Birchwood Summer Camps
Online registration is open for Birchwood Camp's summer camp sessions. We provide overnight summer camp experiences for campers entering first grade (in fall 2014) through 2014 high school graduates; we hope that your camper will join us this year! Click here to learn more about our summer camps.
Register before April 1 and receive our $20 early bird discount! Our camps are already filling up, so we recommend registering soon.
Birchwood Camp is a welcoming camp community and a ministry of the United Methodist Church in Alaska. We practice kindness, acceptance, respect, cooperation, outdoor learning & play. Our camps provide safe spaces for spiritual formation, genuine community, and character development. We are accredited by the American Camp Association.
Update: We've added a Summer Family Camp on August 8-10!
As quality family time disappears in today's busy world, we want to give you a chance to build deep bonds and wonderful memories with your family. Details and more information will be available soon.
Want a little taste of adventure? Check out this video: Adventure Canoe Camp 2014
Support Our Scholarship Fund
We believe camp is an invaluable experience that should be available to all children and teens. Our Bruce Roberts Memorial Fund provides scholarship to campers who would otherwise not be able to attend camp. You can ensure that every camper gets to experience community, make friends, and deepen their faith at Birchwood Camp this summer by making a gift to our scholarship fund.
Serve as a Counselor this Summer
"The best part of being a counselor at camp was getting to be a role model and a hero for the campers!"
"I gained spiritual renewal, rest, and resurrection by serving as a counselor at Birchwood."
Caring, fun counselors are essential to great camp experiences. YOU have the opportunity to make a lasting impact on a child’s life and create wonderful memories of your own when you serve as a cabin counselor at Birchwood. If you are over the age of 18, please consider serving in this very important volunteer position for a week this summer and give children the experience of building community at Birchwood Camp.
More information about serving as a Camp Counselor
Watch the video: Why counselors love serving at Birchwood
Camp Facilities Update
We have several maintenance and building projects planned around camp this year. Here are a few of the things we will be working on:
- We'll be replacing the doors on our sleeping cabins with new, improved doors which will help keep the heat in and the cold out.
- We plan to replace & upgrade our picnic shelter, which is showing signs of rot and old age.
- We will be completing the lower level of Fireweed Hall so that it can be a usable program space for our summer camps and guest groups.
- Our Board of Directors has approved the addition of bathrooms and water to Fireweed Hall, a much needed & requested upgrade! This will take the form of a bath room building attached by a breezeway off the north end of the existing structure. We are in the planning stages now and will share more details as we have them. We ask you to prayerfully consider how you can support the project, as our Board will be raising funds for this important addition in the coming months.
We are always in need of skilled volunteers to help with projects like this. If you would like to be part of our informal local maintenance volunteer team, email Stephen, our Camp Manager (
manager@birchwoodcamp.org). We will keep you posted about upcoming work days and volunteer opportunities.
RevGo: Helping Young Adults be in Ministry at Birchwood Camp
Birchwood Camp is home to a thriving young adult ministry: our summer intern program. Each summer young adults come from all over the country to serve God and grow as leaders; they give up better paying summer jobs so they can be in ministry with our children and teens. The benefits of the intern program are overwhelmingly positive for these young adults: they gain practical skills, become leaders & innovators, learn to develop & execute programs and mentor others in faith. After mastering the skills needed for supervising, nurturing and inspiring a cabin full of busy kids, there's not much these interns can't do!
RevGo is an online fundraising tool for young adults that several of our 2014 interns are using to raise money for their plane tickets to Alaska. We invite you to support/sponsor one of these young people as they prepare for a summer of ministry at Birchwood Camp.
Help our 2014 Summer Interns get to Alaska
Giving Tuesday Report
Thanks to all those who supported Birchwood Camp on Giving Tuesday 2013. We were honored to be able to participate in the Giving Tuesday match campaign sponsored by the UMC's
General Board of Global Ministries. Your generosity totaled nearly $25,000 in just 24 hours! This tremendous show of support gave us a jump start on the Fireweed Hall bathroom project. Thank you!
Fun, Friends & Faith at Winter Youth Break-Away
Between Christmas and New Year 2013, Birchwood Camp held it's fourth annual Winter Youth Break-Away Camp for teens. This year 37 awesome campers and their fun & dedicated counselors enjoyed four days exploring the theme of fun, friends and faith. We learned about how these parts of our lives are intertwined and about the many ways that God speaks to us. It was a great winter camp, complete with lots of fun in the snow!
Mark your calendars for next year's Winter Youth Break-Away, December 27-30, 2014.
Winter 2013/ 2014 Volunteers
Know any of the folks below? Next time you see them, give them a high-five and thank them for their volunteer work with Birchwood Camp!
Aaron Smith, Alan Dennis, Adam Muhr, Bailey Brawner, Barbara Stratton, Benee Braden, Betsy McGrew, Betty Burke, Bruce Steely, Caleb Rapanut, Carlo Rapanut, Ches Chesbro, Chris Reintsma, Chuck Livers, Connie Quinley, Conoco Phillips' Day of Caring Work Team, Courtney Darnell, Dan Lush, Daniel Valette, Dave Wachsmuth, David Duprow, Diane Shellenbaum, Doug Handlong, Ellen Franklin, Geoffrey Woods, Helen Anders, Emily Ripley, Jenny Smith, Jeremy Beckett, Jessie Herring, Joan Stassel, Joyce Hughes, John Quinley, Kallie Handlong, LeeAnn Wohlgemuth, Leif Lidin-Lamon, Liz Ashlock, Meghan Dau, Mike Stratton, Nathan Woods, Nora Ortiz Fredrick, Phil Manderson, Radie Rapanut, Sandra Woods, Shane Inch, Steve Lambert, Teri Inch, Von Cawvey.
*We appreciate all our volunteers! Please contact us if we've made an error or left someone off this list. We will make sure to publish it correctly in the next e-newsletter.
