Camp Bovey has been an important part of the East Minneapolis community for more than 70 years, and your past support has been critical to the evolution of this essential community resource. To ensure the future of Camp Bovey, we need your help. Camp Bovey has numerous maintenance issues which complicate our efforts to imagine the future. The Restoration Campaign will allow for major improvements to Camp Bovey's main lodge and bathhouse, as well as providing sustainable funding for the Camp Scholarship Fund. Last summer we were not able to run our traditional summer camp model. We have used that time to think about what has made Camp Bovey unique and successful and how we can transform the future in keeping with the camp's mission: to provide fun and encouraging outdoor experiences that ignite curiosity, create connections, and grow confidence. Three months into a pandemic that was keeping families quarantined at home, and on the heels of a community tragedy and subsequent uprising that weighed heavily on us, we were able to turn those challenges into opportunities. In the summer of 2020 we opened camp up as a respite to East Side families and community organizers. We were able to offer six weekends of free nature-based respite programming and support, serving approximately 75 people. We learned how valuable this time was for families--a respite in nature, an opportunity to calm the soul, a renewal of peacefulness in the heart. In the summer of 2021, we have continued the program for families as we begin to upgrade the camp's facilities.

We ask you to join our Restoration Committee leaders by investing in the future of Camp Bovey. We know that many families simply don't have the opportunity to provide a carefree experience in the outdoors, where curiosity is stimulated and the everyday challenges of life can be set aside. Your support will offer that opportunity to hundreds of families and children over the future of Camp Bovey. Especially now, when access to carefree outdoor experiences is more important than ever, make a gift to ensure the joys of the outdoors are available to the next generation of Hodaggers and their families.

You can make on online donation here in the box at the top of the page or can send your gift directly to East Side Neighborhood Services, 1700 Second Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413. Thank you!