 |
 |
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||||
Director's Thoughts by Joe Richards, Administrative Director
21st, December, 2006Merry Christmas to all! Only four more sleeps until the magical day of Christmas - Jesus's birth celebration. We had a great time last Sunday night at the Staff Christmas Potluck. Lots of people came out and we chatted, ate and some went for walks around camp. The food was awesome and the weather - well it is not snowy at all. Thank you to Erin, Kara, Jamie and Dan for staying over and helping paint the Lloyd Allen room on Monday - it is now a lovely shade of "barley". It is through volunteers that Pearce Williams will continue to grow. Best wishes to all over the holiday season. From our family to you.
Gnothi Seauton, Joe 8th, December, 2006
Thought you might like this... Toboggan hills are not covered yet. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 6th, December, 2006So I missed last week... Life goes on. I read a variety of blogs on a daily basis and I have come across an interesting post on Seth Godin's blog. Seth writes an entry with this title: "You can't say you can't play." This is a great sentiment for camp, campers and staff. This is a great sentiment for everyone. We strive at camp to bring children a step closer to understanding God's love for them. We strive to be inclusive and make sure that everyone is heard and everyone feels welcome. This is an important part - if not the most important part of camp. We tried to impart on our staff last year the thought that our job at camp is: to do what needs to be done. There never should come a time where you say, "That's not my job." We need to do what needs to be done to show children a great time, to show children that God loves them and to show children that they are special. We should never say you can't play. Just a thought, Gnothi Seauton, Joe 24th, November, 2006I think that I need to use spell check as I look as my previous posts. Been a busy week here at camp - the new brochure is in the works and the new registration form as well. I'm hoping to have them out sometime in December or in early January. We had a great interview day and we are very excited to have Jen Richards back as our summer director for 2007. We are excited to have numerous staff back for the summer of 2007 - it is shaping up to be a great one. Have a great weekend, Gnothi Seauton, Joe 17th, November, 2006Tommorrow is interview day for returning staff and CIT's who are moving up. I was getting things ready today and it is interesting to read through evaluations from last summer. Someone mentioned that it must be strange thinking about next summer already. The funny thing is that I'm already making preliminary plans for the summer of 2008. Time does go by fast. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 13th, November 2006I spent some time today in one of our barns taking down some wood to reuse for a new counter in the office. It causes me to think about who built the thing that I am tearing down. Inside the big maintenance barn is an old wooden silo that was used for cattle feed at one time. It has sat unused for some time - probably for over 40 years. The barn itself is more likely 100 years old. I like the thought of reuseing things that Pearce Williams is tied to historically, Gnothi Seauton, Joe 10th, November 2006Oh yes Kara, I do update it at least once a week... Here we are the day before Rememberance Day. Please take the time to remember all of our veterans and soliders tommorrow and everyday. I can still remember reading the names off of the plaque at Dresden United Church of all of the young men who gave their lives for county. I will be at the Western Fair Grounds tomorrow for the Kid's Expo. It is an event where you pay $6 and the kids get to play all day long. The London Conference Camps have a booth going in. Next Saturday is interviews and fun day for all of our returning staff who have applied. We have over 30 applications from last years staff and CIT's. Interviews are arranged by myself for everyone. We have about 15 spots. I will be in touch next week with times. If you are local and live in St. Thomas you may be asked to come for an interview in the evening of the next week. We still want to see everyone at the interview and fun day to play games and activities. It is being held at Grace United Church and will start at 9am. Please let me know if you will be late so that I can arrange the times appropriately. We will provide lunch and be finished around 5pm. We'll play the afternoon by ear. Come ready to lead some new games... Gnothi Seauton, Joe 1st, November 2006What a beautiful day out at camp! The weather is still a bit cool, but for the 1st of November it is great. I was working on my Christmas list last night to get out to all of the people who need it and it got me to thinking about my Christmas list for Pearce Williams. There are so many things that I would like to see to help PWCC become all it can. I would love to see more volunteers out for general maintenance and summer work like lawn care. We need to find some older retired people who want to drive a tractor and mower for a few hours each week. Did you know that it takes about 25 hours to cut our grass? Pearce Williams could use donations of good televisions, VCR's, DVD players, getto blasters, sports equipment, concrete for a new basketball court, a new pool... lots of wishes. Just a thought, Joe 27th, October 2006The end of another week. Two more rental groups come in this afternoon. Feel free to read up on another website that I help to edit: www.squidoo.com/oca It has a series of camping articles and is set up for the Ontario Camping Association. I just posted a link yesterday about perspective: Campaign for Real Beauty Something for all females to see about beauty. Hope that everyone has a great weekend. