If you’ve visited our website since the beginning of the year, you’ve found a cleaner look, more content, an easier way to navigate from page to page, and the ability to give or pay over the internet!

Now, you can use your home computer to pay registration deposits for any program, pay all or part of your registration balance, or to make contributions to Lakeview Ministries or  the Camp Lakeview Foundation.  Payments can be made using a credit/debit card or by making an electronic withdrawal from your savings/checking account.  You can even set up an automatic monthly, quarterly, an annual contribution with a definite ending date.  What a great way to set up a pledge for the capital campaign and never have to think about it again! 

Many thanks go out to Jeff Rothe (St. John, Indianapolis), who helped us give the website a much-needed facelift.

Camp Lakeview is no longer Camp Lakeview! Well, sort of. Due to the construction of the new camp site across the road, we can’t keep calling everything “Camp Lakeview” anymore. It gets confusing! So the organization which owns Camp Lakeview (the South Central Lutheran Camp Association of Indiana, Inc.) will now do business as “Lakeview Ministries”. Very soon, Lakeview Ministries will be operating two camp sites. The original one will continue to be known as “Camp Lakeview”, while the new camp across the road will go by a different name yet to be determined. (Although “Lakeview Villages” has been tossed around as a possibility.)

Along with a new name, our organization is also receiving a new corporate logo, shown on the left. The old logo (on right) was placed into service before the first summer camping season in 1965. It has served us well, but it was time to simplify and modernize the logo, using many of the key elements found in the original that will continue to identify us as a Christian camp. We hope you approve of the upgrade!

The new Children’s Prayer Garden was designed and built by the family and friends of Kelcey Sullivan and was dedicated in his memory. Kelcey died in his early 20’s, but cherished his days at Camp Lakeview, which gave his family the idea of providing this special tribute.
The Prayer Garden is located on both sides of the bridge providing the entrance for our northern woods. If features a brick walkway, a variety of statues, benches to rest, and many interesting plants and flowers.

Next time you’re at camp, stop by and see this beautiful addition. Maybe it will help you spend some quiet time with the Lord.

Camp Lakeview has recently purchased a 40-acre tract of land located on the south side of Lake Road. This new land, combined with the adjacent 30 acres previously owned by the camp, opens the possibility of creating a new camp facility on the south side of Lake Road which would be completely independent of the current main camp area.

For the past two years, the camp’s Board of Directors has been involved in a strategic planning process that will address the overwhelming demand for the camp’s summer programs.

While no comprehensive plan has been officially adopted yet, members of the Board are seriously considering the idea of building another camp facility housing approximately 80 campers, with its own dining hall, sleeping quarters, restroom/shower facilities, and recreational areas (lake, stables, athletic field, etc.).

Although 30 acres may have been sufficient, the additional land will create more opportunities and will result in a higher quality camp. This was essential!

The land was bought from the living descendants of Ben Wehmeier in exchange for cash and for the promise that any new lake built on the land will be named “Wehmeier Lake”.

To complete this new land “block”, the camp has submitted an offer to purchase the 15-acre tract between the new property and Lake Road. This land is currently owned by the Lutheran Resort Association, which will make its decision on the offer at their semiannual meeting in October. After the land issues are settled, a new site plan can then be established.

Please keep the camp and its leaders in your prayers as they seek to make the best decisions possible for the camp’s future and for God’s Kingdom.

Because we are currently turning away so many campers from our existing summer programs, the leadership of Camp Lakeview has been developing plans to build a new camp site elsewhere on our existing property. This additional site is necessary to meet the demand and to maintain the high level of quality that Lakeview campers have come to expect.

The new site will be completely “independent”. Under normal circumstances, campers staying at the new site would not need to venture back to main camp during their stay, and vice versa. The new location will have its own lake, dining hall, sleeping quarters located in themed “villages”, athletic field, and other recreational facilities.

In addition to the new camp site, the camp’s Board of Directors also wishes to address two needs on the main camp site. First, we are lacking a large indoor meeting space to facilitate conference groups and to provide activity space on rainy days. Second, as the camp has grown, we need more office space and a larger first-aid station.

To find out what our users think about the current camp and about our plans for the future, the camp hired Dickerson and Associates from Colorado to conduct a feasibility study this summer. The study consisted of meetings with the staff and Board, personal interviews with key constituents, and a mail survey sent to the remainder of our mailing list.

In all, 56 households were interviewed personally or by telephone and an additional 359 responded by mail. These 415 people ranked the importance of the proposed facilities in the following manner:

1. New summer camp facilities, allowing more campers to attend
2. Indoor meeting space for conference groups and rainy days
3. “Welcome Center” for more office space and larger first-aid station

Other relevant findings included…

• Nearly all respondents believe Camp Lakeview is a wonderful place, a summer camp with great programs and staff.
• The greatest overall need for Camp Lakeview is more space.
• With a quality capital campaign, it is likely that $1.7 million could be raised over a three-year period or $2.5 million plus over a five-year period provided there are some six-figure lead gifts and there is a good gift-in-kind program.
• 50% of respondents indicated they would give during a capital campaign for the camp. 37% were unsure and only 13% felt that they would not participate.
• Possible negative factors regarding a fund-raising campaign included the economy and competing fund-raising efforts among various Lutheran churches and schools.
• Many would like to see the camp offer more programs for high-school-aged youth so that the Christian camp experience can extend beyond the ninth grade.

If you would like to see a complete copy of the feasibility study, including all recommendations, data, and responder comments, one will be kept in the camp office in the main dining hall