Invest in Children and Families - Give the Gift of Camp

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 

Grace to you and peace from Jesus Christ our Lord! Amid all the uncertainty and anxiety of the pandemic, it becomes especially important to lean on the grace and peace that is ours, to be mindful of our call to follow Jesus in loving our neighbors as he loves us, and to offer his grace and peace to others.

With this in mind, we invite you to lend your support to the 2020 Diocesan Camps and Conferences Annual Campaign. The campaign is crucial to our camping ministry and provides beautiful camp experiences to children and families who would otherwise not have the financial means to attend camp. 

An international Giving Tuesday will take place Saturday, May 5 and be a day of global action for giving and unity to respond as a community to COVID-19. Please consider a gift to the Camp Scholarships Fund on this dedicated giving day. Follow our camps social media pages to participate and for more information.

This period of both isolation and enforced togetherness is, for many children and their families, a time of great financial, emotional, and physical stress for which none of us could be prepared. The close-knit community and the freedom of movement, central parts of camp life, will be especially important this summer, for everyone and perhaps even more for those children from typically under-served populations who benefit from this scholarship fund.

Imagine the joy and delight and sheer fun that children and youth will find in cabin life and chapel worship, in normal activities, and in running under wide-open summer skies at Camp Capers. Imagine families splashing in the waves and enjoying the endless horizon over the Gulf at Mustang Island Family Camp. Imagine youth and adults hiking the Rockies at Duncan Park. This is what your generosity makes possible for so many.

As followers of Christ, we love and care for children and families who come to our camps as if they are our own, because we belong to one another. We are called to see one another as Christ does, “with the eyes of our hearts enlightened," and we must be ready to immerse them in nature and beauty, and in awe and wonder, within authentic Christian community. And we are preparing to do that as soon as possible.

Your support also provides for enriched summer staff training and development, so that counselors and staff will be well-prepared to love and serve the children and others entrusted to their care, helping them enjoy a wonderful summer in a healthy, life-giving community. If the pandemic causes us to shorten our planned summer, your support will help our staff to “do camp” to the fullest extent possible, providing alternative camping experiences until we are able to resume normal activity.

As you consider a financial gift, we encourage you to remember God’s own generosity and to give out of gratitude for the gifts so freely given to you. Please join us in supporting the Camps and Conferences Annual Campaign. This ministry is central to the shared life and mission of the Diocese of West Texas, and the joyful work we do together at our camps makes a difference for Christ, not just there, but throughout the Diocese.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

+David Reed
Bishop of West Texas

Rob Watson
Director of Camps & Conferences
rob.watson@dwtx.org

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Give the Gift of Camp

• Click here to donate to the Camps Scholarship Fund
• Click here to view the Camps Giving Flyer

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A Message from the Directors

Planning for the summer at Camp Capers, Mustang Island Conference Center, and Duncan Park continues; click here to read the most recent letter from the directors, shared April 6th. Our diocesan camp staff are monitoring the local and national situation daily. Working in close collaboration with one another, Episcopal camps nationwide, and the American Camp Association, our national accrediting body, we continue to assess appropriate safeguards and adaptations for our programming in order to protect our camp community.

The American Camp Association is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop COVID-19 guidance specifically for day camp and overnight camp programs, which will be released the first week of May. After reviewing these guidance documents, further decisions about Summer Camp 2020 programming for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas will be communicated.

Sincerely,

Kevin Spaeth
Director, Mustang Island Conference Center
www.facebook.com/mustangislandcc

Katie Young
Director, Duncan Park
www.facebook.com/duncanparkco

Johnson Jeffers
Director, Camp Capers
www.facebook.com/campcapers