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 24th, October 2006Sorry I missed Friday - I went on a little trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan to see the fall colours and to relax for a few days with my family. The Beef Dinner went great. We had lower numbers than the previous year, but we served 165 people at the dinner. The beef was delicious, prepared by Dan Leslie and his son Trevor. They worked hard to make sure that everyone would enjoy a well cooked roast and baked potatoes. There were many people who helped to make our Annual Beef Dinner Fundraiser a success. We raised just over $1000, which fell a bit short of our goal of $1500, but at least we did not lose money. Here is a list of people who need to be thanked for thier help:
We also had two staff - Kristen Knight & Colleen Hogan at the YMCA on Sunday the 15th of October manning a booth for the Healthy Weights Elgin event. Pearce Williams is a partner in this initiative. Thank you to both Kristen & Colleen. I hope that I have not forgotten anyone who volunteered. If I have please let me know. I'll be back again on Friday, Gnothi Seauton, Joe 13th, October 2006Well here I am on my new schedule. I've got it on my computer to remind me to come and update the Director's Thoughts every Friday. The Beef Dinner is this Sunday at 4:30 - 7:00pm at Pearce Hall here on site. Please come out and support this fundraiser. You can buy tickets at the door. I am working on planning so many things right now - we have over 20 returning staff who have already applied for the summer of 2007. We have parents calling in to make sure that they can register before things fill up. I'm writing some grant proposals to hopefully get money to continue to upgrade parts of our facilities. The summer brochure will go into the works shortly - after the Beef Dinner. Lots of stuff going on. Just a thought on the world of thanks. I'm not sure why some people need more than others; I wish I understood. The world does have people in it who believe that they deserve more thanks than others. This can be a frustrating thing because the people who feel they don't get enough thanks will never be satisfied - even if you name your first born after them. I'm not sure where this rant is going, but the general gist is when thanks is given, accept it as genuine and accept it as perpetual for the event that thanks was given. If you don't you will only mire yourself in feelings of frustration and feeling unappreciated. On that note - Thank you to you for reading my thoughts. Thank you to all of the staff, campers and camper parents who trusted their children with us last summer and hopefully will again this summer. Thank you to all the volunteers who help out at the centre and who spread the word about Pearce Williams. The story we want you all to share with people is: Camp Changes Lives... It is a simply, but very powerful story. Have a great day, hope to see you at the dinner on Sunday night. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 6th, October, 2006Wow, time certainly takes
it's toll. September came and went. I attended the National
United Beef Dinner is coming up. Please try and attend to help support our summer programs. I'm working on doing up the figures of how much it actually costs to send a camper to camp vs. what we charge. This means that we charge $240 but the actual cost is above that. The fee is subsidized by the support we get from Elgin Presbytery, individual donations and other church donations. When I do up the final numbers I will use them to search for additional grants and donations so that we can try to keep our registration fee low for our camper families. Thanksgiving weekend starts in a matter of hours. I wish everyone well. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 6th, September, 2006Sorry this has taken so long. Now that the summer is finished I will have more time to think about what to write and be online more now that camp is quiet. The summer finished off great. We had an awesome time with great weather, great staff and most of all great campers. Our weekly themes were a great source of entertainment for the campers and the staff. A big thank you and some recognition must be given to our staff members who dedicated their summer to providing the campers with an amazing camp experience. We hope to see most of our staff back for next summer - we are already planning to make the summer of 2007 even better than this summer. Thank you to all of the parents out there as well who trusted us with their children. We are in the planning stages for the summer of 2007. Dates & rates should go up over the next month for next summer. Please make plans to join us on October 15th, 2006 for our Annual Beef Dinner. It will be held on Sunday night from 5pm to 8pm. Tickets can be purchased from the camp office: $12 in advance, $14 at the door, children 10 or under $6. I look forward to posting more entries now that the summer has calmed down. