The 2013 “I’m Third” Golf Tournament benefits Camp Wood YMCA and is put on with the help of Strickland Construction. It will take place June 24th at Falcon Ridge Golf Course in Lenexa, KS. Read below for more information about the tournament and how it has helped develop youth throughout the years at summer camp.

Once again, this year is turning out to be one of the
most important years in recent history to be involved
in the life of non-profits. As many of you know, I have
been involved with Camp Wood YMCA for the past 18
years, serving as board member along with numerous
positions within that board.

This year is important to the life of Camp Wood YMCA
in that we are being called more than ever to assist
families in allowing their children to have an experience
that lasts a lifetime. This experience is summer
camp. Camp Wood YMCA offers a very traditional
summer camp to everyone wishing the experience.
Over one quarter of the 1,000 children who attend
Camp Wood YMCA receive direct financial assistance.
Most receive assistance based on family size and income.

The funds to cover this assistance must be
raised by our Board of Directors. To do my part, with
the help of my company and friends, I have offered the
I’m Third Golf Tournament for the past 10 years and
through this special event have raised over $350,000.
If you have not been a part of this effort, we would
like to invite you to join us. The tournament will be at
the Falcon Ridge Golf Course in Lenexa, KS on June 24,
2013. Please consider forming a team or playing as
an individual. We also have sponsorship opportunities
available.

Ken Wold, Executive Director of Camp Wood YMCA,
and Ryne Witt, Senior Program Director, along with a
board members will be on hand to visit with you about
the camp.

Sincerely,

Rogers Strickland

Camp Wood YMCA Board of Directors

Strickland Construction

Golf Options Format:

4 Person Scramble format, everyone plays, Bogey is your Friend

Team package: $1000 per team of four Four Golf Tournament Entries (includes green fees, cart, lunch, tournament gift and prizes)

Single Entry: $250 per player One Golf Tournament Entry (includes green fee, cart, lunch, tournament gift and prizes)

Sponsorship Levels:

Registration deadline to be included in program: June 15, 2013

Tournament Sponsor: $5000 Tee sign, listed on tournament program, 2 team packages

Eagle Sponsor: $2500 Tee sign, listed on tournament program, 1 team package

Birdie Sponsor: $1250 Tee sign, listed on tournament program, two single entries

Par Sponsor: $500 Tee sign, listed on tournament program, one single entry Hole

Sponsorship: $300 Tee sign, listed on tournament program

Prize sponsorship:

Donate merchandise or gift certificates to be used as team prizes. What a great way to promote your business. Donations need to be in multiples of two or four.

Tournament Gift Sponsor: $2000
Contribute to the tournament gift and
your organization name will be included on
the gift.

Tournament Lunch Sponsor: $1200
Cover the cost for the lunch meal. Listed
on lunch table and program.

Tournament Breakfast Sponsor: $300
Cover the cost for the meal before the
tournament. Listed on breakfast table and
program.

To participate  register or donate to the golf tournament you can call Ryne Witt at the Camp Wood YMCA office at 620-273-8641 or talk to Jacqueline Doherty at Strickland Construction at 913-764-7000.

***We are excited to announce our best deal of the summer – CAMP WOODPON!***

The Woodpon is good for:

1/2 off Traditional Camp Session 4 (June 30 – July 6)
 A $282.50 value

How do you get this deal?

-Registration for the Woodpon happens on May 1st.
-Call Camp Wood (620-273-8641) between 8am – 5pm on that day.
-DO NOT register online!
-Leave your name, number and how many campers.
-We have to have 35 registrations in order for this deal to go into effect.
-We will call on May 2nd to inform you if there were enough registrants. If the Woodpon is a go, then we take your deposit and more registration information at that time.

Use this as an opportunity to send your kid to an extra week or it might be a good way to save for your child’s one week at camp.

If you are interested in the Woodpon, share it with a friend because the Woodpon doesn’t go into effect until we get 35 campers.

I can’t picture my life without Camp Wood in it. This will be my 11^th year and I wonder where time went. I think back to my early days at camp and I don’t really remember all that much. But what I do remember is how happy I was.

I started out going to Camp Wood with my dad as part of Indian Princesses (now called Adventure Guides). At the time, it was a program run through the YMCA for dads and their daughters to get together and hang out with other dads and daughters nearby. Every year, my “tribe” would go to Camp Wood for our Halloween campout. I remember how we would carve pumpkins and roast marshmallow. We would give our marshmallows to the camp dogs and the dogs would magically end up in someone’s cabin only to get sick in the middle of the night. We would all fight to get the log cabin so we could all stay in the same room. We all wanted to sleep on the bunk above our dads. One year we saw all the words spelled out on the hillside in the cow pasture so we decided to go out and write FOX with the stones (we were the fox tribe!). Now every year I look to the hillside and I can still make out the faint letters.

My first 2 years of actual summer camp I went with my cousin, Tess. We were only a month apart and always had each other as friends. I remember how we had chapel every day after breakfast and on the last day we would go over to the outdoor chapel instead. I remember eating all my meals in Jones Lodge and how my cousin didn’t want to kiss the fish. I remember putting my elbows on the table too many times to count and having mealtime mockery wars with the boys. I remember the horse barn being down the hill where the paintball course is now. I rode Gabby every year. Our trail ride consisted of a ride around the lake, which we all thought was the coolest thing ever.

