January 9, 2012
Staff applications are up!
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It is that time again! Time to apply to staff the 2012 day camp sessions! Come join us for this life-changing experience! More information, link to the online staff application and more are available on the Staff page . Check it out and apply now! Deadline is April 1. Help us spread the word, too! We need joyful enthusiastic counselors of all kinds and ages (although you must be 16 to apply for overnight staff.) See you this summer!
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October 11, 2011
Tornado Relief Update
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To find out the latest news and opportunities for tornado relief in the Sawyerville/Greensboro area, please check out our Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/219995521359972/
If you aren't on Facebook or do not wish to receive info this way, please contact Thomas Logan, chair of the Sawyerville Tornado Relief team and he will send you information.
We are hard at work trying to raise funds to rebuild a home for Pastor Kervin Jones. We are so close to our goal!
If you would like to bring a volunteer construction group down, please contact David Whetstone.
Thank you for your continued support!
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October 11, 2011
1st Annual 5K is a success!
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The good people of St. Paul's, Greensboro, recently hosted a wonderful 5K Run/Walk benefitting the Sawyerville Day Camp and the 2012 camp sessions! 143 people registered and about $3,000.00 was raised for the camp! Thanks to all those who came out on this recent beautiful October Saturday to run, walk, cheer or volunteer. The event was a total success and we hope it is one of many! Special thanks to the event's coordinator, Meg Rankin, and all the participants and volunteers. Thanks St. Paul's and friends of the camp!
Too see the race results click here.
To see photos and videos from the event click here. Make sure you check out the wonderful video of the Mayor of Greensboro getting everyone started off!
What is the Lord calling you to do for the camp??
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September 13, 2011
Sawyerville 5K fundraiser
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St. Paul's in Greensboro is sponsoring a 5K race as a fundraiser for the Sawyerville Day Camp!
All are welcome, experienced runners and not! There will be food, prizes for all ages, free ice cream sundaes ($2 for non-participants) and so much more! Invite a friend, your youth group, family members and join in on the fun on October 1st in Greensboro. Come be a cheerleader, supporter, walker or runner! A registration form & more info can be found here or by emailing Meg Rankin, race coordinator. Sign up now so we can order a t-shirt for you!
Many thanks to St. Paul's for this wonderful idea!
Registration Form & Race Map
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September 6, 2011
A great big thank you!
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| Thank you so much to all the many people and churches that made the 2011 Sawyerville Day Camp sessions a joyous and wonderful success! We served over 420 campers and had over 200 volunteer staff members participate! Our theme was "Welcome to the Promised Land" and it was truly a picture of the Promised Land--the kingdom of heaven has come near! Check out pictures from the summer and see for yourself or relive the memories! Thanks again to all the coordinators, campers, commission members, volunteers, meal providers, prayer partners, donors, whew-the list goes on! Again, thank you! See you in 2012 and sign up to receive e-news regarding the camp and its many programs here!
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May 9, 2011
Relief Page Created
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Please check out our new Tornado Relief page on our site as well as the new Facebook Sawyerville Relief page created by those who love and care for the Sawyerville community because of their connection to the day camp!
Check out the new Facebook page for weekly updates on what is needed most and to see pictures from the recent devastation!
Our prayers go out to all those affected by the storms. Praise God we can still have camp this summer--it is needed now more than ever!
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January 25, 2011
Calling all churches!
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YOU can be a part of the Sawyerville Day Camps!
Can't be a counselor or make it down to Greensboro this summer?
Below is a list of the supply items needed to provide the wonderful experience for the 400+ campers and 100+ staff.
Please
look over it to see what you and/or your parish might choose to donate,
and contact Memily Colvin at memily.colvin@gmail.com for details.
All items need to be collected and received in Birmingham by May 31st.
(We can help with this part!)
- Prayers
- Bathing Suits (over 400)
- Towels (ditto)
- Cleaning Supplies
- Paper Products
- Books
- Snacks (lots of snack food and drinks!)