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 8th, August, 2006Wow! How fast a summer goes by... It is now the second week in August. Primary Camp & Leadership Camp are in right now. It is certainly a busy time at camp. Everything has been going really well. I'll do another update soon. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 22nd, June, 2006I'm so excited, the summer starts here in less than a week with staff training. We have a great group of staff lined up for the summer. Jen and I are very excited for the summer's program. Some of our core staff are: Erin "WoWo" Cochrane & Kara "BoPeep" Van der Hoff - Program Directors Dan "Birk" Klaas - Wilderness Coordinator & Dan "Potter" Moulton - Assistant Wilderness CO Erica "Giggles" Silva - Day Camp Coordinator Meaghan "Kix" Wheeler - Rainbow Program Coordinator Craig "Watts" Watterworth - Counsellor-In-Training Coordinator Amy "Pocahontas" Sohn - Christian Education Coordinator We have lots of returning staff and lots of new staff this year as well. It is an exciting time for Pearce Williams. As always we appreciate our supporters and encourage you to come out this summer and see camp in action - every Thursday night we will be hosting guests and visitors at our evening campfire - just call ahead to be on our guest list. This is a great chance to introduce friends who might want to support PWCC as well. What an exciting and busy time. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 13th, June, 2006Wow! The summer is almost here! Rosy Rhubarb was a great success. We sold out of pies on Saturday. A big thank you to all of the ladies and churches that help bake pies on Friday the 9th of June. A special thank you to Kay Chamberlain and Ruby Silcox for all of their hard work. I also want to recognize and thank Emily Cummings, Rose Lawerance, Pam Silva, Bob Anderson, Jordan Newell and Mrs. Zander for coming out to help sell pies on the days of Rosy Rhubarb. I love to see people out and helping. We are in the final stages of getting our summer ready. We are still looking for some lifeguards to come onto staff, so if you know anyone please send them to our staff application page. We are currently revising our wish list but can always use the items on the current wish list. Wow! The summer is almost here! I'm so excited. Gnothi Seauton, Joe
30th May, 2006Sorry for the long delay, we have had lots going on at camp. Where to start... Our spring flower fundraiser has come and gone - a big thank you to both Trish Van Gorp and Melissa Gordon for helping to organize the event. A big thank you to all who purchased and supported Pearce Williams. The work bee was a great day with lots of our staff and volunteers out to help. We got so much done! A big thank you as well to everyone who came out that day. Our summer registrations are rolling in right now, but we would love everyone to talk to their friends and collegues about camp and sending children to camp. Spaces are filling up, but the more the merrier. The Rosy Rhubarb Festival is coming up on June 10th & 11th. Pearce Williams will be selling pies on both the Saturday and Sunday. If you are available to help out for a few hours just call me and let me know. Spend the day in the shade selling pies to help Pearce. Planning continues for the summer. Our spring staff have painted the pool and camp is looking awesome thanks to all of our spring staff and maintenance team. Come on out this Sunday - June 4th from 3pm to 7pm for our Camp Open House/ Bursary BBQ. We have invited all of our campers and camper parents to come and see camp and meet this years staff. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 4th May, 2006The weather is certainly looking up. It is going to be a great weekend for our rental group that is in. Camp planning is going well and I should be able to announce a who our Summer Director is sometime next week. We also have a theme for the summer: ...the extra mile We had our second Staff Advisory panel meeting on April 13th and talked about themes for the summer and themes for each week. The discussion got around to helping our campers see the world through others eyes and others percpectives and helping them go that extra mile in understanding people. It is based on the story of the extra mile in Matthew 5:38-42. I'm very pleased to hear from you who are reading these updates. I continue to run into people who say that they now check the website more because of these updates and it makes me feel great. I just want to keep people informed. If you ever have any questions please email me at joe@pearcewilliams.org. The work bee day is coming up on May 13th. We will get started at 9am in the moring and work through until about 3pm in the afternoon. Lunch will be a BBQ. Tell all your friends. We can use big hands and