October Family Camp

Family camp weekends are always the best! Check out the amazing activities from our fall festival. Make sure to sign up for our other family events to keep from missing out on the fun!!

Weather Station Update

Phase Two of the weather station project was completed today. It was a long leap - but Internet has been run to the waterfront to allow weather data to be shared with others. Thank you AGAIN to Jim & Pat Yeilding for the advanced weather station at the end of our pier. The maps show how our little stretch of the Salish Sea is now covered. Soon - a camera for a seagull's eye view of the Sound. https://www.weatherlink.com/map

From Dock to Tables

For years, the wooden floating dock migrated from the inner lagoon to the end of the pier in June and then back again by Labor Day. For the past eight years, this routine has been forced to change due to a deteriorating pier as well as the need to run boating for three seasons to accommodate schools visiting for outdoor education. We have run boating successfully in the outer lagoon for the past two years and are happy with this sheltered location.

Pierce County has also restricted new dock construction and repairs of old docks for our section of the Key Peninsula. This, along with an agreement made with the Nisqually Land Trust, necessitated demolishing the heavy floating dock by 2024. We took advantage of our resident AmeriCorps NCCC to accomplish this early.

Prep Work

The lagoon was, even during the project, a working waterfront. Boats had to be shifted.

Prep Work

The big Grumman “peace” canoes are heavy - even for a hearty team of eight NCCC members.

Wow

That’s a big, heavy dock in two sections. The dry weather had already lifted many of the boards and they were easy to pull up.

A good start.

But the tide is creeping in.

Pulling Nails (and Screws)

Over the years, staff tried anything to keep the boards down. The team members spend a lot of time yanking out bent nails and avoiding splinters.

And Now We are Afloat

Starting to rip out the structural framework. This was the hardest part and the team resorted to chainsaws eventually.

Hooray

One section is “deboarded”

Tire Floats

We figured there were 196 tires when the dock was new. Several were missing - having worked loose over the years. Tires are no longer allowed for floats in Washington State.

Sorting

Boards were 6 foot, 8 foot, and 16 foot. The team worked hard to sort and stack them once nails were pulled.

Tire Removal

Tires had to be pulled out of their framework More often than not, the framework would stick with the tire. The tires were stacked away from the boating area and high enough to survive the high tides.

Topper

The Topper company is still in business but they don’t make tire dock floats anymore.

Itty Bitty Dock

One corner of the dock was built with substantial, modern floats. This corner used to support the ramp that came down from the pier. The team saved this section to make a work barge.

Preparing the Work Barge

Before re-decking the work barge, the team had some structural work to do.

Re-Decking

With lots of boards to choose from, the team finished the deck of the work barge. Later, the lifeguard chair was added for summer camp boating.

Heavy Corners

The outer edges of the dock were especially heavy requiring the team to work together to move sections. The chainsaw came in handy.

Got Wood?

Lots of 2 by 6 and 2 by 10 pressure-treated lumber - stacked and sorted.

More Tires

Really hard sometimes to get at them.

How do you move over 150 tires?

You wait for an exceptionally high tide and herd them into the inner lagoon.

And then...

..you pull.

Always...

…with a smile and a positive attitude. This work is fun!

More Tires

The tires keep coming.

Log Jam - I mean Tire Jam

With the high tide, it was easy to get them out of the water and onto the grass - assuming they didn’t try to escape.

And onto the Truck

The tires were hauled up to another part of camp. Over the winter, the staff will strip them of the wood pieces before finding an economical way of disposing of them. If you have any ideas, give us a call.

The Boards are becoming Picnic Tables

After AmeriCorps departed, the staff began the process of making picnic tables with the dock lumber. Boards were cut, sanded and painted before they were assembled.

The First Tables

8 tables have been completed - one for each Shire cabin.

More Tables Can Be Built

We have LOTS of dock lumber remaining. Perhaps you, your family, your group can come out and build some more picnic tables. We have more places to put them.

Tiny Snowfall

We didn’t get a whole lot of snow this week, but enough for Steve, our winter caretaker, to take some pretty pictures.

