Cabin 9 is the girls’ activity staff cabin at Lakeshore Camp and Retreat Center–the camp where I grew up, worked on summer staff and now serve as Director of Communications and Development. I worked on activity staff during the summer of 2008 and lived in that cabin.
During those three months, this place had quite an impact on my life. Up until that point, I experienced God almost exclusively through nature and being in the wonder of creation. I remember feeling disconnected during the summer of 2008, even though I spent most of my time on the ropes course in the woods. It was on the porch of Cabin 9 that I realized that God was communicating with me through people that summer, that my work at camp was ministry and that my life should follow that path. I realized that my gifts and talents were best used behind the scenes, ensuring that campers and other staff had a great experience through the work I was able to help prepare. This discovery proved to be extremely important. Back at school that fall, I changed my focus to Youth and Non-profit Leadership, and was particularly drawn to fundraising. This was it. This was how I could use planning and preparation behind the scenes to make sure that other people and organizations were able to carry out their missions. My ministry would be raising the money to allow programming to facilitate life-changing experiences and moments to happen.
For the past seven years, I have learned all I can about development work through a plethora of different experiences at very different types and sizes of organizations. Now, I am back home, at Lakeshore Camp and Retreat Center, applying my development knowledge to the place I love most. And when I’m there, I live in Cabin 9 where it all started. This journey has allowed me to develop my personal mission to help other organizations bring their missions to fruition, and Cabin 9 Consulting is the tangible expression of that goal.
If you have a mission you need help catapulting into reality, I look forward to working together to make those dreams come true.