small hands - lots of things to do. I'm very excited about the upcoming summer, I hope that you are too. Gnothi Seauton Joe 18th April, 2006Easter has come and gone and the weather at camp is amazing today. Canadian Tire money from our Lent drive is starting to arrive and we will be using it to buy tools for our workshop. The summer is coming fast. We had our second Staff Advisory Panel meeting on Thrusday night, the 13th of April. I was amazed by the turnout and thank everyone who came to talk and share about the upcoming summer. We talked about themes and ideas for great programs. It was a good meeting. We are now into getting the camp ready for the summer. The warmer weather means that the grass will start to grow and the grounds and buildings will need lots of work. We are hosting a Work Bee day on Saturday, May 13th and we want to make everyone welcome. Starting at 9am and going until 4pm (lunch is included) we will divide up all of the volunteers to do a variety of spring cleaning and mainentance. If you can commit more time to camp - maybe a day a week, we are looking for people to help with our grass cutting and other odd jobs that need to be done around camp. It is a great way for people to feel involved and we appreciate any help. If you are interested or know someone who is, please let them know and/or give me a call to talk about it. Have a great day! The weather is beautiful and all is good with the world. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 28th March, 2006Planning for the summer is in full swing. I'm doing staff interviews daily - looking for the most amazing summer team that I can find. I can always use your help in spreading the word to potential camp staff. We are still looking for a Program Director and Wilderness Camp Director. We have a good lead on a new summer director - more information will be posted as I know. I was just getting ready for a meeting of the London Conference Camping Committee and came across this poem. I originally found it when I was a first year counsellor in 1989, in a book call, Spread A Little Sunshine. It is called Bridge Builder: An old man, going a lone highway, Came at the evening, cold and gray To a chasm, vast and deep and wide, Through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim, The sullen stream had no fears for him. But he turned when safe on the other side And built a bridge to span the tide. “Old man”, said a fellow pilgrim near, “You are wasting strength with building here; Your journey will end with the ending day, And you never again will pass this way. You have crossed this chasm deep and wide, Why build you the bridge at the eventide?” The builder lifted his old gray head – “Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said, “There follows after me today A youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been nothing to me To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be; He, too, must cross in the twilight dim, Good friend, I am building that bridge for him .”
It is one of the reasons that I work in Summer Camping. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 8th March, 2006Sorry that it has been so long since I have put some thoughts up on the site. Times are getting busy with interviews, government funding, the annual general meeting and planning for the summer. Since I last posted I have been to the Ontario Camping Associations Directors Conference. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with other camp directors from across the province and with delegates from around the world. Camping is a much larger industry than many people know. Things are going along. There are some funding applications due by the end of the month. March break camp starts on Sunday. I'm also speaking on Sunday at St. Paul's United Church in Aylmer. Feel free to come and hear my talk on, "The Power of Summer Camp". Must get back to staff issues and finding great staff for the summer. We already have over 25 people registered for our summer programs. Keep spreading the word. I'll leave you with a thought that I wrote our for our Annual General Report: Pearce Williams Christian Centre has come a long way since it was established in 1960. Many changes have taken place over the past 45 years and I am sure that there will be many more changes that take place over the next 45 years. One of the things that has not changed is our intention to be an outreach ministry for the churches of Elgin Presbytery. Elgin Presbytery has shown their commitment to the power of the summer camp experience through their increased support for Pearce Williams Christian Centre. It is our vision to reach as many youth as possible every summer. We have space for over 1000 campers to come to camp each summer; last year we reached 530 campers. Over the next five years it is our goal to increase campership at Pearce Williams. The best way to increase our camper numbers is to offer them an amazing summer camp experience that leaves them talking about camp all year long—planning their return the following summer. To offer the best camp experience we need to have amazing staff members who will pass this onto the campers in all of their actions every week at camp. We also need amazing volunteers to help us make sure that camp is ready and that we are getting the most out of all of our monetary donations by using volunteers to get things done around camp. We also need amazing supporters to believe in Pearce Williams and believe in the power of camp to change the life of a child. Our supporters will give of themselves and the gifts that God has given. Support comes through donations, belief, prayer and financial giving. The future of Pearce Williams is in the hands of the community of believers that exists—volunteers, supporters, alumni and staff. Believe with us in the future of Pearce Williams. