Foothills Camp Report

November 2021

Foothills Camp has been a very different place since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of you are aware that Foothills Camp was shut down and most all camp staff were temporarily laid off at one point because of COVID-19. With that said, most staff are now back to work, and things are looking bright for the future. This is a short report to share with you some of the things that have been accomplished at Foothills Camp over the past few years.

Foothills Camp is a very busy place and requires a dedicated staff to keep things running smoothly. Typically, Foothills Camp is booked approximately 40 weekends per year by church groups, Pathfinder groups, outdoor survival groups, retreat groups, minicamp meetings, boy scouts, and girl guides. Youth and family camp programs run steady from May until the end of August. These programs include outdoor school, Adventurer family camp, Camp Meeting, junior camp, teen camp, Sherwood Forest, and others.

COMPLETED PROJECTS

There is not enough room in this report to list everything that was completed at Foothills Camp over the past few years, so I’ve chosen to highlight some items that stand out:

• New gates have been installed for security purposes at each camp entrance, as has new fencing along part of the front property.

• Foothills Camp was approved by Alberta Transportation as well as Red Deer and Mountain

View Counties to have four new highway signs installed that direct visitors to the camp. • Another new addition to the camp is a beautiful memorial garden that has been designed and built by Ted and Dorothy Proud.

• A new road has been built to

Sherwood Forest that steers vehicles away from the eroded riverbank.

• Six furnaces have been replaced in the lodge with new, highly efficient units.

• Trail maintenance and improvements are ongoing, and a couple new trails have been added.

• Some major repair was completed for the road going to the Education

Centre, and an area for parking was implemented. This should make any visit to the Education Centre a lot more accessible and cleaner.

• Cracked plumbing was excavated under the RV washroom building and repaired.

• A new access road has been built from the main driveway to the treed RV section.

• The field east of the RV section was tilled and seeded last year, providing its first crop this fall.

• All rooms in cabin block D have been repainted, and new led lights were installed.

• Old fireplaces in the lodge dining room and lower meeting

Foothills Camp Report

room were replaced with new gas fireplace inserts.

• A new water treatment system was installed to help reduce rust buildup in the waterlines.

• Outdoor equipment repairs: twenty

BMX bikes have been repaired, as have nine canoes, in preparation for next summer camp.

• The camp nursing station has been renovated with new paint,

LED lighting, and some newer equipment (oxygen machine and motorized hospital bed).

• New tables and chairs have been purchased and put into place at the lodge dining room.

• New identification signs have been added to the front of the main buildings along the paved walk and on the cabin blocks.

• All the building roofs at the camp have been redone.

• The lower lodge meeting room has been renovated with LED lights and new fire protective drop ceiling tiles.

• A sagging beam was replaced in the lodge entrance, and a new ceiling was installed.

• The public washrooms in the lodge upstairs and downstairs have been completely renovated with new showers, sinks, and toilet stalls.

• Five rooms on the lower east side of the lodge were renovated into four rooms, each with their own ensuites.

• A vaper barrier and insulation was installed in the crawl space of the white church to help protect it from moisture.

• A new mobile rock wall was purchased for use at summer camps.

• Two new hot water tanks were installed in the lodge.

PLANS & NEEDS

Plans are in place to continue with more lodge room renovations, grounds improvements, RV washroom renovations, and new outhouses at Sherwood Forest. The lodge foundation still needs to be parged, which involves a new layer of cement over top of the existing bricks. The camp desperately needs a heated, covered storage building because there is no place to store equipment and supplies.

My wish list for the camp this coming year is to have a few drinking fountains installed around the grounds at integral locations, a play structure installed in the RV section for kids to enjoy, and a skid steer to help with an increasing amount of grounds work as well as snow removal for sidewalks, roads, and parking areas.

Submitted by Troy McQueen Foothills Camp Director