When camp meeting comes to Gladstone Park, staff and volunteers work together to build a temporary community to accommodate at least 5,000 people. Planning began last fall to make sure that the campground is ready when July 22nd arrives this summer. Along the way, over 3,000 (volunteer and hired) man-hours are required to landscape, clean up, power wash walkways or buildings, place benches and picnic tables, and do the various other tasks that make the campground safe and inviting for guests at camp meeting. In 2023, camp meeting cost over $600,000. Last fall, we committed to budget $450,000, planning to be more efficient while soliciting donations to fund camp meeting this year. Since November, the planning team has sharpened its pencil and reduced another $60,000 from the projected camp meeting budget. How? We’ve tightened the schedule for delivery of services to the campus. By carefully staging deliveries of public safety and sanitation resources like radios, golf carts, port-a-potties and trash cans to arrive “just in time,” we’re able to reduce the cost by a small amount. By adjusting programming plans to reduce our dependence on rented meeting tents, we reduced additional cost.

A variety of other small changes have allowed us to recalibrate the fundraising goal to $390,000 for camp meeting this year.

What hasn’t changed: The focus on planning camp meeting to be a spiritually uplifting and socially connecting time together this summer.

But we still need your help to make the dream a reality. Please consider volunteering and/or donating to make camp meeting happen. Together, we can do this!

Give online at https://orad.us/ORGiving or write "Gladstone Camp Meeting" on your tithe envelope. We can't wait to see you this summer!