- Money/Wal-mart gift cards (never a bad choice!)
This is an important ministry and a great way to get your parish working together on a project!
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January 11, 2011
Sawyerville Staff Apps Online
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Sawyerville Day Camp, it’s on now!
What better way to spend your summer than at a session of the Sawyerville Day Camp? The
Sawyerville
Day Camp is a unique opportunity to serve and share in
God’s love. This is your chance to form new relationships and reconnect
with old friends in a fun filled Christian community. All staff members
need to be at least 16 years of age at the time of camp and be able to
attend an entire session in Greensboro. Not sure what to expect? Click here to read more about the "camp experience." The dates for our 2011 sessions:
Session I: June 17-June 25, 2011 & Session II: Wed. July 6-Thurs. July 14, 2011
Fill out an online staff application today!
Click here to read more about the 2011 staff experience...
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November 1, 2010
Sawyerville Christmas Cards!
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Joy to the World!
Give the gift of Sawyerville for Christmas!
A very special Christmas card is now available to help raise awareness of the Sawyerville Day Camp. For a donation of $10 to the camp, we will send a Sawyerville Christmas Card to the recipients you choose. What a wonderful way to tell your family and friends about this very special camp & give the gift of swimming, laughter, singing, arts n’ crafts and Christ-centered relationships!
To order Christmas Cards, view the card or find out more info click here .
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October 28, 2010
2010 Numbers
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2010 Sawyerville Day Camp breakdown:
Camp Location: Greensboro Elementary
LC-lower camp
UC-upper camp
LC girls=54
LC boys=70
UC girls=44
UC boys=59
Total: 227
Waiting list: 40 Lower Campers (2nd session was full in Lower Camp)
Towns:
Akron-16
Faunsdale- 2
Gadsden- 7 (guest musician’s kids)
Greensboro- 121
Newbern- 19
Sawyerville-62
Session 1 Staff Numbers
60 overnight staff from all over the Diocese/Hale County
14 high school/college students that served as “day” staff from Greensboro & Sawyerville
Session 2
Camper Numbers (based upon registration)
LC Girls- 56
LC Boys- 74
UC Girls- 44
UC Boys- 62
Total: 236
Akron- 18
Faunsdale- 1
Eutaw- 2
Greensboro- 135
Newbern- 13
Northport- 1
Sawyerville- 66
Session 2 Staff Numbers
80 overnight staff from all over the Diocese/Hale County
12 day staff from Hale County
Total campers served: 463
Total staff served: 166
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October 21, 2010
How Sawyerville Changed Me
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What I Learned at Sawyerville
By Will Wilder, Youth Staff, St. Luke’s, Birmingham
This summer, I spent 10 days in Greensboro, Alabama working at Sawyerville Day Camp, a camp for economically disadvantaged kids in Hale County run by the diocese. I was honestly a little hesitant about Sawyerville. I had really wanted to go to Costa Rica on a service trip that week, but things didn’t work out, so I settled for Sawyerville instead. When I got in the van to drive down to Greensboro, I was still a little bit angry that I was heading to exotic Hale County instead of Costa Rica. Little did I know that the experience I would have at Sawyer Day Camp would be ten times more incredible than anything I could’ve done in Costa Rica.
Looking back on it, the week I spent at Sawyerville really changed my life and outlook on the world. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else. I met so many incredible people who showed me what life was like outside my little Birmingham Bubble. I met a 13 year old kid named Sean (pronounced See-YAN, and he will correct you) who told me to remember his name because he would eventually become president of the United States. Or CEO of Microsoft, he hasn’t decided yet. I met an 80 year old woman who sheltered Martin Luther King, Jr. in her house on a night when the Ku Klux Klan was after him. I met a 12 year old boy who could do a standing back flip and a perfect moonwalk. I could go on for hours about all the incredible and interesting people I met at the Sawyerville Day Camp. It was amazing how much all of these people appreciated the work we were doing together in Greensboro. I have never taken part in any other service activity that has had as big of a direct impact on the community it serves as Sawyerville does.
