The Ybee Work Weekend
The Background:
Y Camp is an endangered institution. Kids have a lot of other things they can do and camps have to improve or they go away. The YBees are a volunteer association of citizens who meet at Camp Wakonda on Labor Day each year to do a project and keep the Ozarks YMCA camp tradition alive. We've been coming down to camp and doing Labor Day projects since 1986. At first we came because camp didn't have the weekend rented and we just pretty much relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Then, we had to make a choice The Y found opportunities to rent the weekend to paying customers and we faced a fork in the road. We could pay the going rate or we could earn our keep by doing projects. We decided to work. You can see the highlights of the projects we've completed over the years. We've also raised tens of thousands of dollars for our projects and other camp improvements. Along the way, we've raised a lot of kids and taught them how to use tools to build things for the public good. We've built traditions of wonderful food, Hillbilly movie nights, Top-of-the-Tower celebrations, swimming, creek walks, wild poker games and billowy blue clouds of stogie smoke. Here’s what we ask: If you'd like to be part of the great YBees tradition, we only ask three things: a. Don't embarrass the YMCA. b. Come to work. Carpentry, hole digging, cooking, cleaning...there's something for everyone. c. Contribute. We need money for the projects, but we also need food, equipment, and building materials. Stay in touch The chief wheelbarrow engineers and unabashed bigbees of the YBees are Mark "Smack" McNay and yours truly. Call us or write Mark McNay: 848-5983 [email protected] Dan Chiles: 848-2780 [email protected] |