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UPDATES
Appreciation Day
We had about 100 people come to Appreciation Day. We had our brick dedication ceremony, recognized our Volunteers of the Year as well as our many other camp volunteers, shared in worship and fellowship. It was a lovely time to appreciate all the people who have built this legacy of love at Camp Mardela.
Summer Camp
This has been the most smooth and successful summer at Camp Mardela since the pandemic! We had about 160 campers at our camp programs, 100 volunteers, and 12 summer staff. Everyone worked together wonderfully to make this camp experience the best it could be for this campers, and everyone who was here was blessed by their camp experience. We were able to run ALL of our scheduled camps - 10 camps in total. We also were able to give discount vouchers to our program volunteers as a thank you for their hard work - a gift well-deserved by our volunteers.
Annual Conference
This year, we were able to represent Camp Mardela at Annual Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was my first time at Annual Conference and I was overwhelmed by the amount of people I ran into who were linked to Camp Mardela in some way, or showed their gratitude and support for the ministry we are doing here. We were represented at the OMA table in the exhibition hall, and Jonas and I shared Camp Mardela stickers with everyone we could to spread the camp love! We had a great time and Camp Mardela was well represented in the denomination.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Summer Service Day: August 10, 9am-5pm
Help us clean up after summer programs. We will be deep cleaning most areas of camp, and working on projects to transition the buildings and grounds from summer camp to rental groups. Lunch provided at 12pm. For more information visit https://www.campmardela.org/service-days.
Family Camp: August 30-September 1
Join us for this year's Family Camp! Our guest speaker this year is Barbara Lewczak - former director at Camp Pine Lake, and current pastor and theologian for OMA. She will be talking about Love and Worship. She is sure to bring joy, creativity, and love to her messages to us and we will surely be blessed by what she has to share.
Whether you plan to attend all weekend, part of a day, or just Sunday church and lunch, please register online at https://www.campmardela.org/event-details/family-camp-3. This is very important to make sure we have enough space, supplies, and food for everyone who plans to attend. Registration closes August 23rd.
Camp Supper: September 21, 4pm-7pm
Join us for one of Camp Mardela's longest running fundraisers. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat ham & turkey meal for just a $12 donation! Meals can be dine-in or taken to-go. Don't miss this DELICIOUS fundraiser! For more information visit https://www.campmardela.org/camp-supper.
Bird Retreat: October 4-6
We will be hosting another birding retreat this fall - lead by Doug & Sally Ruby. They plan to travel to the hottest birding spots on the Eastern Shore, including (but not limited to): Blackwater, Ocean City Inlet, Bombay Hook, Henlopen, and more! They will also have educational sessions in the evening to discuss what birds to look for, and they will take a survey of all the birds identified during the trip. It is sure to be an adventurous trip, so register today at https://www.campmardela.org/event-details/birding-retreat-2
PROJECTS
Native Planting Grant
OMA gave us a small grant to begin planting some native plant gardens and establishing walking paths to take steps towards preventing the erosion of the main camp area and waterfront of Camp Mardela. The FaithX volunteers played a major role in getting these plants planted and these paths mulched, and this summer our campers helped keep these plants watered. We hope this is a step towards helping improve the erosion of our property.
FaithX
From June 9-14 we had a group of about 40 Jr & Sr High FaithX volunteers. We got SO many projects done at camp to help prepare for summer camp. They planted gardens and trees, added the new bricks to the brick garden, cleaned the boats, put up hammocks, mulched paths, raked leaves, built a bridge, painted new signs, and more! This was a WONDERFUL group of youth who eagerly and joyfully helped with all of the projects we threw at them.
Wish List
This summer, we discovered that there are some items in dire need of replacement as things have broken down or have been in constant need of repair. If you're interested in contributing towards getting some of these items replaced, it would be greatly appreciated:
Camp Van
Golf Cart/Gator
Dryers for King & Krabill
Ice Machine for Krabill
Vacuum Cleaners for King
Back-up Generator
Space Heaters for Cabins
Refrigerator for Pavilion
RENTALS
Enjoy the peaceful landscape of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Book your camp trip today!
