Machia Wilderness Camp
Annual Report 2022
Machia Wilderness Camp ended 2022 with $83,792.70 in the two accounts with all bills current. We owe $190,000.00 on the land mortgage.
2022 found Machia Wilderness Camp with much going on. New to us: We produced the first camp Newsletter; Partnered with Faith United Methodist Church in South Burlington to help us raise money; Welcomed an Event Planner and a Communications and Marketing Consultant; Started the Founders Club and welcomed two new Board Members, Chris Stafford and Mike Bouffard.
We had several workdays prior to the opening of camp to prepare the various outdoor classrooms, and do some repairs in the barn to give us more usable space for the camp. We had good volunteer turnout for these workdays. Those hours plus the hours of the instructors, and the Board gave us a total of nearly 1,800 volunteer hours in 2022. We cannot begin to give enough thanks to all the people who made this possible.
We started a Founders Club to encourage 100 people to become sustaining donors at a minimum of $10.00 per month or $120.00 per year to help pay the ongoing mortgage. To date we have just 24 sustainers, however, because many are donating more than the $10.00 per month, in the first year we raised about half the mortgage payment. We are working to sign up more sustainers so we can cover the whole mortgage and possibly pay the mortgage off early! The first 100 sustainers will have their name on a plaque in a prominent location in the lodge.
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In June we partnered with Faith United Methodist Church on a drive through pulled pork dinner and raised $6,400.00 followed by our annual Calcutta in September which raised nearly $10,000.00. These monies will be used to reconstruct the floor of the barn so we can put a small kitchen and some restrooms into the existing structure. Plans for that happening are the spring/summer of 2023.
We received a small grant from General Dynamics, Employees’ Community Action Council. Also, some money from VtSHARES (VT State Employee United Way Campaign). These monies were used to offset some of the expenses of running the camp in 2022.
The end of 2021 we contracted with Charlotte Carr to be our Communications and Marketing Consultant. She has created our newsletter, updated and created ads, kept us up to date on social media, and the Website. We look forward to her creativity in 2023.
In July, Chris Stafford introduced us to Ariel Bertenshaw. She is an Event Planner and agreed to take on our September Calcutta, as a volunteer. She proved to be valuable for us, making lots of good suggestions and becoming the front person with the Milton Eagle’s Club to make sure all was ready on Calcutta night. We are excited that she has agreed to do our 2023 Calcutta in September.
We hired Krebs & Lansing Consulting Engineers to discover the size and locations for our septic system(s) and wells. The money for this first phase was raised in our Oct. 2021 e-blast fundraiser. Thank you to our many supporters we raised the desired $10,000.00.
Twenty-seven youth attended camp. There were 12 apprentices and 15 instructors over the course of the week with at least 5 instructors on site at all times. This was our second year at the Milton property. Our surveys to the campers, apprentices and parents tell us we are doing good things getting campers excited about becoming better stewards of our earth. We are enjoying the freedom of taking the time we need to prepare the site for the campers and create our outdoor classrooms. We look forward to continuing to develop the property and are working with the town of Milton as we add programs. They seem to be excited about having us as part of their community.
There still is much to do before we can really expand into a 2nd week of day camp, but the plans are to have it up and running in 2024.
2022 was a busy, productive and successful year for Machia Wilderness Camp thanks to all our donors, volunteers, and the creative abilities and suggestions of the Board and instructors.
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