Sis. Hoyos and I went to Bloomington West a couple of weeks ago to walk around and get our bearings. It's amazing how differently you look at things when it's your responsibility instead of when you are just attending. The following is an idea we came up with.

The first area encircled by road will be known as "Kitchen Central". This is the area where in the past all stake gatherings at camp have been held (it had been known as "camp central"). There is plenty of room to set up 7 kitchen areas. There is also water access here. The kitchens will be set up around the perimeter of the area. In the middle there will be room to have enough picnic tables to seat everyone. So, we will be cooking and eating as wards, but yet we will all be eating together, too. There would also include be 1 picnic table per kitchen to be used as needed for food preparation. Let us know if you feel you might need more.

Stake gatherings would take place in the middle large area. This is the area where Kaw Valley and Burlington camped last year. Then we will sleep in certification levels in the area where Lake Shawnee, Sherwood and the Lawrence wards camped last year.

This is way different than has been done before. We feel that this might help keep the racoons out of the area where the girls are sleeping because the food will not be there alongside them. We want to really stress that the girls have NO FOOD in their tents. Certification leaders will have a cooler for the girls treats. We will also assign the priesthood brethren to keep the racoons out of kitchen central as they are up all night patrolling anyway.

I just wanted to give you this to think about. Feel free to bring comments to the meeting on the 26th. Or you may post comments here. Or you may call me at 379-5195. Please make sure that when you post comments that you identify yourself.
Diana