flour fairies, QUAD buffs

Recently, we've received some really sweet donations. One of our Medicine Hat friends, John (who will be speaking at the August 28-30 Family Camp), has been sending loads and loads of whole wheat flour our way, delivered with love by Peter and Elfrieda. Thank you, all! Peter and Elfrieda's minivan was weighed down with about 1400lbs of flour in the delivery pictured below (plus many, many boxes of Triscuits, which the staff have been snacking on for the last several weeks).

We also had a multiple room trailer donated to us at the beginning of May -- our male spring staff lived in it during May and June and male support staff will be living in it throughout the summer. We've been so thankful for the extra beds it has afforded us! I have a couple pictures of the moving in process to post below. My favourite is the one of Dave, Rolf, Cody, Jyle and Vince discussing their next move while gesturing all at once. I love it. The trailer -- which Courtney has taken to calling the QUAD -- is now nestled in the trees between the lovely RV sites and the basketball/hockey pad.

introducing ... ashley

Ashley is amazing. She's a super hard worker, she's full of passion and life and she's just lots of fun to have around. She's our Support Staff Team Leader this summer, and she'll be working really closely with our SURGE campers. 2009 is going to be a banner year for general amazing-ness, fun-ness and productive-ness on the support staff team. I am confident of this. As for Ashley's picture, she spent several months in Australia and New Zealand at the start of 2009.


hometown | Coaldale, Alberta

favourite band | Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

favourite books | The O'Malley Series

favourite movie/tv show | Glory Road

best camp memory | "Making Calvin and Hobbes snowmen with [Jenni B.] in the wee hours of the morning."

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "THE KILLER BEAM."

favourite skill to teach (and why) | "Challenge Course because it means I get to dangle from high places!"

i can't make it through the day without ... | Coffee

favourite bible verse/chapert/book/writer | Mark

how many years i've been coming to Evergreen | "This is my fourth year as staff."

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Sleep!"

introducing ... julia the wall

Our good friend Julia is known as Julia, the Wall and Jericho. (You'll have to ask her why.) Julia arrived at the beginning of June and she's going to be leading music in chapel this summer, and cabin leading.


hometown | Hays, Alberta

favourite band | Shawn McDonald and Pillar

favourite author | Karen Kingsbury

favourite movie/tv show | Finding Nemo

best camp memory | "When I was a camper, I always remember how crazy all of the cabin leaders were ... they still are pretty crazy."

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Music, having some good chats, canoeing and wall climbing."

favourite skill to teach (and why) | "Canoeing is so much fun. It's great watching all the kids get a hang of paddling, sometimes, backwards."

i can't make it through the day without ... | "My coffee ... yup!"

favourite bible verse/chapert/book/writer | The Book of John and John 1, 2, and 3.

how many years i've been coming to Evergreen | Seven!

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Hang out with friends, shop, swim."

introducing ... ben and jesse and jasper

Ben and Jesse led Adventure Classic together last summer and claim that Adventure Classic is a camp that cements friendships for life (okay, those weren't their words, but that was their point). Anyway, I'm going to introduce them together. And, just for the fun of it, I'm adding Jasper into the mix. Jasper and Jesse were in the same program at Prairie Bible College last year. Are you ready??

(Pictures, clockwise from top left: Ben belaying Jasper on the climbing wall, Jasper in the left corner leading Yodel 'n Hum, Jasper with his tongue out, Jesse and Ben looking suspiciously sweet.)

hometowns | Ben hails from Edmonton, Jesse's a California kid and Jasper is from Gem (and he is a gem, too).

I searched for a video for Audio Adrenaline's classic "Jesus and the California Kid" to no avail. So we'll share "Hands and Feet" with you instead:



favourite bands | Ben says, "The Beatles (lame, I know)," Jasper likes Pillar and Jesse likes Casting Crowns.

favourite books | Ben strongly recommends The Grapes of Wrath, or Great Expectations if you find The Grapes of Wrath too "edgy". Jasper's a fan of the Bourne series and Jesse recommends the books of Louis L'Amour.

favourite movies or tv shows | Ben's a Jurassic Park fan. [I've never seen Jurassic Park.] Jasper and Jesse both like The Unit, and Jesse also lists 24 as a favourite.

best camp memories | Ben says, "Busting out a super intense interpretive dance with my teen camp cabin". Jasper loved the Roughin' It week that he, Ben, Colter and Luke led together in a previous summer, while Jesse fondly recalls jumping off a 25' cliff into water on Adventure.

favourite things to do at camp evergreen | Jesse likes the Adventure camps best. Ben likes talking. Jasper likes playing Jug 'n Jog with the groups.

favourite skills to teach | Ben's favourite skill to teach is climbing, "because sharing my enthusiasm for the best sport ever and hopefully getting other people excited about it too is just really super fantastic." Jasper agrees: "climbing, because there is lots of time to interact with groups," and he adds, "Yodel 'n Hum because it's fun ..." Jasper gets regular shout outs on guest groups evals for being such a committed Yodel 'n Hum leader. Jesse likes leading Challenge Course best when he's on site, "because it pushes people and it's fun to encourage them and awesome to see them succeed, especially when they were afraid going into it."

i can't make it through the day without ... | For Jesse, it's food. For Ben, it's thinking about climbing. For Jasper, it's being loud.

favourite bits in the Bible | Ben "doesn't even know, dude." Jasper recommends Philippians 4:13. Jesse likes 1 Peter 3:15.

