1983 - Part One

It was actually the fall of 1982. We'd succesfully held a fund raiser for an African missionary by renting out a roller skating rink and collecting normal admission funds (selling hot dogs and drinks, etc...). As a youth group, we were excited by the prospect of the roller skating. The fund raising part of it was of some mild interest. We weren't very politically active at the time.

As I recall, the first I heard of the idea, was the following week. School had just started back into session and we were just getting our first youth group meetings underway. The money from the fund raiser was being counted and tallied in the upstairs kitchen of our church. Pastor Dave and Mark were there and Pastor Dave mentioned that he was thinking of taking us all on a work camp the following summer. At the time, I think the term work camp was in vogue as opposed to the term Mission Trip which I hear today. Mark looked up at Pastor Dave and said, "What's a work camp?" and Pastor Dave described it in very general terms. Mark was transfixed. "And we could go anywhere?" "Well, we'd have to raise the money." "But we could go anywhere?" "Well, they only have work camps in certain places. Did you want to see the catalog?"

Pastor Dave brought out the catalog. A flimsy paper thing that looked kind of like one of those local Used Car Trader things, only with pictures of local communities nationwide that needed God sent cheap labor. We thumbed through the catalog and immediately started naming off exotic sounding locations, Leadville, Indian Springs, Alamosa... and like that, we were hooked.

For the short term, after that, it was all we could talk about. The teens were just hooked on the idea of raising all this money and going some place, and working, and coming back. We didn't really care what we did when we got there, we just wanted to go. The romantic notion of the work camp was just too much for our imagination.

After about a month, we had narrowed the list to three locations - one about three hours from San Francisco, one in Nevada, and one all the way out in Colorado - Alamosa. From the moment the list was set, the youth decided to go to Colorado. Cost projections were steep. The amount of time it would take to get there and back was huge. But the glory of the adventure was what spurred us onward.

We had a big meeting with our parents and other concerned church members. During the meeting, the idea was presented. The locations were each explained. The costs involved were noted. And the concerns were each addressed. As I recall, everytime some adult tried to suggest something like, "Well, if they went to the one in California, what would be the time to travel?" Mark would sort of politely bat them down by reminding everyone that we were going to Alamosa. When finally the adults became exasperated and pointed out how much money it would cost and how many fund raisers the kids were going to have to do in order to achieve such a lofty goal, Mark said, "Don't worry. We're going to raise the money, no matter what it takes."

Though the other two possibilities remained on the board for another couple of months, from the moment the list was set, there was no doubt in our mind that this was the Alamosa Work Camp.

To be continued...

And now a few potshots at (or additions to) my faulty memory...