Hello Beacon family! 

It's our great pleasure to let you in on a little something that's been cooking (pun intended) for the last few weeks. As you all know, we've been looking for an Office Manager for the last little while, and although we're still waiting for God to bring that person to camp, we have some other exciting full-time staff news that we're now able to share with you. 

Elisa "Thimble" Best is going to be joining us as our new Hospitality Coordinator. She will be replacing Alyssa (more on that in a minute), and we couldn't be more excited! Elisa will be taking over many of the roles that Alyssa had, but we've also added some responsibility to her position that involves making sure that our rental groups have a high-quality Beacon experience when they visit us. 

Elisa has been a long-time Beacon camper, and after completing a Baking and Pastry Arts diploma last year, worked at camp as spring and summer staff in 2016, staying three extra weeks to help get us ready for the fall season. After working in Toronto for the last year, she has agreed that being at camp full-time is the best thing ever (we think so too!), and will be transitioning into her role starting in mid-June. Welcome Thimble!

For those of you concerned about Alyssa, fear not! Alyssa will be staying at Beacon, but transitioning into a new role as well, as Beacon's first ever Program Director.

For the last few years, we've noted the need for a staff position dedicated to making sure our programming is the very best it can be. We have beautiful facilities, great food and wonderful staff, but we want to be known for our dynamic programming as well, all with the goal of "pointing eyes to Creation and calling hearts to God". Alyssa's background in education and her love of the outdoors makes her an excellent candidate to help us develop our programs and resources further, and we can't wait for her new position to start, most likely in the fall. 

So, all told: To God be the glory, great things He has done! We are fully covered for all of our full-time staff needs this summer, between Alyssa training Elisa (man, those names are going to be confusing), Chris Henein agreeing to help in the office, and the many generous volunteers who have filled in the gaps over the last few months. We are still interested in finding an Office Manager, and hope that you'll continue to join with us in prayer over that, but the timeline now looks like we won't need someone until at least September, which is a big weight off of our collective shoulders. 

Stay tuned for an update about Alyssa and how she sees her new job developing, but for now: please join us in giving a big Beacon welcome to Thimble! We are so glad that you're a part of our full-time team, and we can't wait to taste your delicious baked goods!