Kingswords

Spring, 2022

Here's the latest news from Kingswood Campsite.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

by Cheryl Winship

Kingswood – A beautiful natural setting that is an ideal place for new campers to try camping

Advertising experts say that word of mouth from happy customers is the best form of advertising. Kingswood campers have been doing this for years. You tell friends and acquaintances, church members and neighbors about this place you love to camp called Kingswood. You invite friends to camp with you and show them how to cook over an open fire, take them to your favorite programs, lead them on hikes and show them places to see the stars or pick berries. They return to camp with you again or even graduate to camping on their own. This legacy of campers mentoring “newbie” campers has been going on since the camp opened.

Summer 2022 will see this happen as a formal program offered to all “newbies.” We want to make camping accessible to all.

Set Up Weekend

by Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez

Kingswood Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteers needed for May 27th-30th, this year's set up weekend. We will provide meals to all volunteers, take our meals outside, and ask that everyone sit with their family group or Pod.

We are very excited to gather together again! If you are planning to come, please complete the registration form.

Lifeguard Position Available

Do you like waking up to bird songs and grazing deer and going to sleep hearing bullfrogs and watching fireflies and the Milky Way?

If spending the summer at Kingswood and becoming a part of our amazing community appeals to you, then please read the attached job descriptions for more information!

If you or someone you know is Red Cross certified, or an avid swimmer interested in getting Red Cross certification, and at least 18 years old, please contact Lynn Grainger.

Milky Way and Beyond

a message from Kingswood’s chaplain, Maria Pia Seirup

Have you ever seen the Milky Way? No, not the Milky Way candy bar, but that huge collection of stars, dust and gas that sometimes decorates the night sky?

A quick search on Google reveals that the best places to see the Milky Way in the U.S. are in the National Parks in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Nevada and Hawaii. But guess what!?! You don’t have to go so far away to see the Milky Way. On clear nights, you will find the Milky Way showing up at right above our beloved Camp Kingswood!

July and August are perfect viewing months when the Milky Way will be high in the night sky.

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Reservations as of Mid-April

by Lynn Grainger

About 50% of the nights available in equipped sites throughout the season are already booked. July is the most popular time to book this season. Two weekends in July are completely booked for the equipped sites, though you can have an RV site or a Tent & Trailer site those weekends. The beginning of our season has many sites open.

Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Rachel

Written by Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez

Rachel Bortin has been coming to Kingswood with her family since she can remember. The everyday activities of cooking, hanging out at the lake, walking in nature and connecting with friends and family, has sparked a lifelong interest in camping and in environmental stewardship. Growing up at Kingswood influenced Rachel’s decision to get an MA in Environmental and Outdoor Education, and she now works as Summer Camp Director at Primitive Pursuits in Ithaca, NY. There, she oversees summer programming.

After coming to camp with her family for several years, Rachel fell love with Kingswood as a 10-year-old Woodsmoke Camper.

Camper Spotlight: Interview with

the Sollin Family

by Lynn Grainger

The Sollin family have been coming to Kingswood for the past 7 years. Charles started camping at Kingswood in the 90’s as a third grader. He loved it as a kid, and he wanted his children to have the same experiences as he and his siblings Chris, Kelli, and Cynthia had. Charles wished he had started younger, so he brought his family to Kingswood when his kids were preschoolers.

Their first trip was challenging with two-year-old Emilie and four-year-old Charles and the rain. The kids got dirty so quickly, and Carrie kept changing them into clean dry clothes. Before the first day was done, the kids had worn all the clothes they brought for the weekend.

Stone Ministry

by Peter Seirup

Stone Ministry became part of the programming at Kingswood in the summer of 2005. The vision was to provide campers a tangible way up to permanently connect with our sacred space.

Since then thousands of stones lovingly cemented into our evolving structure have become permanent anchors for countless campers and their friends. Each stone was inscribed with a special dedication, prayer or message before it became part of the community of stones.

Every stone is a keystone because of its individuality, its special meaning and because without it the stone above it would not transfer weight to the stone below it.

Summer Programming Plans

by Lynn Grainger

‬As I write this, there are just 60 days until camp opens on June 24^th. I’m so excited to get back to Kingswood. The program directorship this summer will be shared between Valerie Minton, Amanda Snook-Barnes and me.

For crafts we will be recycling plastic and glass bottles into instruments or decorative glassware using collage with tissue paper on Tuesdays. On Saturday mornings we will make candles. There are so many different kinds of candles that can be made, including turning the glass project from Tuesday into a candle. The cupcake candle and sand candles will be our main projects.

The nature study on Tuesdays will be birds and their adaptations.

RV Update

by Peter Seirup

‬This summer will mark 12 years since the first two RV sites at the top of the cornfield became occupied by Jack and Dotty Seirup and their son Andrew.

The camp originally sought approval from the NYS department of health for 10 sites. The two sites that we built were a pilot program. They were site numbers six and seven in the master plan.

But in order to get certificates of occupancy from the NYSDOH for those two sites we had to build a dumping station down at the bottom of the hill which, of course, we did at that time

Over the years we built sites numbers three and four and later number five as the interest in RV camping at Kingswood began to slowly catch on. Last year was the first year we actually had to turn someone down because there wasn’t an open site for the particular weekend in question.

Quinipet Camp & Retreat Center is our sister camp located on Shelter Island. Quinipet offers day and overnight summer camp for children ages 5-16 and retreat space for groups. We also offer pastoral retreats at no charge to active NYAC ministers.

Learn More About Quinipet

‪Contact us:

(607) 301-0640‬

[email protected]

http://kingswoodcampsite.org/