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Officials from the City of Cleveland, construction team members, and leaders from the Woodlands Camp gathered to break ground on this new cabin. Pictured from left are Cleveland Mayor Josh Turner, Charles Black Construction Project Manager Rod Nix, Paul Odom of Bradfield, Richard, and Rhodes & Associates Architects, Camp Director John Estes, Site Director Bradley McDuffie and Zac LaHayne of Foothills Land Design. (Photo/Ashley Blair)
Woodlands Camp in Cleveland marked its latest plan for expansion March 1 by breaking ground on a site that will host new cabins for youth.
Camp staff and members of the community gathered to celebrate the addition to the camp that will allow it to host more kids. Camp Director John Estes thanked the people who have supported the project.
“We have had a lot of help getting here. People give so generously,” he said. “The last two months of 2021, donors who believe in this place gave over $600,000 to help us get this thing out of the ground, and we are so thankful for them and the many people that made this happen.”
Estes said the new cabins will allow 3,000 more children to attend camp, which will help accommodate children on a lengthy waiting list. Registration for the summer of 2022 opened Feb.26 and by the end of the day, 2,700 kids were on the waiting list.
“It’s not just you cross your fingers – if you build it maybe they will come. It’s like current, present day right now: There’s 2,700 moms lined up down old Blue Creek Road, credit card in hand going, ‘If you had these facilities right now we’re ready to come,’” he said.
Estes said he hopes that allowing more access to the camp will allow Woodlands Camp to continue its mission to instill Christian values in the lives of kids and to bring more business to the county.
“The summer right before COVID 2019, over 10% of the kids in the entire White County School System got to come to camp that summer and experience the most unforgettable week of their lives and hear about Jesus,” he said. “We want to make a difference in this community, spiritually and even just financially. Every Monday, 300 carloads of kids roll into White County, Georgia, to drop their kids off at camp ... all those people are filling up at our gas stations, eating at our restaurants, shopping at our stores, those kinds of things is putting Cleveland on the map in the hearts in minds of a lot of people.”
Estes founded Woodlands Camp about 24 years ago with just over a dozen campers during its first week. A little more than two decades later as it grew, the number of campers surpassed 4,000.
Woodlands Camp offers programs from elementary school-aged children up to teenagers. For more information about the camp, visit www.woodlandscamp.org.