I’m back this week with another five reasons that we’re planning to tackle a renovation and expansion of the Beacon chapel space (known as the Lighthouse). You can check out last week’s five reasons here. If you’re already committed and ready to support our new project, click on “Learn More” below.

5. A Year-Round Craft Room: As you can see in the photo at the top of this post, we’re really excited about the prospect of having space dedicated to crafts all year! Right now, we have to shut down the unheated Craft Room in the middle of October so that we can move supplies and liquids to a safe, warm space where they won’t freeze during the winter. Having a year-round craft space means the world to our fall programs, rental groups and winter sessions as we look for fun programs to do!

4. Outdoor Crafting Space: During the summer months, the Craft Room is abuzz with energy - even more so on a rainy day. We’re adding an outdoor (screened in) craft space so that campers can get creative even on the rainy, buggy days that usually restrict easy use of the building. We’ll be almost doubling our usable craft space, which we all know will be used for a hundred other things throughout the year!

3. Storage: Most camper families won’t be incredibly excited by the prospect of storage, but having well-placed and enough storage is crucial to making a space run well. Right now, we need to move ping-pong tables in and out of the Craft Room and Costume Closet if we want to having empty space in the Lighthouse, but with those spaces full, it’s hard to use everything well - imagine just needing one prop for your lesson in the morning and having to fight past table tennis and chairs to get to it. Having enough storage means that everything will have a place, and we can easily use all our spaces with maximum efficiency.

2. Honouring our Heritage: When we started talking about a renovation of a space like this, the first question that was asked as “should we be building a brand-new building far away from the current Lighthouse?” Based on the beautiful history in the current building and the great location in the centre of camp, we felt that it would be hard to capture the wonder of the space. So, we’re keeping as many heritage elements as possible (including the fireplace) to bring back important and fond memories of 30+ years in the “old” Lighthouse.

1. Building for the Future: Having a building that can house everyone at camp, no matter how many people are at camp, is so important. We dream of inviting larger youth groups to participate in programming, and of offering flexible options for family camp and other sessions (think of what could happen if we could fit all 150 guests at the Family Day Festival into one room!). Before we can dream of those plans, we need a space for everyone to be together, no matter the time of year or weather. The new, upgraded Lighthouse will meet that need, and let us move forward together for bigger things in the future!

If you’re on board with the vision for a new Lighthouse, we’d love to connect with you about how you can help us make it a reality. You’re always welcome to connect with the camp office, or make a donation online by clicking on the button below!