Winter time at camp is centered on making small, consistent bits of progress. Whether this is the summer camp registrations coming in every day, the growing list of hired staff tacked to a bulletin board, or churches and families being visited every Sunday as campers from all over the state get excited for summer, lots and lots of individual moments eventually add up to the whole that is summer camp at BCC.

Last week within the span of an hour, two projects that have so far been a series of small steps took big leaps forward. The materials for the pavilion at the lake were dropped off and the team of builders for the high ropes expansion arrived to set up their work area. What had been a dream on paper fueled by the generosity of our community the past two Giving Tuesdays is now going to become tangible and visual very quickly over the next month.

As I walked out to observe the progress this week, I stood inside the frame of the new lake pavilion. I tried to picture what it was going to be like once it was completed and I also imagined how it was going to feel once there were campers again on the beach able to enjoy this new space for shade and community. There are still a lot of small steps to go before we reach summer, but it's going to be pretty amazing once we get there.

In this season where six more weeks of winter feels both like an impossibly long amount of time and also not nearly long enough to accomplish all that our families have in front of us, I appreciate the small steps you each take in support of Bear Creek Camp: registering for summer camp, telling a friend about the opportunities of BCC for their family, gently suggesting to the college-aged person in your life about the possibilities of summer camp, financial contributions that make it possible for every camper to come to camp. Thank you for making a BIG difference.

- Collin Grooms, Executive Director