Dear Camp Family,
Happy 75th birthday to Van Buren Youth Camp in 2025. It’s so exciting to think of the thousands of campers that have experienced VBYC through the years while looking forward to thousands more who are yet to meet Cleo and become a member of the VBYC family. The plans are starting, ideas percolating, the excitement is building. You will soon be receiving information on the celebratory events either through social media, email, or a printed Save the Date postcard. As we look ahead to the next 75 years, there will also be new and unknown challenges. Many of Camp’s challenges will be driven by increasing costs and opportunities to provide a meaningful growth experience for our youth.
VBYC has always been an affordable place for kids to have a great camping experience, gain leadership skills, make lasting friendships, and enjoy special times in a welcoming atmosphere. The camper fees have remained low due to the generosity of VBYC supporters through both financial contributions and volunteerism to maintain the programming and infrastructure.
When major capital improvements were necessary, the Board turned to fundraising, hosted an event, and/or borrowed money to fund the project. We have successfully fundraised for new cabins, a sewer system, new buildings, and new programming opportunities. This year we were able to retire the mortgage for the Yonder Way bathhouse through a fundraiser and a generous anonymous donor. We also replaced the Hobart dishwasher with a bequest from a former camper and staff member.
Every year brings Camp greater challenges for a variety of reasons. The age of our buildings, equipment, and utilities have reached a point where the Board can no longer use the “old ways” on major repairs. Building codes, regulations, and the complexity of equipment and machinery have required Camp to contract out some routine and most major jobs at additional expense. As a non-profit camp and not having a large supportive organization (church, corporation, etc.) to help fund our mission puts us at a disadvantage for growth opportunities, major expenses, and capital improvements.
We have some major expenses facing us in the next year, e.g., new docks, a new well, erosion control, a new water heater, and restroom updates ($75,000-$90,000). These projects may not be exciting to many but are necessary for us to open the 2025 season.
We do have even bigger dreams for a new bathhouse ($1,000,000) and a lodge/retreat center at Yonder Way ($1,400,000). These are pretty exciting, and hopefully, we can all come together to help our big dreams come to fruition in VBYC’s future years.
Providing a low-cost and fun camping experience for our youth will continue to be our intention. We plan to explore opportunities for grants for our big dreams. We welcome help with exploring grants and larger funding opportunities. In the meantime, Camp will continue to depend on you, our generous supporters, for ongoing repairs and minor improvements through our annual drive. Please also consider including VBYC in your retirement and estate planning.
In the spirit of Camp,
Board President
John Tapper