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You may have heard about the International Pathfinder Camporee in Gillette, Wyoming, but did you know that 46 volunteers from Maranatha Volunteers International helped make this event possible? This team showed up several days early to build two large staircases leading to baptismal pools. They also constructed a stage wall and helped register the camporee’s roughly 55,000 attendees as they began to arrive. While Pathfinders were enjoying a week of fun activities and programming, this team stayed busy doing tasks like cooking, running the camporee store, and diverting water pipes to reach more campsites.
“When Maranatha volunteers come to the project … they’re ready to be fed with things to do,” remarked this project’s coordinator, Edward Jensen. “I’m glad that we got to be part of such an exciting program.”
Gillette experienced high volumes of wind and rain on the first Monday night of the camporee. While most Maranatha volunteers were tucked safely inside RVs, others slept in tents that leaked or collapsed during the gale. But even when entire Pathfinder clubs returned home because of the weather, the Maranatha team shored up their campsites and stayed to finish the job. “Some [volunteers] did get wet but they overcame it. And I think a couple of them stayed in their cars. They seemed to take it with a great attitude,” recalled Jensen. “I think that being there and being a part of the project and a part of the camporee was important to them.”
This was especially the case for one volunteer, who hitched a ride with a friend all the way from Oregon to join the project. After said friend decided to leave unexpectedly, the volunteer was determined to stay, even though it meant he had to sell water bottles to raise money for his bus ticket home. Why go to all the trouble? “He’s developed a bond with the Maranatha volunteers,” explained Jensen. “I think with any volunteer, you’re really happy to see certain people show up because they turn out to be really good friends.”
Each year, Maranatha works with organizations in the United States and Canada to provide volunteer labor for various construction or renovation projects at summer camps and retreat centers, schools, and churches. Work ranges from renovations of existing buildings to new construction, and saves thousands of dollars in labor costs.