Presenting Camp Daniel’s dining hall!
Presenting Camp Daniel’s dining hall! Four years of vision and hard work. We cannot wait to share it with you!
This winter we have spent wrapping up the dining hall. We have finished all of the main construction which is a huge relief and starting tackling the many smaller detail jobs. The last large project was construction of the last large wall. This wall is designed to look like an old loading dock. First was putting up the garage doors, doing woodwork, bricking and mortaring, painting and then distressing! We finished the floors last week, meaning acid washing, dying, sealing the walkways and then installing carpet. A very satisfying job! Our outside-inside design has been fun to create and construct. Most of what is left to finish is putting up signs, decorations and final touches.
Our healthcare center and kitchen is complete. Our health center is stocked and ready for campers! Kitchen equipment and utensils have been put in place and we be have began testing and using the areas to get comfortable before summer camp!
The ally, the area between the dining hall and the theater, now has cobblestone, railings and the hanging lights! We found perfect tables used at the Restore for this area and have refinishing the tops to add to the area come spring.
Up next is finishing Al’s 50’s diner! Heat was installed so working in the winter now possible. This is a project everyone at camp is looking forward to.
Our staff and excellent volunteers are working long hard hours to finish these beautiful grounds, we are excited that these spaces will be used and loved this summer.
SAVE THE DATE: Camp Daniel’s Grand Opening – June 18, 2022. More details coming soon!
The cold weather can’t stop the work at camp! Despite the crazy last couple months, we continue to build our campus. Due to Karol’s stroke, Little Tony has been unable to lead construction on a daily basis. This means others have had to step forward in leading and organizing the team, not an easy task but we are trucking along and adjusting to the new normal. Our main focus has been the dining hall/ kitchen. We’ve completed the kitchenette, a space that is adjacent to the main kitchen that includes storage, a microwave and fridge. This space will be used for volunteer’s special diet food and drinks and in the future guest groups will be able to use this space. We’ve also been working on finishing the concrete floors which involves a long process of acid etching, hand dying, sealing and waxing. The back hallways, rooms and main walking area in the dining hall will have exposed concrete and the main seating area will be carpeted. At this point in construction there are SO many small, odd jobs so everyday looks different! We have been working on:
⁃ installing ceiling tiles in the dish room
⁃ gluing on floor base
⁃ installing “garage doors” in the serving windows
⁃ putting up shelves for storage
⁃ installing our carpet cleaner
⁃ installing a water fountain or bubbler – depending on where you’re from ha!
⁃ finishing up the condiment/drink stations
⁃ cleaning up the used sinks, oven and counter tops for the kitchen that we bought used
⁃ installing outdoor lights that are under the porch
⁃ fixing up and painting the used speakers that will be using in the dining hall
⁃ finishing the kitchen manager’s office
Another huge project that is almost finished is our campus-wide fiber optic that allows us to have a connected network and internet in all of our buildings. This has been a work in progress for years ,so we are happy to see it almost completed. By the end of this month we should have heat in our diner and movie theater, which will allows us to continue working in the diner and will allows us to watch movies in the winter – woohoo! This included installing a used heater and putting in ducts throughout the building. We have also made salt spreader for the skid steer, fixed the bulldozer, and converted our old gingerbread house float into another storage shed!
Every day here at camp is so different, no two days look alike! We dearly miss all the volunteers we normally have throughout the winter. We can’t wait to share this all with you in person, but until then, here are some progress photos!
Want to help? Here’s how!
1. Give to our kitchen hood fundraiser. We are currently raising money to install the commercial exhaust hood. Click ‘Donate to Hood Fundraiser’ to give today.
2. Visit our Amazon wish list and purchase one of the items. Click ‘Go to Amazon Wishlist.’
3. Pray – pray that our team keeps positive and motivated during these long winter months!
We are nine and a half months away from our 2020 summer camp season. After 23 years of constructing our goal is to have summer camp on our own grounds this summer! In these short nine plus months an immense amount of work still has to be completed. When any of us on staff think about all the work that needs to be done between now and then it can be easy to be completely overwhelmed and live everyday in fear. With that said we also feel the opposite end of the spectrum, we feel completely at ease knowing that God has us right where he wants us to be. Balancing between having faith and fearing the future is a scary line to walk but we take it one day at a time.
There is so much to be done but in the last few months but so much has happened. The interior of the dining hall is framed in. Plumbing, electric, HVAC (heating/ventilation/air conditioning) are all installed. The porch floor is poured and hopefully sooner than later the builders will be starting the main entrance. We have poured more concrete paths, connecting all of camp. Al’s 50’s diner doors are installed, dry wall has gone up, and the exterior is being worked on. Fiber optic is being installed in all the buildings. Lastly we have been excavating the large sand area in the middle of camp.