Basic Rental Packages
Krabill Hall
Amenities:
Seats up to 250 people
New Heat & Air Conditioning
Full commercial-style kitchen
Access to dish washer and dishes
Washer & Dryer
Tables & Chairs provided
Fireplace, games & a small library
King Retreat Center
Cabins
Outdoor Rentals
Visit www.campmardela.org/rentals-facilities for more information about pricing, availability, and additional rental options.
Fundraisers
There are several ways you can support Camp Mardela’s mission:
Donate
Mail or donate directly to camp at www.paypalme/campmardela or www.campmardela.org/donate.
Scrip Fundraiser
Camp Store
BVS-er Update
All the Things in May! - Jonas Baron
May started a little windy and adventurous when we had to saw our way through a tree on the lane to get out of camp. Then I raked and carried away the leaves all around the 4-square, craft house and peace pole to get ready for the yard sale.
As you can probably guess we had our yard sale. The craft house was PACKED with all kinds of things donated to camp for us to sell, additionally we had a couple of other people put up tables of their own. Of course we didn't sell everything but a pretty good chunk of the tablespace in the craft house was empty, after the yard sale was over.
We also had another clean-up day in may getting camp ready for the summer. We cleaned our buildings, scrubbed benches, sorted games, blazed and raked trails, and all that while it was pouring down on us.
Then right after the clean-up day I got to visit my fifth COB camp. Jen and I went to Camp Swatara in Bethel, PA to return the favor of doing some volunteer projects like they did in February. There we cleared out and restarted a garden for them, blazed a trail, helped with a nature lesson and definitely had a good time.
So this was my May and I hope you had a good one too.
Oh so THAT'S Camp! - June Updates - Jonas Baron
My June was all about getting to know a new side of camp, that started with the appreciation day. We started with the brick dedication for the peace pole, I HAVE MY OWN BRICK NOW, and it was just wonderful to see the camp community coming together, celebrating camp, all getting along and having fun without much program but a lot of love for camp. And it kept going like that the whole day, with everybody just hanging out and enjoying camp. We played some carpet pool, ate together, dedicated the volunteers of the year, Stanley and Tom who are both so amazing and I'm glad that I got to work with them this year.
I don't know if you know this but Jen and I have been practicing swimming to become lifeguards since February and this June we finally took the class, together with Jessica who's also on camp staff. We were all so nervous for the pre-test but we made it and are all lifeguards. So you're safe to come swimming at camp now.
The first camp week we had this summer was a FaithX group, a work camp, coming to do some service projects for us. They did so much it was crazy and they finished everything so quick we almost couldn't think of new things for them to do quick enough. Some of what they did was putting the bricks around the peace pole, raking and mulching A LOT, planting new native plants, and building us a bridge. It was great having so many people to work on these things. While FaithX was still happening we also started our staff training, which was so exciting because now I finally have more then one person to work with!
And then our actual camp season started with Tween Camp. I did a couple of things for that week, I was a cabin-counselor, lifeguard, archery instructor, and helped out in the kitchen for lunch which is how I got my first nickname this summer: chef-dude. It was a great week for me to get to know all the camp traditions and get used to what camp is gonna be like. We also started teaching words of the day in Spanish, French, and German. In my cabin for that week (Sequoia) also the tale of the nighttime-nibbler was born, you'll find out more about it when you're at camp - it's a thing now.
Following Tween and closing June we had Specialty Camp - Horses, Creative Arts, and Outdoor Adventures. My tasks pretty much were the same as tween camp, I was a counselor for Creative Arts. We also added Japanese to the words of the day, because we had a counselor who speaks it a bit. This week was definitely different with all the specialized activities, and a lot fun still. I think what I enjoyed most was the fun campfire we had, learning so many new camp songs, which is kind of similar to what my youth group back home would do. I especially enjoyed the Bog Song.
Both of these camps were amazing, I had great campers and great people to work with. This is exactly why I chose Camp Mardela for my BVS year.
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