The Dan Thompsons Serving in Chile: A Problem Needing a Solution

Dear Everybody,

Today was a beautiful day on camp so the men decided to go out and measure the fence line on the beach side of the property. For many years now, we have had a problem with the beach side of the property. You see, no beach is private so anyone by law can come and enjoy the beauty of the lakefront even if it's right in front of the camp! We have had many people come onto camp to take wood for their camp fires, use the cabins for sleeping in the "off" season, rob from cabins during camp weeks, or worse yet, use our woods as a bathroom facility.

This past summer, things got worse. The point on the other side of our fence is a known party spot for college kids during the summer. During our teen camp there were lots of young college age people on the beach drinking all night. Two factions got into a fight and one man was stabbed. Our counselors found him in the morning, called Danny, and he ended up taking this man to the ER. He did survive the stabbing but it was something we never thought we would have to deal with. Another example of something that happened this summer was when we had over one hundred partyers trying to come onto camp and cause problems. At two in the morning we called the police who sent 2 policemen out to deal with the mob. They came in full riot gear but Danny didn't have anything except for a large stick! Chaos ensued but God was merciful to us and the mob broke up and many left. This is terrifying when there are kids and young people on camp!

just some of the mess left behind

The fence is in bad disrepair. The people on the beach bring wirecutters and just cut right through the thin chain link. Every summer we are patching up more and more holes. It's time to get drastic!

We have had the project of building a new fence for a while but at this point we don't have the needed finances to go forward with the project.