We had three scheduled fall work days and just added four more! We are in great need of construction help. So if you know anyone who would be willing to come out and help, it would be greatly appreciated. Every single day here is a work day, so if you ever are free and willing to come out for the day we would love to have you!
Visit campdaniel.org/volunteer/workdays/ for more work day info!
Financial update: We are 85% of the way fundraised. We need this last 15% to have camp at camp this summer. If you know anyone, any organization/group that would be wiling to get involved financially give us their information! Our biggest donations were because of relationship and personal connections.
Thank you to everyone who has come out to work and who has supported us financially and in prayer. For more information on how to support our 20/20 Vision Capital Campaign visit campdaniel.org/2020-2
#campdaniel #getcampatcamp #2020vision #campbuilds
2020 Vision Update:
Recently a lot of the work surrounding the dining hall has been on paper. Tony and Karol, alongside Frontier Builders & Consultants, have been working on the in-depth plans for heating, electric, plumbing and lighting. With finalizing all of these areas comes a lot of looking at and analyzing the floor plans to make sure every nook and cranny has a purpose so we can get the max use from our space. This can be a long process but will be well worth it. Once the heating, electric, plumbing and lighting are finalized they will pour the concrete floor!
As we look at these plans we can’t help but think about our volunteers… so many of our volunteers have put up with lower than quality working conditions.
Our kitchen volunteers deal with small spaces for the amount of people we are feeding, stoves and refrigerators that break frequently, no dishwasher and no real air conditioning. At the new campus we will have commercial dishwasher and appliances that will work, air conditioning throughout the entire building, and over twice as much work space!
We also think abut our volunteer nurses! On the grounds we rent we use a old trailer as our nurses station. If it rains we have to put out rows of tents to prevent everyone from getting wet while waiting for meds. There is barely enough room for two people to walk around in the trailer, let alone do an exam. At our new campus our health center will have a permeant space in our dining hall. It will have an exam room, med windows, plenty of storage and space, individual lockers for counselors meds as well as it’s own private bathroom.
We are just so so very excited to have this final piece of the puzzle underway. God’s Vision is truly 2020 and His plan is better than anything we could have every imagined. Again, thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and in prayer. For more information on how to support our 20/20 Vision Capital Campaign visit campdaniel.org/2020-2
#campdaniel #getcampatcamp #2020vision #campbuilds
Fundraising Update:
We have raised $500,000, over 50% of 20/20 Vision Capital Campaign goal! So thankful to everyone who has given. We are still in need of $500,000 to complete the campus! Partner with us to complete the vision of a fully accessible campground that’s just as creative and unique as the people who will use it. You can provide the opportunity for hundreds more to attend camps, retreats and events designed specifically for people who have physical and developmental disabilities. Through your kindness and generosity, we can change lives. Spread the word to anyone who might donate. We need your connections. Thank you!
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Building Update:
Frontier Builders have been constructing the shell of the dining hall since May 2nd. They worked through summer camp and have made such great progress! Having this much of the dining hall up is encouraging and makes us so excited for the future. Before winter comes the shell should be complete and sealed in and Frontier builders will be done until we have raised the next level of funds.
Until then, then Tony and camp crew will be doing hard construction on the daily. Fortunately we have three upcoming fall work days and hope to get some more work done in the movie theater, dining hall and get some basic grounds work done before snowfall.
We Broke Ground On The Dining Hall This Week! But We Need Your Help.
We are excited to announce that we broke ground on the dining hall! We have raised 72% of the funds for the shell but are still in need $139,000 to finish the shell. Builders are here doing as much as they can with the amount of money we have raised. As the funds become available we will continue building. We ask you to partner with us to complete the vision of a fully accessible campground that’s just as creative and unique as the people who will use it. Your support of Camp Daniel shows people with disabilities that they are valued and loved. You can provide the opportunity for hundreds more to attend camps, retreats and events designed specifically for people who have physical and developmental disabilities.
Through your kindness and generosity, we can change lives.
“The 8,500 square foot dining hall space will sit 200 people, which will make it among the largest banquet facilities in Marinette County. This space will also serve as a training center for people with disabilities to become banquet workers. The facility will include: main dining room, quiet room for people who are sensory sensitive, full commercial kitchen, stage and health center.”
To learn more about the 20/20 Vision Capital Campaign visit campdaniel.org/2020
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