It's Spring! This is one of the most exciting seasons to be around a camp, conference/retreat center, or farm. It's the season of planning and planting- full of hope for the rest of the year. There's so much going on at all our centers, here's a little snapshot of it all:

Barrier Island 5K - St. Christopher, SC

St. Christopher is hosting their 5K fun run & festival again this year! Alongside their run (which will have participants journey through 5 different environments in 5 km: maritime forest, salt marsh, dunes, estuary, and beach), there will be food, coffee, live animals, games, and a silent auction.

This event is a fundraiser for St. Christopher's Barrier Island Scholarship and Outreach Fund to support environmental education in the Lowcountry. The scholarships go toward schools who need financial aid in order to come experience St. Christopher's environmental education program. This year, they are hoping to expand their scholarships to reach students and schools further across the state, who might not have the chance otherwise to even visit the beach, much less study it.

The Outreach Program says that they "[feel] it is important to equip our next generations with the knowledge of the environment in which they live in. We do this at no expense to the schools visited, but entirely with the help of sponsorship and generous giving."

Spring Foraging Weekend - Waycross, IN

Waycross is hosting a foraging weekend in April! With the help of their spring foraging instructor, Josh Busbee, they will be teaching participants more about their local wildlife and how to forage safely and responsibly.

They are looking forward to this fun time of inviting the community in to learn and explore the natural world.

Easter Weekend Labyrinth Meditation - Thomas the Apostle Center, WY

Easter nowadays is often filled with hustle and bustle. St. Thomas the Apostle Center is offering their labyrinth to their local community on Easter weekend as a quiet retreat.

Woods to Waves - St. Dorothy's Rest, CA

St. Dorothy's Rest got their start way back in 1901 as a space for children experiencing critical sickness to be in nature. They still have their "hospital camp" as a central part of their summer programming. This session is for children who are being treated for cancer or organ transplants and is offered at no cost to the families.

Woods to Waves is St. Dot's biggest annual fundraiser. It's a hike from the redwoods that they are settled in to the Pacific Ocean (about 12 miles away) - a trail that a lot of their campers do over the summer. The proceeds from this hike-a-thon directly support their hospital camp and additionally provide camp scholarships for underserved and foster youth in the Bay Area.

With so much happening at our centers all across the country, we highly encourage you to go check out your local Episcopal camp or conference center to see what they are up to this spring!

And if you do attend an event (whether it was listed above or not) and want to tell us how it went from your perspective, we would love to hear about it! Email Bekah, our Communications Coordinator, at bekah@episcopalccc.org.