The Joe White Kanakuk Kamps Booth at Men at the Cross

 

Kanakuk Kamps just purchased this new display booth for the Men at the Cross conferences. We also purchased the TV, DVD player and the stand for the TV. You might notice in the picture that the TV is not on the stand. Well, we shipped all the parts for the booth to Houston and one of the boxes, the one with the bracket for the TV, got lost in the Toyota Center. The Toyota Center is where the Houston Rockets Play. I finally found the stray box late the second day and had no time to put it together. The Omaha, NE, Men at the Cross event will go smoother in that department. The TV made a huge difference in the number of people who stopped at the booth.

As proof I looked at the web stats for the weekend and Monday before and the weekend and Monday after the St. Louis Men at the Cross event and the number of page views in the St. Louis metro area were exactly the same. We had no decent booth, no TV, etc. at that event. Then I looked at the page views for the same time scenarios in Houston and the page views for the weekend of the event were almost exactly double. I also so an increase here at Inside Kanakuk. So it seems to me just looking at the surface that the booth upgrade was well worth it. It was also fun to get the word out about Kanakuk and to meet some of the Kamp Dads that came to the event.

We had some great volunteers at the booth too. Meredith and her husband (I drew a blank on your name!! So, sorry.), and Kelly helped during the two day event. It was a huge help having people who know about and love Kanakuk and have experienced it. I saw them sharing the Kanakuk story with a lot of Dads. I was running in several directions that weekend so I just didn't get pictures of the volunteers. I'll do better in the future.


Mollye will go to the Omaha event to help with the booth and we'll have some more great volunteers. Special thanks to Brian Mitchell from Kids Across America for helping us newbies get the booth set-up, a couple times :-)

If any of you were in Houston and have any suggestions for the booth I'd love to hear them.

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Facebook Connect and You and Me

There is much about the new Facebook Connect that I don't understand. Thankfully Jeremy works here. He gets it.

What I do understand is that with a little effort on our part you can login to Facebook on kanakuk.com and let your friends know what you are doing. Here is an example of a site set-up to demonstrate how it works.

While I think what they did with the demo site is pretty cool, I'm not sure that's the way we would want to implement it on the Kanakuk Kamps website. It feels like the connection is pretty loose and the lack of information about exactly what will be shared would make me hesitant. How would you feel about letting your Facebook friends know that you just registered for next summer, or posted to the Kanakuk "Sayso" forums area, or just commented on a Director's blog post? If you get a chance to check out Facebook's example site, please let me know what you think.

Whatever we do it will be with your permission. You'll have total control over how Facebook connects you with your Kanakuk experience.

Yesterday I posted about the Ricky Jimmerson and Tracy Ashcraft taking on Director roles at the new KAA facility (this year's Kanakuk Klassic). If I had been thinking I would have asked you then if you would be willing to give those two a word of encouragement. Can you jump back to yesterday and post a comment?


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KAA - Kanakuk Klassic Director memo

Memorandum
To: Kids Across America and Kanakuk Staff
From: Dana Thomas
Date: July 24, 2008
Re: Staff Announcements

As the year continues to unfold, you will see some staff changes.
I’d like to announce that Ricky Jimmerson, Director of KAA 3, will assume the position of Director of KAA Extreme and Tracy Ashcraft, Women’s Director of Kanakuk’s K-Klassic, will be joining Ricky, as the Women’s Director of KAA Extreme.
I encourage you to pray for Ricky Jimmerson and Tracy Ashcraft, as they begin this new journey as directors of KAA Extreme with many exciting and challenging responsibilities.
The new director for KAA 3 is still pending. We will make that announcement once the decisions have been made and finalized.
Thank you!
Dana


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Kanakuk Klassic changes

As many of you know Kanakuk Klassic is being converted to a Kids Across America camp in 2009. This means that all the faithful Kanakuk Klassic Kampers are going to have to find a new Kamp home among the other 7 Kamps. It also means that many more of the Kids on the wait lists for Kids Across America will get a chance to hear and experience the love of Jesus Christ sooner.

Here are some of the things regarding this decision that may not be published elsewhere:

From KAA about their need:
"Over the years it has become increasingly clear and exciting to see how God has chosen to bless Kids Across America's 240 beautiful acres of land on shores of Table Rock Lake. Since the summer of 1990, 72,164 precious inner-city kids have entered the gates of KAA. Year after year, we see more inquiries and interest from urban groups all across America who want to bring their kids to KAA. Summer 2008 will set a new record for KAA with over 7,300 campers enrolled. At the end of May 2008 we had over 900 campers on the waiting list. We have followed the same trend the past 4 years with our waiting list. Each year more and more children are hoping that they get the chance to attend KAA.

While we are grateful to God for our strong history and current ministry impact, we know that the most important and critical days are ahead of us. Our board and staff are very excited about our future. We are confident that the timing is right to add on and to make camp dreams come true for thousands of kids"

From Inside Kanakuk:

Directors please communicate the following to families this summer.
- We are converting Kanakuk Klassic to a Kids Across America camp starting next summer to serve many more urban youth in 2009.
- There is plenty of room at the other Kanakuk Kamps to welcome the Kanakuk Klassic Kampers.
- For returning Kamp families, enrolling early will help them secure the spot best for their Kamper.
- On September 1st new Kamper enrollments will be processed.

To Kanakuk Klassic families:

“...We really wanted this summer to be special for your kids, because starting summer 2009 we’re converting Kanakuk Klassic to “Kids Across America Extreme.” It was a tough decision , but when we saw that Kids Across America is turning away literally thousands of inner-city kids, that the other Kanakuk Kamps have plenty of room to welcome all the returning Kanakuk Klassic Kampers, and that Kanakuk Klassic was just the right size and in the right location to meet the KAA need, we knew it was the right thing to do.
The rest of Kanakuk is ready and waiting to welcome you! Choose a Kamp that fits your child and enroll in the same term for 2009! Many of your Kanakuk Klassic friends will meet you there and there’s a whole new Kanakuk to explore together.