This is the time of year when we register summer campers, sign up schools for Outdoor Education, and think up some creative new (and established) programs and events. Looking ahead …

• New Year’s Family Camp

• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service

• Birding Weekend

• Spring Break Camp

• Mom & Me Camp

Yes - and Fundraising is also on our minds during the “lean” winter season. Please consider a generous end-of-year gift to Sound View Camp. THANKS!

The early bird catches the canoe?

Register for a session of overnight camp BEFORE January 1 to save 10% ($52.50)! All that is required is a $100 deposit.

Two Campaigns

It is crazy-hard running a camp in the 21st Century! I need your help.

As regulations change, prices rise, and expectations evolve, we will lean on financial (sustaining) gifts to keep Sound View afloat. It is my sincere goal that in the next few years, we can claim that 10% of our revenue comes from donations - especially monthly giving. A healthy non-profit often requires an even greater percentage - especially if the goal is to serve more people while keeping rates affordable.

To end this year and in the days leading to Giving Tuesday, we aim to do the unusual; running two campaigns at the same time.

One campaign, as detailed in an earlier post, will hopefully encourage new monthly givers for the Sound View Fund. These donations will help with many of the financial obligations that make running camp “crazy-hard”. I really hope that you will be able to make a generous monthly gift.

The other campaign will raise money to repair, refresh, and revamp the high ropes course. A LOT has changed since our course was built in the early 1990s. Not only has technology evolved which renders much of our course obsolete, but the trees have grown (which affects everything). Our program has grown too! We need to be able to run the course year-round with a smaller staff which requires 21st Century changes. From now to Giving Tuesday, I will talk about the ropes course in future posts so you can learn more.

We hope to raise $50,000 to get the course up and running by this spring. Your generous gifts will make this happen.

The Sound View Fund

We depend on donations of to keep Sound View thriving and affordable. Without funding, we could not very well maintain our one-hundred acre site, nor could we guarantee that all kids can come to Sound View, regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

Right now, we hope to significantly add many more monthly donors.

Sound View Fund: Monthly gifts are crucial for the overall camp operation. Taking good care of a large wooded property with all the pitfalls of keeping it “real and rustic” requires money. We work hard to be thrifty and good fiscal stewards while at the same time responding to what nature throws at us to keep trails, shoreline, buildings, and program areas looking their best.

Our goal for 2022-23 is to raise $30,000 through monthly gifts. This represents around 7% of our overall budget.

Outdoor Education for All

In 2019, the Sound View Camp Outdoor Education program was the "new kid on the block" and just beginning to take off when the pandemic struck. We developed our program to be an affordable option for those shut out of the larger, more established camps because of price or availability. Sound View is pretty remarkable - not fancy - but not set in its ways to keep a school from doing what curriculum/activities are best for their students.

I am so excited that the Outdoor Education for All Bill passed the Legislature. Throughout my forty years of camping, I have seen how kids react to the out-of-doors and know that the hands-on learning of an OEE experience benefits students, teachers, and the future. It was sad to see so many schools cutting back on this worthwhile experience because of the lack of funding. The new bill will hopefully lead to growth of outdoor learning.

I am also happy that pre-pandemic schools are beginning to grab dates for next spring. We have more prime dates, both spring and fall, available for others as well. Please let me know if I can help you get started with planning, a tour of camp, or to answer any questions about our program.

Gold 8 - Days 1 and 2

The Americorps NCCC Gold 8 team arrived on Friday afternoon and got straight to work on Saturday and Sunday. The ten-member team, from the East Coast and Midwest are excited to experience our Pacific Northwest rain after spending the last few months in sunny California.

Gold 8 will be at Sound View for over six weeks and will be undertaking a lot of environmental projects including trail management, timber harvest cleanup, waterfront projects, signage, and numerous other things that can only be done by an enthusiastic national service team.

Saturday (in the sunshine) and Sunday (in the pouring rain), the team inventoried and restacked the lumber shed so they and others can easily find wood for various projects..