Those arriving to camp this summer will see some very visual signs of progress and growth made this spring. While we've shared some progress updates along the way, it's exciting that so many projects have finally reached their completion just in time for summer camp!

The expansion to the high ropes course has been completed and summer staff will be trained on its operation next week. Eight brand new obstacles have been added to the existing course, safety tethers with updated technology will be utilized to minimize risk, and getting onto the course will be made easier thanks to a spiral staircase. Over a mile of new cable was installed by our builders to ensure that our high ropes course is safe and provides challenges and thrills for many years to come. We're grateful to everyone in our BCC community who contributed to this project this past Giving Tuesday and can't wait for those first sounds of campers supporting each other and conquering their fears!

The waterfront has a new look as the pavilion has been fully completed. This is the culmination of two years worth of work at the lake that kicked off thanks to our community's generosity with Giving Tuesday 2022. Over the past month, our maintenance team and volunteers from Conyngham Lutheran have completed the interior build to provide equipment storage and changing areas. Bear Creek Wilderness Conservation Association members did landscaping and planted grass, members of West Chester University's Tau Beta Sigma prepared the beach and painted boards for picnic tables that will then be built by members of Calvary Lutheran, West Chester -- truly a community effort to bring this dream to reality!

The trip down the camp road won't be any shorter, but it will be a lot smoother, and not quite as red, thanks to an opportunity for major improvements. This spring our local township has been upgrading many of the roads surrounding camp which generates asphalt millings that then need to be hauled down the mountain. Saving the resource of expending fuel for the township (and the earth!) and providing BCC with a perfect material to build up the foundational layer of the road at no cost is a win-win. We're often asked about maintaining the road and a fun fact is that in a typical year, we add 10 tons of newly quarried red shale to the road. This year we were able to add over 160 tons of milling! Even though you'll notice a color difference in some spots, rest assured your car still end up with enough red dust on it to show all your friends back home that you've been to BCC this summer!

With these facilities upgrades, enhancements to our summer program including rafting trips and the return of "clubs," and of course everything that is discovered each year with new summer staff and a new combination of campers, this is sure to be a 50th summer at Bear Creek Camp that will be one to remember! We can't wait to see you at camp soon!