Series: Grant report for Freeborn County Community Foundation

Published 8:45 am Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Organization: Tentmakers

Project: Repair and maintenance of Tentmakers’ Wilderness North retreat

Report: The Tentmakers sent its second team of Young Daniels, ages 18 to 26, who graduated from the Tentmakers Daniel Leadership Institute into the mission field for one year.

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The graduates spent 11 months stateside and, like their 2015 predecessors, their year concluded with an international 30-day mission experience in the Czech Republic.

The Tentmakers also had a busy summer and fall with Leadership Quest Camp for high school students and two back-to-back 40-day Daniel Leadership Institutes. The second institute finished training Sept. 23 and sent its graduates into the mission field.

For over 25 years Wilderness North, Tentmakers’ 1,600 acre retreat and conference and training facility on Murphy Lake has been home to almost all of the leadership development experiences. According to a press release, thousands of pastors, church groups, high school students, teachers, families and individuals have used the remote facility for solace, solitude and leadership training. As a result, Wilderness North has an ever-growing list of maintenance, repair and construction projects, according to a press release.

Over the past year the organization has used the Kenneth W. Olson Charitable Foundation Fund grant to help with the following projects:

Rebuilt over 5,000 square feet of birch-lined, wood-chipped walking trails.

Replaced the main lodge entrance boardwalk with reinforced concrete

Removed trees and brush to enhance the lake view from the main lodge and mentor house decks. Trees were recycled for woodchip projects and firewood for campfires and wood-burning stoves.

Built four new and repaired several other tent platforms in the lakeside community tent area.

Purchased 13 new platform tents.

Landscaped and built new embedded entrance steps for the lakeside shelter, cabins and area surrounding the facility’s main compound.

Began removing the topmost logs and the A-frame fascia boards around some of the cabins to provide access to better insulate and critter-proof the cabins.

Started replacing the lake fencing logs on the mentor house.

According to a press release, the Tentmakers board of directors, staff, volunteers, partners and program participants offer their sincere and heartfelt thanks for the support of the ministry of Tentmakers.