By Robin Alberti
PLYMOUTH—Saturday, Jan. 28, Bethany Birches Camp hosted a Winter Family Fun Day. Located on Lynds Hill Road in Plymouth, kids and adults were able to enjoy outdoor winter activities including, ice skating, snowshoeing, skiing, broomball and the biggest hit: tubing down a quarter mile track.
Members of the Mennonite Church established Bethany Birches camp back in 1965. The camp has grown over the years, from its humble beginnings of two wooden platforms built by volunteers from Salford Mennonite Church in Haleysville, Penn., and a few tents on land donated by Lloyd and Alice Moyer, to a modern camping experience complete with an on-site pond, a bathhouse, showers, basketball court, playground equipment, well maintained shelters with fire pits, picnic tables and a beautiful new pavilion with meeting space. It now hosts indoor activities like arts and crafts, indoor Gaga pit, and a variety of other activities and games, too.
While the facilities have expanded and improved, the mission has stayed the same: to provide wholesome, enjoyable recreation, communing with nature, promoting a spirit of cooperation and teamwork in camp life, and to lead campers to an awareness of Jesus Christ and an appreciation for God’s creation. Core values are incorporated into all the fun and include being kind to others, accepting of the differences between people, cooperation and teamwork and service to others. Bethany Birches is a faith-based camp, but kids from all backgrounds, religious or not, are welcome and accepted.
Bethany Birches offers winter and summer camps, with sessions for different age groups. The next Family Fun Day will be held March 4. For more information visit bethanybirches.org.
Photo by Robin Alberti
Kids and adults took advantage of outdoor sports activities like skiing, ice skating and the crowd favorite—tubing down the quarter-mile track—at Bethany Birches Camp.