The years after that all seem to mesh together. I don’t actually know how many years I have been going to camp but I have been sticking with my guess of 11. There are certain moments from each year that stick out for me. The year I was in a tent because all the cabins were full. We ate and showered in shifts. That was the year we got morning showers! I remember eating breakfast with the taste of toothpaste still in my mouth. That’s the reason I don’t like orange juice. I remember dressing as zombies for the lip sync one year. I remember when there were movies offered for the kids that didn’t want to go to the dance. I would watch the movie every time with my friends. I remember hearing coyotes on campout and listening to Nate tell us the moon rock story. I remember the first year I climbed the tower. I remember doing team building as my morning activity. But one of the things I remember most is how close I got to the people in my cabin. I made some of the greatest friends at camp.

When I became a PIT (program staff in training) I felt like I really started to make an impact on camp instead of camp making an impact on me. That was the year that I became Little Blue. I ran a super hero camp that year. I hung out with Spicy and I went to the annual golf tournament where I got to be on the radio. I learned that magic wasn’t just what magicians do but also a card game. I had the coldest campout of my life. I learned just how hard it is to become tower trained. I helped make 2 of the benches for the IT’s fire pit. I remember collecting rocks for that in the rain. I remember how I started to make an impact on the campers around me. It was the year that I felt camp begin to notice me.

The next year I was a volunteer. It is one year that will forever stick in my brain. That was a year with a big storm. That was the worst night sleep I have ever gotten at camp. It was the year I lost my grandma and camp helped me through that. Marissa and I would hang out on the couches outside the office waiting for someone that needed help with something. We wrote Camp Life on our knuckles and took crazy pictures. I remember filling up water balloons in the Jones Lodge kitchen and accidentally breaking half of them. We got to stay in cabins and it was my first experience having campers. I was in Lizzy H.’s cabin. We had such great groups of girls. I learned so much about being a counselor that year and that was when I knew I wanted to be a counselor.

As a counselor this past summer I learned what Camp Wood is. Camp Wood is a place for kids to come to just be kids again. They don’t have to worry about school or homework. They don’t have to worry about what people think of them. Being a counselor is allowing these kids to share their innocence and love of life with the people around them. My goal as a counselor is to make sure each camper goes home with all the fond memories that I went home with as a kid. Even if a camper isn’t in my cabin, I want them to have such a great experience at camp that they will want to come back again each year. As a counselor, Camp Wood is no longer about my needs, but about the needs of the campers. I have all sorts of great experiences from this past summer. I met my best friend. I got to live at a place that I call home. But most of all, I became a part of Camp Wood.

During the month of April there can be two ways for you to win a free week of traditional camp:

1. By making a video about why you think camp is awesome and sending it to us at ymca@campwood.org or by sending it on a memory stick to 1101 Camp Wood Rd, Elmdale, KS 66850. This video will be posted to our Facebook page and whoever receives the most likes at the end of the month will win a free week of traditional camp. So the sooner you send the video the better!

2. By getting a friend who has never been a camper before signed up for summer camp. For every camper you recruit your name will go into a hat. At the end of this month, we will draw a name. Whatever name is drawn wins a free week of traditional camp! Make sure they put your name down in the referral section!

These contests will last the whole month of April and the announcements of the winners will happen on our Youtube page (www.youtube.com/user/campwoodymca) on May 1st.

Let us know if you have any question!

It is no secret that young people do not always consume the most healthy foods or drinks and this can also be said for many adults. I want to take this time to share with you all a great healthy living project I was involved in with young people in Cambridge, England.

I worked with a group of young people who wanted to introduce healthier drink options in their diets and came up with the idea to construct a ‘Juice Bar’ where they could create their own fruit smoothies and juices. The young people fundraised within the local community and worked with a local construction team to convert one of our workshops into a ‘Juice Bar’. By no means am I suggesting you should remodel your home for the sake of young people eating/drinking more fruit but keep reading and you may just find some cool ways to get kids interested in fruits.

The ‘Juice Bar’ was very simple in design; it had a kitchen work top area, sink, refrigerator and two food processors. The reason for the simplistic design was so young people could replicate this activity in their own homes.

Each week young people were given a set amount of money and instructed to go down to the local grocers to buy juices and fruits to make their smoothies. We ran a competition to see which young people could purchase the most amount of juice or fruit for the least amount of money. Young people did this task independently. We trusted them to spend the money on juices and fruits and they had full liberty to buy whatever fruits they wanted; we did not persuade them in any way. Young people learnt the cost of fruit, what fruits were available in different seasons and the value of bargains! The young people would then take turns creating smoothies and juices using fruits of their choice. Some smoothies were great and others not so much. Young people quickly learnt what fruits worked together and which fruits not to mix. It was a really creative learning experience and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

We found this project to be VERY successful. Young people thrived in making independent choices and enjoyed the freedom to do so. We found that by trusting the young people and enabling them to purchase items independently gave them a sense of responsibility and achievement. As interesting as it might sound, we also found many young people really enjoyed trying new flavors and foods; they were not as resistant as one would think.

This project can easily be replicated in your homes. Try it! Take your children to the local grocery store and introduce them to the idea of buying juices and fruits to make their own smoothie creations. Spend time with them in the kitchen prepping and cutting up fruit to put in a blender or food processor. Show them how easy and FUN it can be to have fruit in their diet. Begin by doing this maybe twice a week and as you become familiar with the routine, allow young people to buy fruits of their choice and if possible to purchase these items independently. This will enable them to be responsible, learn prices, the value of money, give them a sense of responsibility and when they create that jaw-dropping, delicious smoothie a sense of achievement!

Make sure you keep a list of recipes so that your young person always has a point of reference and something to show off to their friends and family. Have fun creating!

Ummar Anjum