I helped teach the kids at Sawyerville a lot of things. I helped teach some of them to swim. I helped teach them fun games to play to stay fit and active. I tried to help teach them about the Word of God, be it through small group discussions or by singing along with Infamous, our resident Christian rapper. But I think the most important part of my experience wasn’t what I taught them, but what they taught me. The kids at Sawyerville taught me that no matter where you are, be it Mountain Brook or Greensboro, kids are the same. I saw the same youthful energy, the same bursting exuberance, the same lofty ambitions in the kids at Sawyerville that I see in kids playing outside in front of my house and that I saw in myself when I was their age. This has made me realize that no matter what background someone is from, they really aren’t all that different. This fact has made me realize how easy it is for different people, different ethnic groups, and different communities to get along if they just take the initiative to try. I once thought I would have to go to the ends of the Earth to have a revelation like this, but all I had to do was hop on a bus and drive an hour and a half down the road to Greensboro, Alabama.
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October 21, 2010
Watch our video!
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| Click here to see the Sawyerville campers express their gratitude to the churches and people that support the camp!
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August 31, 2010
Reflection on the Sawyerville Camp Community
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| This past week I had the great pleasure and privilege of serving on staff for the Sawyerville Day Camp. The day camp is in Greensboro, Alabama and serves the children of Hale County. This is the seventeenth year of this ministry which is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama in conjunction with the people of Hale County who are instrumental in the success of this ministry. This year the campers participated in a program entitled "Saints and Superheroes." In addition to the program the kids engaged in activities, arts and crafts, and of course swimming! As Daniel Strandlund, youth minister at St. Stephen's Birmingham, said at staff training, the Sawyerville Day Camp is its own parable that reveals what the Kingdom of God is like.
Close to the end of the week we gathered for a staff Eucharist. We were supposed to gather around a swimming pool in 100 degree heat for the service but thankfully we found ourselves inside an air-conditioned gymnasium. Of course the gym did not have the traditional stained glass windows that one would find in a church. Instead the icons we reflected on instructed us to drink more milk, to take responsibility for our own actions, and most importantly the correct way to hold a hockey stick. The credence table was a 3rd grader's desk. The altar hanging was a blue table cloth which also doubled as the fair linen. A lemonade pitcher served as the cruet for the wine, and a mini water bottle served as the cruet for the water. Hamburger buns served as the bread for the host. But don't worry we used traditional port wine for the Eucharistic feast!
After the prayer of consecration we communed each other as we passed the body and blood around to one another all while standing in a circle. Despite the non-traditional nature of our service we were bound together in a community given to us by God. As we shared the bread and wine, I reflected a little on some of the things we experienced earlier in the week.
As a part of our cultural immersion during staff training we took a visit to the Safe House: A Black History Museum. As the name suggests the Safe House was used as a place to hide African-Americans who were wanted by the Ku Klux Klan. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stayed in the house when he made a visit to Greensboro. We met some of the women who lived during the Civil Rights movement and heard their remarkable stories. As I stood in the museum I thought about what I had learned in school about the Civil Rights Movement. I thought about Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. And I too started dreaming about a world that lived in perfect harmony. I reflected on a place of reconciliation and redemption, a place where true community exists. I was both pleased and disappointed by the progress we have made in our state.
In his book Life Together Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, "The greatest danger to authentic community is our dreams for it, because we will always love our dreams more than the community that God has given us. Community is not a human ideal but a divine reality." Although I believe that we must dream and we must hope in order to move forward, however If we love our dreams more than the reality we have been given then we will never be satisfied. I don't think Bonhoeffer is suggesting that we should be satisfied with the status quo of our community. Instead Bonhoeffer is calling us to point out and celebrate the gifts of our community instead of focusing on all that is corrupt. We are called to give thanks for what we have been given. And through our thanks and praise we are empowered to see a divine reality, a place where light overcomes darkness, a place where love covers a multitude of sins.
