to see this summer.  (If you’re on facebook and not a fan of the camp, then you need to be!).  The following clips are suggestions from us on what the new skills should be.  Watch the clips and tell us what you think.

And as you know, we here at Ridgecrest Summer Camps are all about safety first, so it would be the counselors who would cut the holes with the chainsaws…just as Stewart demonstrated.

How about Ron’s throwing arm?!?!  He might even be available to lead this skill if buttered up enough!

Okay, so you’ve probably figured out that these skills wouldn’t be plausible for the summer.  Back in January we had some really cold days where the lake froze over (about 4 inches thick) and we just had to take advantage of that since it doesn’t happen often!  What you watched is some of the crazy fun antics we here in the office came up with.  Check back next week to see a couple other clips of how we had fun with the ice and cold weather.

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