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 13th February, 2006The weather continues it's strange turns, the snow will be gone by the end of the week, unfortunate for our toboggan hills... What an evening we had on Saturday night at Pearce Hall. We had a wonderful turnout for our Annual Valentines Dinner. There were over 90 people who attended the dinner. The room was transformed into a magical romantic setting by Evelyn Poisson of "A Day to Remember" in Dutton. The meal was delicious - pan seared breast of chicken, baby roasted potatoes, maple glazed carrots, green beans with almond slices and mexican ice cream for dessert all done up by John Mairleitner of Tall Tales Cafe in Wallacetown. We were serenaded by Vicki Close numerous times during the evening, Vicki was sponsored by McNiel Insurance. We were very fortunate to have alumni come and be our servers for the evening. A big thank you to all of you who attended the evening. We also had our first staff interview day on Saturday at First United. It was quite a sucess. If you know of anyone who may be interested in working at camp this summer please have them fill out our online staff application. I'm off to the Ontario Camping Association conference later this week to present a session on Games and Programming. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 7th February, 2006So the winter finally arrives, in February. We have about 5 inches of snow at camp. The final touches are being put on Pearce Hall for our Valentines Dinner this Saturday. It will be a magical evening for those who attend. Last Thursday night we had our first Staff Advisory Panel meeting to discuss the upcoming summer and some of the changes that are being made. We covered lot of topics about things to keep and ways to make camp better for the campers and the staff. If you have any suggestions please feel free to email me and I will share them with the panel at our next meeting. Our new brochure is out and we want to show it to everyone and make sure that everyone knows about our summer program. You can help by passing the word onto people about how great the Pearce Williams summer experience is. If you need help in promoting Pearce Williams, please get in touch with me. I love to talk about camp and share our passion with potential campers. Help us share Pearce Williams with the masses. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 25th January, 2006The snow is falling outside. The new brochure should be ready to go out later next week. We are attending the London Camp Fair next Wednesday, February 1st at Westmount Library from 5pm to 8pm. We have the Valentines Dinner coming up on February 11th here at Pearce Hall at 5:30pm. Tickets are $25 which includes dinner, entertainment and a $15 tax receipt. Dave Vowel has taken on the coordinating of the Valentines Dinner and he has a magical night planned with alumni coming out to help serve. If you are interested in tickets please call our office at 519.764.2317. I am working hard trying to get things ready for the summer and hiring the staff. If you know anyone who is interested in working at camp please send them to our web site to apply. If you would like to have some of our summer brochures to hand out to families just get in touch with me and I will make sure that you get some brochures and applications for our summer program. I hope that you are having a great January - weird weather. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 9th January, 2006It is now a new year and we are off to a great start. We finished off our Winter Fun January Coed Camp last week. We did not get as many campers out as we might have hoped for, but the ones who came had a great time. We did lots of games, hiking, geocaching, speed stacking and woodworking. It kept everyone busy and happy. We are now looking ahead to our Winter Family Picnic which is being held this Sunday, January 15th, from 2pm to 7pm. Snow or no snow there will be plenty of activities and games to be played. Our Annual General Meeting is coming up at the end of February. It will be held at First United Church in St. Thomas at 7pm on February 27th, 2006. Camp is a busy place as I get ready for the upcoming summer and our fundraising events at Valentines and in May. I have arranged a staff interview day at First United Church on the 11th of February. If you know of any people who may be interested in applying please have them visit our web site and fill out the online staff application. Lots of thoughts drifting through my head - I'll write more soon. Joe
