Every kid is filled with excitement when he or she has the chance to go camping in the mountains. So imagine how thrilling it was for the 14 young KidWorks students who had that exact opportunity a few weeks ago. Thanks to our partnership with Forest Home, our students were able to attend a week of camp at Indian Village, a camp for 3-5th graders within Forest Home Christian Conference Center. Many of the third, fourth and fifth graders had never gone camping before in their lives, let alone the mountains in California for a week of Summer Camp.
KidWorks is very grateful to Forest Home, a faith based ministry with a camp in the San Bernardino National Forest. This year, they generously covered 70 percent of the cost of the weeklong trip. The remainder of the expenses came from funds provided by KidWorks’ donors—meaning that the camp was entirely free for the kids and their families.
KidWorks has partnered with Forest Home since 2008, when our students first began attending their camp. In addition to learning more about Jesus and attending bible studies, our students had plenty of time to enjoy the blessings of God’s creation. At the lake, they hiked, kayaked, tried out the water slides and jumped on the "blob". Soccer, basketball, tree climbing, climbing ropes course, pool, archery and slingshot swing were also on the menu. Many of these were new and exciting experiences for our kids and they had a blast.
“The focus of this year’s event was nature conservation and being good ‘Forest Keepers,’” says Art Quiroz, Program Leader at our Cedar Evergreen satellite center, who helped lead the trip. “The students learned about respecting nature and how that increases a faithfulness to God and living in His image.”
Art adds, “The trip was a life-changing experience for our campers. They are definitely going to remember this special week for the rest of their lives. We are so grateful to Forest Home for partnering with us once again this summer.”
