Welcome to the Field

“Welcome to the Field” Project

WELCOME CENTER

Created using the Donation Thermometer plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/.$830,000Raised $563,810 towards the $830,000 target.$563,810Raised $563,810 towards the $830,000 target.68% Donor Will Match ($415,000)Raised ($148,810)

TURF FIELD

Created using the Donation Thermometer plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/donation-thermometer/.$400,000Raised $16,810 towards the $400,000 target.$16,810Raised $16,810 towards the $400,000 target.4%

WHY DO WE NEED THESE TWO IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS?

WELCOME CENTER:

  • Our office is too small for our full-time staff to be able to effectively do their jobs due to the noise level and capacity.
  • The office building has served well but has had several additions that have created inefficient use of space for our current structure.
  • The current office is not a space that is easy for guests to identify as the first place to go upon arrival.
  • We continually are challenged by unwanted mice that get into the office despite our best efforts to keep them out due to the lack of a good foundation under a large part of the old building.

TURF FIELD:

  • Our campers use the flat field area by the gym for lots of games and activities. It is the only flat space that we have for our large group games.
  • Our dry climate is not suitable for growing grass on fields.
  • It is impossible to keep the rocks from coming up from the dirt on the field.
  • Injuries happen due to the uneven ground from grass clumps and rocks.
  • Dust is always a challenge for campers playing on the field.
  • The field is situated on the upper end of camp, and the balls roll downhill easily. This new plan will include a fence to help corral the balls, so kids don’t have to chase them down the mountain.

 

Why are we raising funds for two things at once?

We believe that both projects are vitally important to the ministry, and we realize that some of our donors want to make programming improvements while others want to give to buildings that will help the operations of IdRaHaJe.  We want our camp to be a welcoming place where campers and guests feel the love of Christ and are exposed to the truth of His Word.  We also want our camp to be a place of fun, laughter, and play and believe that a nice field will help foster that environment.  Prioritizing one project over the other did not feel like the right choice, so we decided to do something unprecedented and combine them.  It is our goal to not wait to focus on one and have the other delayed.  Hence, the Welcome to the Field joint project was born.

Welcome Center

This project was an idea from our previous director, and a fund was started more than 20 years ago.  Unfortunately, we have not been able to get this project completed due to various reasons, but the fund has more than $50k in it just waiting to grow.  In 2019, we thought that we would be starting the Welcome Center project and had the building plans drawn up.  God had other plans for us as the initial stages of the septic system design were taking longer than expected.  Little did we know that the Lord slowed us down so that we were not in the middle of the Welcome Center project when the COVID outbreak happened.

The next thing we knew, we were in conversations with the Colorado Health Department regarding an evaluation of our entire septic plan for IdRaHaJe and out of those conversations, the Wastewater Plant was placed front and center and had to be completed before anything else.  I am happy to say that we have finished the Wastewater Plant!

With that behind us, we continue to feel the need to build a Welcome Center that will welcome our guests and campers as they arrive on camp.

The Welcome Center will be built in the main parking area and will face the camp entrance so that our guests will see it as they drive onto camp.  It will be a two-story building with reception area, a special room to learn more about the history of IdRaHaJe and grab some camp merchandise, a large mailroom for all that camper mail, a breakroom, bathrooms and a couple of offices on the main floor.  The second floor will contain offices and two larger meeting spaces.  We estimate the cost of this portion of the project to be $830,000.

Turf Field

This has been a part of the programming vision for several years as well.  In 1996, we built the original soccer field to start our Soccer Camps.  (Some of you likely remember those days!)  It was a great summer camp option, but our field just didn’t work well enough for those campers to have a successful week of soccer camp.  When we built the new gym, we expanded the soccer field with the excess dirt to double the size, which allowed for not only a soccer field but also a Hoccerball field (think soccer, basketball and hockey combined).  We would have liked to install artificial turf and a fence at that time, but the budget did not allow it.  Without enough water to consistently irrigate the field, grass is out of the question.

Our plan is to fix the drainage around and under the existing field area and cover it with artificial turf.  The turf will provide a nice plush surface to play soccer, hoccerball, whipped cream wiffleball, large group field games, and team building games.  The turf will have long strands with infill to help give it a more natural feel for the campers as they play on it.  This will eliminate the rocks on the field and dust coming up from the surface as the kids play.  We plan to include lines to delineate the two fields so that multiple groups can use them at the same time.  We also plan to put a chain link fence with several gates around the entire field to keep balls in and the horses out!

We estimate this portion of the project to be approximately $400,000.

OUR INVITATION

Our ministry goal has always been to share the message of Jesus Christ, and it will continue to be our mission.  We believe these two parts of the Welcome to the Field project are much needed improvements to help us pursue that goal by providing a welcoming space for our campers and improving the workspace of our full-time staff who work so hard to keep this ministry focused on Christ.  We also know that if campers enjoy the spaces they are in while at camp, they can have the freedom to be a kid and be able to explore the truth of God’s Word.

We would like to invite you to join us in raising the funds to make these projects a reality.  Please pray for the Lord’s hand in this endeavor.  If you would like to give financially, please click on the button below to make a gift to the “Welcome to the Field” project with a focus on the Welcome Center or the Turf Field.  If you want to see both parts of the project become reality, make a note and we will divide your gift between the projects.

Stay tuned for updates on these exciting improvements. God Bless!