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Ben's been here for nine years or so and this is Jesse's second summer with us. Jasper's been an Evergreener for seven years now.

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | Ben likes to "get in a quick campus sesh" [which is something to do with climbing ... I think] and Jesse and Jasper also like climbing (but kindly don't use fancy words that are over my head to tell me about it).

anything else you'd like to say, guys? | Jasper says, "Roughin' It is going to be a blast!" and Jesse counters with, "but Adventure will be even better!"

introducing ... janelle

Janelle is our assistant cook this spring and summer and she's doing an amazing job. Janelle's pretty much always got a smile on her face, and she's lots of fun to work with!


hometown | Linden, Alberta

favourite band | "I like music."

favourite book | "I like books."

best camp memory | "Having Nellie and Chelsey as cabin leaders in 2007 (I think ... or 2006?)" (It had to have been 2006.)

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Cook ... and spoil people with fresh baked cookies or other treats. Or canoeing!"

i can't make it through the day without ... | "Food."

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "... drive."

anything else you'd like to share, janelle? | "There is good food at Camp, I know 'cause I make some of it."

introducing ... nicole and alex

Nicole and Alex are being introduced together because they're running our AIM programs this summer. I'm pretty excited about it. They're both full of ideas and passion and general fun-ness. Nicole and Alex are going to be an excellent AIM team.

Also, Nicole's first summer as a camper at Evergreen was my (Kerry's) first summer as a cabin leader and she was in my first cabin ever. I've posted pictures of that summer in the lodge and the Welcome Centre. You'll have to look for them when you're here. Or maybe I'll post one here, too.



hometown | Calgary for Alex and Airdrie for Nicole (A-town represent!).

favourite band | Alex's favourites are Coldplay and Anberlin; Nicole's faves are Coldplay and "about fifty others ... feel free to ask me sometime".

favourite book | Nicole appreciates The Wars. Alex is a fan of The Shack.

favourite movie or tv show | Nicole says, "As for movies, far too many to count. Once again, feel free to chat with me about it. Television shows? One phrase: The Big Bang Theory". Alex elects the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for movies and Smallville on TV.

best camp memory | Alex fondly recalls "teaming up with Rob Unruh in Jug 'n Jog and dominating", while Nicole says it's obviously having Kerry as her cabin leader. Just kidding. Nicole actually said, "probably the weekend trips we took during CIT as well as my week on Adventure Classic last year".

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | Nicole says, "playing wide games, working in the kitchen with Ken, doing some archery and of course, participating in chapel". Alex's faves are games, especially "Jug 'n Jog, Capture the Flag and such games".

favourite skill to teach | Alex likes to lead sports "... cuz they are super fun and easy to understand." For Nicole, it's "archery all the way! I guess I love it because I competed when I was a youngin' and enjoy teaching it to all the sweet people that pass through".

favourite bits in the Bible | Nicole is fond of 1 John. Alex likes Romans 12.

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | This is Nicole's 11th summer at Evergreen. Alex has been around, on and off, for four or five years.

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | Alex likes sleeping, playing cards and playing Take Two; Nicole likes "being active (bike riding, running, what have you), watching movies and reading".

anything else you'd like to say, alex? | "I want to meet everyone!"

and nicole? | "Just that handlebar moustaches are [not my favourite things] and Transformers are, and forever will be, legit."

introducing ... kristy

Kristy probably doesn't need an introduction; she's been here for the past two years. But, I'm going to introduce her to you anyway, just in case you haven't met her yet. Kristy is much-loved, especially by our staff kids. It's pretty cute how they flock to her!


hometown | Calgary

favourite band | Rubber (wait for it).

favourite book | The Bible and Green Eggs and Ham.



favourite movie or tv show | Kristy's been on staff through the winter and we've been doing a girls' movie night once a week. We seem to go for a lot of movies that were made before Kristy's time, and that might, by most standards, be considered terrible (cheesy, lame plot, bad acting, etc.), but she's a been a pretty good sport about it. I'm thinking that 9 to 5 was probably her favourite to date.

favourite thing(s) to do at camp evergreen | "Catching run away horses." (Okay, seriously, Kristy's had some experience with this, this winter. Duke, Diamond, Munchkin and the other one who lives in the front pasture recently made a break for the neighbour's house.)

favourite skill to teach | Horsemanship ("... because I like working with the horses") and the wall ("... because I like being able to visit with the groups").

i can't make it through the day without ... | "Hanging out with Lisa and finding out what Wanda has to say." (Wanda is the fish on Lisa's computer.)

how many years i've been coming to evergreen | Ten!

something i love to do when i'm not working is ... | "Hang out with my [camp] 'family'."

anything else you'd like to say, kristy? | "Lisa, Colleen, Janelle and Kerry answered these questions on my behalf."