Our main lodge was built in 1940 when Charles Millhouse donated the first 11 acres of land for Sunshine Camp. The Camp was renamed to Camp Millhouse in honor of Mr. Millhouse. Since then, there have been a few changes to add more dining space early-on and renovate the kitchen in 2001. We added central air to the dining space, remodeled bathrooms, painted the staff lounge, new roof in 2015 and the last major improvement was professionally removing many squirrels who had chewed their way into the lodge and taken up residence above the drop ceiling. To the tune of $10,000, we had to have all the drop ceiling and insulation removed and replaced in 2019. We've done a lot to keep up the building. Unfortunately, in June 2020, we found an area of floor in the kitchen that was falling in. During our investigation into the issue, we found the lodge had been built on dirt. Years of moisture on the wood is causing the floor weakness. We had planned to replace the lodge in about 15 years but we can not wait. The rebuild is now urgent in order to continue our mission of providing a safe, traditional camp experience.
**UPDATE: In the spring of 2021, our new lodge design was bid at $1,250,000.00. We knew we could not start construction until we had the money to pay for the project. In the spring of 2022, we had to make a decision about starting construction in the fall or waiting another year to raise more money. With the fast decline of the lodge and the huge increase in prices (and no end in sight for more increases) we told the contractor to move forward. They began getting new bids on the project since it had been over a year since we received the last bid. With all of the past year's fundraising and grants from many generous individuals, organizations, businesses and foundations, we were able to bank (with our emergency fund of $200,000) a total of $888,000.00 by August 2022. The first week of September 2022, a local community member - an absolute angel to Camp Millhouse - gave a gift of $444,000.00 to bring our total fundraised amount to $1,132,000. With the addition of our emergency fund, we had met our original goal of $1.25M!! Then the contractor came back with the new bids. The price (not surprisingly) has increased to $1,640,000. We went from the highest high thinking we had enough money for the project, to now needing just over $300,000 with our emergency fund, to have the exact amount. However, with all the unknowns in demolition and reconstruction, along with the recent news that we have two septics to replace by next summer and a new roof needed on the office, we are hoping to raise another $400 to $500k to avoid using our emergency fund. We'll be able to save the emergency fund for contingencies and to cover the cost of the new septics we need for cabins 1, 2, 3 and Kendallhay and the new roof we need on our office. We are again asking for your help. Please help spread the word about the vital importance of Camp Millhouse in this community and for surrounding states. Please help us find investors to get us to the $1,640,000. Every single penny helps us nearer to our goal! There is no donation too small or too large. Contact the office for a letter to share with family and friends and check out the video above that you can share from YouTube or this webpage. We hope you will be a part of the growth of Camp Millhouse for our campers and their families. THANK YOU!
**UPDATE: In the spring of 2021, our new lodge design was bid at $1,250,000.00. We knew we could not start construction until we had the money to pay for the project. In the spring of 2022, we had to make a decision about starting construction in the fall or waiting another year to raise more money. With the fast decline of the lodge and the huge increase in prices (and no end in sight for more increases) we told the contractor to move forward. They began getting new bids on the project since it had been over a year since we received the last bid. With all of the past year's fundraising and grants from many generous individuals, organizations, businesses and foundations, we were able to bank (with our emergency fund of $200,000) a total of $888,000.00 by August 2022. The first week of September 2022, a local community member - an absolute angel to Camp Millhouse - gave a gift of $444,000.00 to bring our total fundraised amount to $1,132,000. With the addition of our emergency fund, we had met our original goal of $1.25M!! Then the contractor came back with the new bids. The price (not surprisingly) has increased to $1,640,000. We went from the highest high thinking we had enough money for the project, to now needing just over $300,000 with our emergency fund, to have the exact amount. However, with all the unknowns in demolition and reconstruction, along with the recent news that we have two septics to replace by next summer and a new roof needed on the office, we are hoping to raise another $400 to $500k to avoid using our emergency fund. We'll be able to save the emergency fund for contingencies and to cover the cost of the new septics we need for cabins 1, 2, 3 and Kendallhay and the new roof we need on our office. We are again asking for your help. Please help spread the word about the vital importance of Camp Millhouse in this community and for surrounding states. Please help us find investors to get us to the $1,640,000. Every single penny helps us nearer to our goal! There is no donation too small or too large. Contact the office for a letter to share with family and friends and check out the video above that you can share from YouTube or this webpage. We hope you will be a part of the growth of Camp Millhouse for our campers and their families. THANK YOU!
WHY SHOULD YOU GIVE A GIFT FOR THE NEW LODGE?
If you have ever worked or volunteered at Camp Millhouse.....
If you have ever attended Camp Millhouse.....
If you are a family member of either of the above groups.....
Then you know....
If we only had one dream, it would be to stay here forever.
Life changing experiences happen at CAMP MILLHOUSE!
Here is the new lodge floor plan! The kitchen is amazing compared to what we have now. The dining hall will be bigger to accomodate a full week of campers and staff (we don't currently have enough room for all staff to have a seat during a full week of camp). It has two rooms for our nursing staff to pass medications and check in campers and medications on Sunday with more privacy. There are three individual bathrooms to provide much needed privacy and dignity for our campers. One of the bathrooms even has an adult changing table so campers needing to be changed do not have to leave the lodge to go back their cabin (which takes a lot of time away from their meal time). We'll have storage rooms so supplies can be kept in one central place instead of in different areas around camp. The kitchen has a dish room, a food storage room, a walk-in freezer and a larger walk-in refrigerator. These are all things we do not have in our current kitchen. This new lodge will also give Camp an opportunity to earn income outside of the normal camp season via rentals. It's so exciting! We hope you will be a part of the growth of Camp Millhouse for our campers.
Here's a site demolition plan showing the new lodge (green outline) overlayed on the old lodge (orange outline). The old lodge is represented by the grayed in area. We hope you will be a part of this growth to benefit our current campers and campers for generations to come!
Lodge 1952
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Lodge 1972
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Inside lodge dining area, mid 1950s
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South wing of lodge, boys sleeping area.
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INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR RENDERINGS OF NEW LODGE!
