Grant Budget

So I am now finished preparing the grant budget for the Camp Young Judea West camping and nature program, and am ready to submit it to my internship supervisor for approval. Believe it or not it has been very difficult for me to allocate all of the grant funds as I have never had a budget this large and am used to buying economy priced items. I am feeling more and more comfortable each day with my work for the camp, and am enjoying purchasing all of the equipment that I wish I had.

Through my work I have been able to take note of how important funding can be when related to outdoor recreation programming. Without the proper funding outdoor recreation can still exist, but I believe that the quality of our outdoor pursuits will benefit greatly from the expenditures that we have been able to obtain through our grant funds. It allows us to visit various state parks, provide additional assets to the camp as a whole, as well as enhance the learning of the children that will participate in our camping and nature program.

While my position is definitely outdoor recreation based I have also gotten a glimpse of what it is like to be part of the non profit recreation sector. After finding out that our organization is tax exempt and a non profit religious organization I have been able to take advantage of discounts only available to non profits. In particular I have been purchasing a great deal of equipment from Coleman outdoor gear due to the fact that non profit organizations purchasing gear from Coleman do not have to pay shipping, tax, and also receive and additional discounts on all items. Additional businesses that give discounts to non profit organizations include Cabela’s and Eureka Tents.

Now that my responsibilities with preparing the grant budget are finished we will begin ordering the equipment from the various recreation suppliers. In the mean time I am also beginning to develop programming ideas for daily camp activities. I intend to put all of our purchases to good use by teaching the campers about orienteering, observing wildlife, one match fires, alternative fire starting methods, and other outdoor survival activities. Using the natural environment around us we will also be participate in many different low ropes and teambuilding activities, hiking and camping, and emergency shelter construction.

Below I have attached a link to the Coleman Non Profit Site:
http://www.coleman.com/nonprofit

Below I have attached a link to a website that sells embroidered camping gear such as backpacks, water bottles, carabineers, and other outdoor products:
http://www.generalscampgear.com/

Senior Internship Post #1

On May 1st I began my senior internship with Camp Young Judea West. From now until June 4th I will be working to develop a camping and nature program for the camp which is located on the Pacific coast in Ocean Park, Washington. In its five years of existence, the camp has never previously had an off site camping program or a developed environmental education program. Recently Camp Young Judea West received a grant that will help them to develop such a program, and it is part of my responsibility before camp begins to allocate such funds and plan for implementation.

Transitioning from school to my senior internship began very rough. While trying to balance finals, my job, and my new internship it was very hard for me to keep on top of all of my work. Now that the semester has slowed down and the end of classes is near I am having a much easier time multitasking between my responsibilities. In addition my job as a religious school teacher and youth group adviser has now ended for the year, and I have had much more time to ensure that I am able to dedicate all of my free time to working on my internship. This is very important because of how vital advanced planning will be for this sort of work.

This transition has been somewhat what I expected, and I am enjoying being able to finally put the information I learned in class to work in a real life situation. My classes in program planning and outdoor pursuits have prepared me for the work that I am doing before camp with budgeting and planning outdoor pursuits education. I have also been involved with many different summer camps over the years and I am well prepared for what lies ahead of me in the next twelve weeks.

So far I have begin putting together a budget that will encompass a number of trips to nearby state and national parks, as well as outdoor education programming. When I finish I will send this to my internship supervisor for her opinion and approval. I have also done a location analysis on the nearby state and national parks to get an idea of the various natural resources in the area along the coast of Oregon and Washington.

Listed below is the link to our camps website
www.cyjwest.org

Listed below is a link to my location analysis through Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117952324210243571429.0004696de9f3ee0dc362f&z=6

Joshua Sweet
Camp Young Judea West Teva Director
Vice President of the Parks and Recreation Student Association
(402) 651 0160
Joshua.Sweet@asu.edu