Camp Buckeye, located in north-central Ohio’s beautiful Amish Country, ran from July 31-Aug. 3. This year we had 96 campers (a 20-percent increase over last year) and 74 staff members. We have maxed out the facility and will likely have to reduce the number of staff next year to make more beds available for additional campers.

The weather was dry and hot, but the grounds of the facility provide ample amount of shade throughout the day.

Activities included archery, arts and crafts, canoeing, court games, field games, fishing, indoor games, team building and watersports. The new 3,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art swimming pool with a wading area, sprayground, splash pad and dual spiral tube slides was a thrill for everyone! The hot summer provided the new swimming pool with warm water temperatures.

Team building was a new activity for this year. It was enjoyable to watch the children learn to communicate and work as a team to overcome the challenges.

The Christian living classes were “Making Right Choices,” “How Sin Defiles Us,” and “The Bible Is Our Instruction Book for Our Lives.” All three of the Christian living instructors incorporated attention-getting demonstrations or visual aids in their classes, to help the children grasp the concepts being taught.

Every year we strive to instill the concept of the Zone into our program. This year the arts and crafts staff developed a fun activity incorporating the seven elements of the Zone.

Our praise and thanks to God for His blessings and protection, enabling us all to enjoy another successful year at Camp Buckeye!

We will be returning to the same facility next year. The dates will be July 30-Aug. 2, 2017.

Thank you to everyone who supports our preteen camp program.