Memorial Day has come and gone, but the work that got done will be with us for a long time to come.

Photos from the first day of our annual Memorial Day Work Weekend. Check back tomorrow for more photos and personal highlights from our staff, volunteers, and board members!

Just a few more photos from Sky Ranch. Included in this photo set: Trinity, Fort Collins’ pack out room Leave a Trace Project, Spirit of Joy, Fort Collins’ Adopt-A-Cabin work on King Cabin, and Steve and Andrew uncovering frozen pipes to the shower house. Oh yes, and a moose peeking around the trees outside the cabins.

As you can see there is a lot of work being done at Sky Ranch to get ready for the coming camping season. And yet there are many projects still to be done. Which is why . . . WE NEED YOUR HELP!! Please, come be a part of our Memorial Work Weekend and help put the finishing touch on camp before campers arrive. You can sign up to come to camp on our online registration, or call our office for more information (@ 970-493-5258).

Can’t wait to see you . . . up at Sky Ranch!

-Andy

It is the end of our first week of camp, finishing one of two weeks of environmental education. It was quite the week. We received a foot of snow on Wednesday and lost power for 10 hours. But all remained safe and warm and happy.

Today was also the start of Trinity Lutheran Church’s Leave a Trace project. Trinity’s (Fort Collins) project includes transforming the staff laundry room in the Backpack Center into a new food pack out area for the backpacking program. Today’s efforts included framing a new wall and sheetrocking the new wall and ceiling. The volunteers working in the pictures are Rick, Bob, and Gary.

In the next couple weeks, volunteers from Trinity will be putting in new lights, painting the ceiling, epoxying the floor, putting FRP on all of the walls, and installing new plumbing for a three sink. The new pack out room will allow our high wilderness staff to prepackage all of our meals, as well as allowing us to prepare more dehydrated food at camp.

Thank you so much to Trinity in Fort Collins for supporting Sky Ranch and for giving us this wonderful resource. If you are part of a congregation or group that may be interested in volunteering at Sky Ranch, check out the Leave a Trace page under the Get Involved menu to see some of the projects that are available.

Also a reminder that Memorial Work Weekend is scheduled for May 28 – 31 and we would love to have you come and lend a hand as we work to get camp ready for summer. Details are on www.SkyRanchColorado.org.

That’s right, our first campers arrived at Sky Ranch yesterday. The joys and excitement of camp, as well as the the noise of kids yelling, has finally returned!

And to mark such a momentous moment we were given a wonderful gift: a foot of snow!!

Here are some pictures of the last 24 hours. Hope it gets you excited to come up to Sky Ranch. I also hope it gets you excited for the wonderful blue skies and warm temperatures of SUMMER!!

And don’t worry, we are staying plenty warm sitting by the fires and having plenty of fun playing with the kids!

-Andy

We have one week til campers arrive at Sky Ranch. This is pretty exciting in and of itself but there is another reason to be excited today: The arrival of our new sofas for the sitting areas on the main floor of Christ Lodge. The sofas were ordered two months ago and we have been anxiously waiting for them to arrive.

Here are some pictures of the new sitting areas (one around  the wood stove on the east side and one around the fire place on the west side). There are also some pictures of Steve working on tables for each of the sitting areas.

I hope these pictures get you excited to come to camp at Sky Ranch. Remember: It isn’t too late to sign up for summer camp. Please CLICK HERE to register for summer programs!

God’s Peace,

Andy

Throughout this past winter, Steve, our property manager, has been able to keep the road to Sky Ranch open and has been making weekly trips up to work on projects. We are excited for staff and guests to start arriving so that we can share all of the work that has been done.

Here are some pictures of the various projects that have been done around the lodge. Trust us when we say “It looks better in person!” You’ll just have to come on up to camp to see for yourself!

Last night, the Churchmen of First Lutheran Church of Longmont, Colorado sponsored a concert benefiting Sky Ranch. The concert featured ENERJAZZ and FACE. Bottom line: It was awesome!

Thank you to everyone who attended the concert and enjoyed the great energy. Thank you for the great support of Sky Ranch. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in planning this great event.

Here are some photos from the event.

A reminder to everyone that there is another benefit event being sponsored at Spirit of Joy, Fort Collins: BBQ & Bluegrass will be June 5th, starting at 5:30. Cost is $7. More details can be found on the main Sky Ranch website.

Click here to see a video from camp: One Month!

This past week, I have been on the road, recruiting staff and saying hello to friends of camp. I am half way through the trip and here is a look at how it is going:

• 2279– Total Miles
• 6-9 – Mugs of Coffee, per day
• 39 – Number of Churches visited
• 4 – Number of interviews with potential staff, while recruiting at Luther

The churches that we are visiting are congregations that have been to Sky Ranch since 2000, but not in the past three years. We’ve been sharing a tote bag with them, including a folder full of brochures of Sky Ranch programming and goodies such as note cards, pens, and sticky notes. The focus is to reintroduce the Sky Ranch name, the new Sky Ranch logo, and our new website. The response has been very positive.

I am on the road until next Thursday, including another two schools for recruiting and another 27 congregations for outreach efforts.

We would love your help reaching supportive congregations and potential staff. If you know of a church that has used Sky Ranch in the past or has never visited at all, please call our office and we will send them a tote bag with plenty of brochures and other goodies (or send it to you, so you can deliver it in person!). As for energetic young adults that want to spend a summer in the Colorado Rockies, encourage them to go to our website and the “Get Involved” link.

Finally, a reminder to everyone, our annual meeting is next Sunday, February 28th, from 6:30 – 8:00 at First Lutheran Church in Longmont. We’d love for you to join us. Please call our office to RSVP.