Catholic HEART Workcamp Week 1

So many wonderful stories are going to come from CHWC 2010, the first one is Scott Thomas a former CHWC staff member was ordained yesterday and celebrated mass today at our Jackson Camp. Thanks Fr. Scott for sharing this moment with us.

The 2010 Staff Takes to the Road

After a week of training the 2010 summer staff has left for there first camps. Teams 4 and 5 left for their cities on Thursday and Teams 1 and 3 left today. Memphis, Jackson, Chicago and Omaha here we come. The summer of 2010 is going to be an excellent summer, with over 11,000 participants in 41 cities. We are very excited about the next two months.

Below is Team 5 loading their truck on Thursday.

Team 1 loading up on Friday.

 We pray for safe travel of all the staffs this weekend and for all the groups attending the first week camp's.

Media Training

Every year the CHWC Media Managers for all the teams come to Orlando for a weekend of wires, technology, and fun. This training is an intense immersion into the world of CHWC Media. The weekend was a total success, we trained two new media managers and brushed up on the skills of the returners. Below is a picture of equipment day, where we setup and test ALL the media for all five teams, it is quite an experience!

Ladder Day!

Catholic HEART Workcamp is concerned about safety 365 days of the year, but one day a year we take safety to the next level. That day is today, Ladder Day. Every year when spring arrives we unload all the ladders out of the sheds, dust them off, and have them inspected from top to bottom. It is quite a site to behold.

You may ask 'Who inspects your ladders?' Well, we have a relationship with a local contractor, David. He is responsible for the wonderful care card racks you see at camp and the crosses we have on stage. David inspects all the ladders from top to bottom and gives them the seal of approval. Below is David hard at work.

Well as the sun sets on the annual Ladder Day event, you can rest assured when you are painting Mrs. Smith's trim, that the ladder you are standing on was inspected by CHWC on Ladder Day.

CHWC at the LA Congress Day 2

Day two was a very busy day at the LA Congress. We met tons of people and caught up with some old friends. There were a lot of people interested in the new west coast camps that CHWC has for the summer of 2010 and 2011. We hope that this translates into CHWC able to continue to grow in the Western U.S. Our favorite acoustic/humor/rock band Popple stopped by for a visit. Below is a photo of Dan and Kyle from Popple at our booth.

CHWC at the LA Congress

Catholic HEART Workcamp has sent a group of individuals to to the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, this week. The LA Congress is the largest annual gathering of Catholics in the United States with roughly 40,000 people attending. The focus of the congress is for those in attendance to learn more about the Catholic faith as well as seeking personal growth. We have a booth at the event and are very excited to be here.

At the booth: Wayne, Kelly and Lauren just finished setting up.

Managers Meeting, Staff, and Pre-Trip Packs

There is so much going on at the CHWC Office these days. We had the second managers meeting last week. We had the remaining 25 managers from all over the country come to sunny Orlando for the weekend. Johannin our new musicians from Portland played music for the event. The meeting was very successful.Also going on this week we are picking the 2010 CHWC Staff. Applications were due on 2/1 and the staff will be picked by the 15th. We had over 145 applications for about 75 positions. There are so many qualified people, it is a rather difficult process. The picture below is a snapshot of the process of picking the staff.

If that wasn't enough, the pre-trip packets are going out to all of the groups registered for camp also this week. Over 400 packets and 10,500 pre-trip planning books. Wanna see what 11,000 pre-trip planning books look like.