As I looked around that museum, at the old signs that read "whites only" or "colored bathroom," I was reminded of the physical boundaries that have existed and still exist between blacks and whites in our state. There must be some kind of grace found here I thought. And there is. Despite all of this corruption and manipulation this community is a gift from God-all of it. God has given us a rich and diverse community that begs to be celebrated instead of condemned and manipulated.
During that Eucharist in the gym I remembered our time at the Safe House and at the day camp and I smiled. We were giving thanks and praise for the community in Greensboro and the Sawyerville Day Camp. We celebrated the saints and superheroes who gave their lives so that God's kingdom could be realized. We celebrated the blending of culture. We celebrated laughter and silly games. And above all else we celebrated the children of Hale County who revealed the glory of God to us each and every day.
The Eucharist we celebrated in that gym was not perfect in terms of worship space and liturgical vessels but we used what God gave us, broke bread, and gave thanks. And through our thanks and praise we saw a vision of that heavenly city; we saw a divine reality that is God's community.
Thank you all for being a part one of God's parables.
Reflection by the Rev. Jack Alvey, sermon at All Saints', Homewood
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August 31, 2010
Saying thank you!
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| Dear friends of the Sawyerville Day Camp,
Thanks for making two full sessions of the Sawyerville Day Camp come together so beautifully! Over 400 children and youth from Hale County participated in one of our week long camps and over 170 young people and adults from all over the Diocese and Hale County served on staff. God continues to bless our time in Hale County. Recently I received this note from a camper:
"Dear Sawyerville Day Camp,
My name is D'angello Robinson. I would like to thank you for summer camp. I liked it when we went to the carnival and the pool because I had a lot of fun. The last day when we had to go, that day was sad.
Sincerely,
D'angello
We certainly do not do any of this work for the thanks that we may be given but it sure was heartwarming to receive D'angello's note. I made sure to pass it on to his small group counselors. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for all of your help in making this ministry come alive once more in Greensboro this summer. Our program theme for this year was "Sawyerville Saints and Superhereos"-thank you for being a Sawyerville Saint!
If you'd like to continue to support the camp, we are trying something new this season. As the summer winds down and bathing suits and beach towels go on sale, we would like to ask churches to have a late summer or "back to school" Sawyerville drive to collect the over 400 bathing suits and towels that we need for our campers at camp. We hope that you'll prayerfully consider hosting a late summer drive. Memily Colvin, Sawyerville Commission member and Supply Drive Coordinator, will be the contact person for this effort. If you're interested, please contact Memily at memily.colvin@gmail.com or on her cell at (205) 307-9802.
Again, thanks for all of your support. Only the best superheroes put others before themselves-thank you so much for the support, love and gifts you so freely give to this transformational ministry!
In Christ,
Leslie Manning
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May 27, 2010
We need your help!
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We are looking for a good few men & women!
The
Sawyerville Day Camp needs your help once again--but this time in a new
way! St St. Stephen’s in Birmingham has graciously offered the camp
part of their very spacious basement to hold our supplies before we head
down to Greensboro for the 2 camp sessions. We have volunteers that are
organizing and keeping track of all of the goods but we need some help
loading the stuff onto the trucks. Because we have camp in the high heat
of the summer, we would like to load the trucks the Thursday evening
before we leave for each session. If you are interested in helping load
up the trucks with all of the food, pool supplies, backpacks, etc.
please plan on meeting at St. Stephen’s parking lot Thursday evening
at 5 p.m. on June 24th and July 8th. We will have a team leader
there for each session letting you know where everything goes & how
to pack it up. It would be fantastic if we could have some non-staff
members to come help with this effort! The staff works for ten hard days
down in Greensboro so let’s pack the trucks up for them! If you are
interested in bringing these strong volunteers water or dinner that
evening, that would be wonderful too! To volunteer or find out more,
please email or call Leslie Manning in the Diocesan office (205.715.2060
ext 325 or lmanning@dioala.org).
Thanks in advance!
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thank_you_flyer_from_staff_2010.pdf [53.57K]
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