"My daughter just got back tonight from the best week of her life. Thank you for loving our children and providing this amazing camp where our kids can learn and see God at work."

- Karen, parent of a 2011 camper

Campership Fund

Gifts to the Glisson Campership Fund help to make summer camp possible for families for whom camp would otherwise be out-of-reach financially. During summer 2010, 84 campers were able to attend Glisson summer camp - an increase over the previous year - and thanks to the generosity of our donors we were able to assist 96 campers in 2011.

Over the past two summers, our summer camp parents made a substantial impact on the future sustainability of the Glisson Campership Fund. At the close of each summer camp week, parents were given the opportunity to donate to the Campership Fund the balances remaining in their campers' camp store accounts. A second option was to have their balances refunded to them, and our camper parents overwhelmingly agreed to donate their balances in each of the past two summers.

As a result of this overwhelming generosity, a total of over $13,000 was added to the Campership Fund in 2010 while an additional $11,500 was donated in 2011 from donated store balances alone! This not only helped to cover the unfunded balance of campership awards already made for both summers, but it also helped us to carry over a balance to the next summer - which gives us a positive balance on which to build, but does not guarantee the same level of funding each subsequent year. Gifts to the Campership Fund allow Glisson to reach more and more families with assistance to ensure their kids will be able to meet Christ face-to-face at Glisson in the future.

Because our commitment is to use the campership funds to help as many campers as possible, the $23,169 in campership funds we awarded during 2010 and the $29,425 we awarded in summer 2011 resulted in over $52,000 in campership awards fully funded by gifts from Glisson donors for those two summers alone. The more campership gifts we receive, the more campers we can help to enjoy the impact of Glisson summer camp on their lives at a time when their families are struggling to meet the full cost of attending camp. While the fund is currently carrying a balance as we approach 2012, it is merely a fraction of the amount we've awarded each of the past two summers.

Our goal for 2012 is to serve 144 campers with the Campership Fund - a 50% increase from 2011 - making summer camp possible for even more kids who otherwise would not be able to attend Glisson without assistance. If you would like to help us achieve this goal, please use the Donate Now button and do what you can to help us. Visit this link to learn more about the Campership application and awarding processes.

A Father's Wish

The father of a Glisson camper contacted me in March of 2009 asking if Glisson had some kind of program to help families make camp more affordable while they were struggling with finances during the current recession. In his email, he said to me, "I understand that camp is a luxury, but my son gets so much out of Glisson."

I am thankful this father was willing to write to me - especially considering how difficult things must be for his family, and many others, right now in this challenging economy. I respectfully disagreed with him on one thing: Camp is not a luxury. It's an important part of our fulfilling our promise as a church to raise the children we baptize - and those in the church who haven't yet been baptized - to be disciples of Christ. That's why we're here.

The number of families who requested assistance with camp fees for 2010 rivaled our 2009 figures, which were record numbers at the time. We are asking for help in continuing to meeting these annual needs.

Please consider how you can help these families with a gift to the Glisson Campership Fund:

A gift of any size will be a blessing to someone
$450 will cover the full cost of one week of Village Camp; $465 for senior high Village Camp
$450 will cover the full cost of one week of Adventure Outpost
$560 will cover the full cost of one week of Sparrowwood

The dad who sent this email to me closed his reply with this:

"It is extremely difficult to ask, but the desire for my kids to go to camp is greater than my pride."

You can help answer the prayer of a child who wants to attend summer camp - and the dad who wants it to happen. Please utilize our Donate Now feature and do what you can to help these families. Now that summer camp 2011 is upon us, campership gifts through the summer will help campers this year and will help build-up the fund for 2012 and beyond - making this a sustainable, annual outreach of the Glisson summer camp ministry.

C. Russell Davis
Director/Manager
Glisson Camp & Retreat Center

690 Camp Glisson Road, Dahlonega, Georgia 30533 - 706 864-6181

A Ministry of the North Georgia Conference, United Methodist Church