14th December, 2005Another wonderful week at camp. The snow keeps coming, and it looks like it will be a white Christmas and that we will have lots of snow for January Break Camp. I traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin over the weekend to see a football game. Got into a car accident - rolled a car on an interstate highway. I'm fine and happy to be OK, a sore knee is the extent of the injuries. It does put life into perspective. Very excited to have Christmas come up and then the New Year. We just got our new Speed Stacks. Speed Stacks are for the activity of Sport Stacking. We will be running this program at all of our winter camps and during the summer. A new and exciting program that campers, staff and families will love. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 8th December, 2005What a beautiful time at camp right now! Sure the weather is a little chilly, but there is snow on the ground and you can see numerous animal tracks leading from here to there. It is interesting to note the number of different tracks that I see on my walk to work in the morning. The interesting part is the fact that these animals share our site all year long, not just during the winter. During the summer months we do not see the clear signs of these animals but they are around us on a daily basis. It is a pleasant thought to me. Lots of things are in the works. We are working on the summer brochure. The dates and rates are up on the camps page and I'm working on fixing the description links. I attended a job fair in St. Thomas last night to start the process of hiring the best staff team possible for the summer of 2006. The date for the Annual General Meeting has been set for February the 27, 2006 at First United Church - if you are a support of Pearce Williams please attend. I'll be back up before the holidays. Don't forget to tell people about our January Break Camp. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 24th November, 2005Today was the first snow storm of the season. Lots of snow on the ground out at camp, I'm going to try a little tobogganing with my son Matthew this afternoon. New Dates & Rates will be up on the summer camp page by the 1st of December. I'm working on them in the evenings. We are sending out a mailing early next week with the winter camp brochure and the newsletter, or "The Longhouse Letter". You can download a copy here and be the first to read it. Our rental season has slowed down but picks up once again in January. I will be using the down time to plan for the summer and staff hiring. Remember to keep camp in your thoughts as the busy holiday season gets underway. Gnothi Seauton Joe 7th November, 2005The winds of November came to Pearce Williams over the weekend - taking down a couple of trees with them, but all is well on-site. We had our displays out this past weekend at the First United Christmas Bazaar and the Alymer St. Paul's United Christmas Bazaar. Both were well attended and we appreciate the space for the Pearce Williams displays at both. Next weekend PWCC will be at the Western Fair Grounds for Kid's Expo. All day Saturday and Sunday. I have updated the staffing page with both new and returning staff applications. So if you know of anyone who would be interested in applying please have them fill out the online application. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 3rd November, 2005The cool month of November is upon us. Our winter camp schedule is set. We are running a new camp during the first week of January because the schools are out until the 9th. January Break Camp will run from Wednesday the 4th of January at 3pm to Friday the 6th of January at 11am. Lots of things planned. If you are interested in more information on the camp or working it as staff please email me directly. The Winter Camp brochure will be done up early next week. We will have our displays up at both First United and St. Paul's United in Alymer this weekend for the Christmas Bazaars. Should be lots of fun. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 24th October, 2005The Beef Dinner has come and gone. We raised just over $1500 with the dinner and got $750 in other donations for the barn repair. All in all a good night. It was a pleasure to meet so many of the people that I had talked to but had not met in person. We are currently reviewing our budget and planning for 2006. More updates to follow shortly. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 10th October, 2005The end of a beautiful Thanksgiving Day weekend. I attended a great service at Frome United Church on Sunday. The Beef Dinner is only a week away and plans are well underway. We are still looking for additional volunteers, but everything is well in hand. Pearce Williams is starting up an Alumni Association. If you are interested in helping or finding out more please email me directly. I hope that everyone can make it out to PWCC in the next couple of weeks to see the fall colours. Gnothi Seauton, Joe 29th September, 2005Another busy weekend is coming up with two groups in to use the facilities. We are booked for most of the fall, but still have some space available. The Program Committee will be meeting next week to talk about next summer and