October 4, 2005
To: Authorized Ministers and Delegates of the Connecticut Conference
From: Davida Foy Crabtree, Conference Minister
Greetings to you in this wonderful season of autumn, a time when God, through creation, reminds us of the cycle of life and the constancy of transition, the beauty of this world and our perpetual call to be its stewards.
I write to update you on Now for the Future: the Campaign for Silver Lake, which will be before the Conference Annual Meeting for approval when we gather at Kennedy High School in Waterbury October 21-22. Two developments have taken place since the mailing that was sent to you in mid-September.
First, key leaders of the Conference and of Silver Lake sat with the architects to crunch the numbers to verify the proposed goals for the campaign. We made some difficult but necessary decisions to bring the campaign within achievable goals, and now project that the campaign will have a basic goal of $8 million with a challenge goal of $12 million, a significant decrease from the original funding goals recommended by the Board of Directors.
And secondly, we have received the report of our fund-raising counsel on our campaign readiness study, confirming that the revised goals should be achievable with a well-planned and vigorous campaign.
In this letter I want to describe the need for this campaign and the benefit it will offer to our churches, our summer conferees and especially our youth and adults who will use Silver Lake during the retreat season from September to May. Few of us can imagine the Connecticut Conference without Silver Lake and its ministry; it is the heart and soul of so much of what we do. At SLCC, lives are changed, faith is built, and leaders are called. God becomes real and Christ becomes one’s life companion.
Silver Lake has served the members of the Conference well for almost five decades. Now, in order to ensure the continued vitality and viability of ministry at Silver Lake we need to make significant investments in improving the facilities for ministry over the next fifty years. The need is urgent.
All of the current year-round lodging facilities at SLCC were built more than 32 years ago for a very different era. Code, safety and disability access requirements, as well as guests’ expectations, have all changed. The sizes of groups visiting SLCC have changed. And the condition of the buildings has declined.
In recent years we have done a great amount of work to address many of these concerns: bathrooms have been upgraded; new mattresses and furniture have been purchased; some buildings have been remodeled. In addition, thanks to many churches and associations, urgently needed new summer cabins have been built. The new Health and Welcome Center is in full use and greatly improves the infirmary, hosting, administration and site control functions.
Last fall, the Conference Board voted to contract with Kaleidoscope, Inc. a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in camps and conference centers. Working with Tim and Anne Hughes, Co-directors of Silver Lake, Kaleidoscope developed a comprehensive study of SLCC, its strengths and its needs for the future. This strategic plan for ministry included a business plan rooted in our core values, built on our strengths and focused on overcoming the current shortcomings. This study formed the basis of the work with Susan Maxman Partners, a LEEDS certified architectural firm out of Philadelphia with an excellent history in environmentally sustainable design. It is these plans that will be presented at the Annual Meeting.
This campaign, if you vote to approve it, will give Silver Lake the future it needs to continue to serve with vitality. It has several components:
All facilities at the Lake will be spruced up and renovated as needed to remedy defects due to past-deferred maintenance.
Often our churches’ retreats do not fill the large buildings, yet we have more requests than we can accept. The average size retreat today is approximately half what it used to be, so getting the retreat spaces the right size can make a big difference in Silver Lake’s effectiveness and our churches’ use of it as a resource. New and renovated facilities will serve more groups of smaller size, thereby generating more revenue through higher utilization.
The campaign will make all facilities wheelchair accessible and new pathways and ramps will greatly facilitate moving from one site to another independently.
Windows must be replaced and heat changed from electric to oil in the Cedars, the Pines and the Glen retreat centers. The payback from these improvements alone will help immensely in controlling costs.
Today adults do not want to sleep in bunkrooms with eight other adults and large shared baths. The new Retreat Center, Retreat Lodge and Guest Lodge (the three will replace the current Retreat Center and expand its capacity) will have private baths with bedrooms accommodating one to three persons. Simple and economical, yet adult-friendly, these lodges will also provide gathering and small group space.
When SLCC is full on weekends from September to June, the current dining space is too small. By building a new dining hall central to the year-round facilities, we both free up the lower level of Cedars for additional youth retreat and summer staff lodging, and expand our serving capacity. A central heating plant in this one building will efficiently serve many other buildings, and will conserve maintenance and energy resources. This building will also be used for rainy day program space and as a storm shelter during the summer season.
We will add a screened porch to the Social Hall to expand dining space for the summer. We need to add Commons buildings for each of the four new cabin villages. (It is hoped that the campaign will raise the cost of materials and that volunteer work crews will erect the buildings.) One additional new bathhouse needs to be added since the pressure on the only one we have is heavy during the summer. Solar hot water will be featured.
We will move all maintenance and construction activities to a single location behind the manager’s house for safety and efficiency. This move also frees up the current woodshop which will become a significantly expanded arts center.
New basketball and volleyball courts will be constructed, traffic patterns improved, better attention paid to water management, and a variety of new landscaping and campfire locations will be established. A new amphitheatre and better summer greeting space will be developed near the current Social Hall.
The eight and twelve million dollar goals will ensure that these investments are accomplished. The $8,000,000 basic goal includes the highest priority projects that will be part of the first phase in construction. Achieving that goal will enable us to build the dining hall and one retreat center, finish up the summer facilities and deferred maintenance, refurbish and reconfigure the Cedars, and upgrade the septic and electrical distribution systems.
However, the other two retreat lodges are essential for Silver Lake’s ministry and viability, as are some of the smaller projects in the challenge goal. So the real goal for this campaign will be $12,000,000. We know that God has given us the capacity to do this – all that is needed is the will and commitment among our churches and members!
Our generous response Now will build on the legacy previous generations have left us in Silver Lake and its ministries, and will ensure that we too leave a legacy for the Future. This is not, in my view, an optional menu of choices, but rather an urgent and essential undertaking.
