Our RVICS project for September 2008 was Hiawatha Youth Camp at Eckerman MI. Haiwatha is located on Piatt Lake in  upper peninsula MI off M123 about 5½ mile north of M28.

We had the pleasure of working with old and new friends at Hiawatha. Fred and Rosie Ogrinc were our leaders (first time as leaders). We worked with Fred and Rosie on five projects during our first year with RVICS and will have them as leaders on our next two projects this year. We were joined by Ed and Myrna Moran (watch out for the Ed’s) whom we worked with at Waters Edge last September. Filling out our crew of five couples were Ray and Nonie Moody (we will work with them next month also) and Don and Sharon Snow (met them on tour to the Jiffy factory last September).

At Hiawatha, the men remodeled the laundry room, repaired gutters, gutted and rebuilt the bathrooms in two of the boys cabins (included extensive repair to wall structure), sprayed preservative on lower four feet of all buildings, built wood bunk beds for one girls cabin, removed 37 dead or dying Beech trees, and made many small repairs to buildings and equipment. The ladies cleaned, painted, painted, and cleaned, readying the camp for spring opening after the winter closure.

 Our tours took us to Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Whitefish Point on Lake Superior, Sault Ste Marie (and a locks boat tour), Centennial Cranberry Farm, and Oswald’s Bear Ranch. Mary and I (Ed) along with Ray and Nonie spent one Saturday on the Tahquamenon Falls Excursion trip (a five mile ride on a narrow gauge railroad and 21 mile ride on a river boat to the Upper Tahquamenon Falls). We also had the opportunity to go wild blueberry picking.

After work we spent evenings around the camp fire roasting hot-dogs and marshmallows and fellowshiping together. The Ladies enjoyed walks in the bush and around the lake (over 4 miles) on there afternoons off.

We encountered a few forms of UP wild life around camp. A raccoon took up residence in the dumpster. A skunk took up residence under cabin 17 and objected to the smell of the preservative we were spraying and countered with his own fragrance. And a moose was spotted walking through by some lake residences.

During the month we were able to experience God’s work with a paint brush as each time we drove down the road the landscape became more and more varied. From all green, to a few other colors, to a beautiful showcase of green, reds, yellows, oranges and browns.