Last week I painted a rough sketch of the extent of our year-round program — we definitely stay busy! Today, I’ll go into a bit of detail as to how we pull it off.
Unlike our summer staff, which numbers well over 40 people plus week-long volunteers, the year-round program succeeds largely due to the efforts of six volunteers (called program specialists), two head cooks, and myself. With occasional (and much appreciated) assistance from Chris, Jeff, Rebecca, and Tricia, the program specialists work together to create meaningful, personalized, and fun retreats for each school and parish that visits.
They meet and pray before groups come, build community with the students, work in the kitchen, belay students on the climbing tower, plan and lead spiritual, teambuilding, and environmental activities, and clean camp afterward — all on the same retreat! Their pay? Room and board, a small monthly stipend, and health insurance. The program specialists are truly motivated by a desire to serve others and impact the lives of youth.
Even with this fairly low staff cost, the year-round program is hardly a profit center for camp. In our efforts to make these retreats affordable to Catholic schools and individuals, we long ago made the decision to seek to simply break even. Retreat fees pay for the volunteers and my own salary, but few of our overhead costs.
So why bother? Why do we invest so much time, energy, labor, and cost into year-round programs? Well, because the benefits far outweigh the costs. Tune in on Friday to learn what some of those benefits are!
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