about our winter programs that we will offer. If you have any input, just email me at the link above. We are looking at some changes to our summer program - to enhance the experience of the campers. Our goal is to provide the children & youth of our area with a great place to spend their summer and grow in faith and relationships with each other. The Parent & Camper Evaluation is online now and working. Also our Returning Staff Application is online and working. Let me know what other things you would like to see on the web site. I will be working on a volunteer page to let people know how they can help and an online staff application for new staff over the next couple of weeks. Autumn is here, the leaves are starting to get dressed for their journey into winter. Feel free to come out and walk around camp to share in the beauty that God has provided for us. Have a great day! Gnothi Seauton, Joe 26th September, 2005Lots of changes on the way for the web site. I will be posting a returning staff application form later today and will get a parent survey for the summer of 2005 online by the end of the week. We are getting things planned for our Annual Beef Dinner on October 16th, 2005. Please get the word out and feel free to download and put our poster up around your community to help out. You can download it here. Put it up in your local library, convenience store, restaurant and church. The more people who know the better. We are also looking for volunteers for the beef dinner. High School students who need the hours are welcome to contact our office at 519.764.2317 to get more information and book in some volunteer time. If you volunteered for the Beef Dinner you can expect 5 to 7 hours of volunteer time for high school students; others wanting to volunteer can do so for 1 to 2 hours and then eat dinner. I'll post again soon. Gnothi Seauton, Joe Richards Administrative Director
15th September, 2005We are now into the planning of our Beef Dinner Fundraiser. This year we will putting the majority of the proceeds toward barn repairs. It came to our attention late in August that we will need to spend just over $5000.00 to repair the maintenance barn. The weather has remained unseasonably warm, which has made our rental groups very happy. We will have a wedding on site this weekend if the weather holds, and we will have a variety of school groups out over the next couple of weeks. Planning is underway for the summer of 2006. We are getting in touch with our summer staff who would be interested in returning and will start to take applications soon as well for new staff members. We are working on getting a staff application online so people can apply right on the web site. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you are reading this page. I'm interested to know who is staying up-to-date with my thoughts on camp. Gnothi Seauton, Joe Richards Administrative Director 2nd September, 2005Camp is quiet now that everyone has gone. The staff had a great night last night and then headed out this morning. I found this quote today and thought it is appropriate: If you want one year
of prosperity, grow grain. We are growing people at Pearce Williams. Gnothi Seauton, Joe Richards Administrative Director 1st September, 2005As the end of the summer comes, I am left with many great memories and many great ideas for the future. This has been a summer of observation for me as the new Administrative Director. I have observed a great summer camp program and an amazing facility. There is so much potential for Pearce Williams to become even stronger in our community and to move forward with our mission. I want to make sure that the community has an opportunity to get to know me and my family. I come from a camping background. I grew up at Kenesserie Camp - the Kent County United Church Camp. I have been working full-time in the camping industry since 1999 with private camps. I worked summers before that for Kenesserie, Woodeden Easter Seals Camp (Komoka) and Stevenson Children's Camp (Dorchester). Camping is in my blood, as my parents met at Kenesserie Camp. I now live on-site at Pearce Williams with my wife, Jennifer and our two children, Matthew (3) and Kayla (1). Jennifer is a teacher and is currently looking for a job within the Thames Valley School Board. The focus right now at Pearce Williams is to provide an amazing summer camp program to our campers and make sure that we get 90+ campers out per week for the summer of 2006. We are also maintaining and growing the number of groups that rent the site out during the non-summer months. My goal and that of the Board of Directors is to make sure that Pearce Williams becomes financially stable for long term grow, while maintaining our mission. I would love to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions. Please let me know if you want to volunteer or join our Board of Directors or one of our many committees. Pearce-Williams is only as strong as the community that supports it. I will be posting thoughts on this page periodically, so check back. Gnothi Seauton, Joe Richards Administrative Director |
Web site layout and content © Pearce Williams Christian Centre. Web hosting courtesy Start Communications.