Friends Of San Jose Family Camp

Today we set up the new portable demo tent at the park to meet and greet families on their way into Happy Hollow and show off the fun they can have at camp.

Our brave Lead Team got there 90 min early to get her ready for the day.

This is a replica of our tents up at camp- minus the hard wood floor and the wood patio off the back end.

 Once the tent was up- we were open for business letting folks know about camp and how we can provide a great summer vacation for today- and a place that will give lifetime memories.

We will be doing this again March 23d, and then on to Mel Cottons for the April 5/6 weekend!

Due to a conflict with a rental, we are cancelling the work weekend May 16-18.

There MAY be another weekend added before that date- we will keep you notified about upcoming events.

Currently, the weekends we have planned are:

March 28,29,30

April 11,12,13

April 25,26,27 FISH CAMP (and some scheduled FOSJFC work)

May 30,31, June 1

March and April weekends are *specialty work* weekends, geared towards our most talented volunteers with experience in electrical work, carpentry and plumbing expertise.

Our general work parties in May and June are more family oriented “clean and polish” weekends to make the camp truly presentable for the season.

If you would like to get more info, check out our links to work parties of the past or contact Ray Pirlot at xray1946@gmail.com or contact us here with a comment, or on our Facebook pages.

Want to be on our mailing list? Let our membership chair know at DBSHollis@aol.com

Hey campers, here is the latest from the city. Notice the 20% off coupon from our brand new camp partner MEL COTTONS! By all means share it with friends and neighbors!

The wait is over- the new PDF file with all the info for Fish Camp weekend has arrived- and we have your sneak peek here:

Copy it out, fill in the blanks and mail back with your fees for a great April 25, 26, & 27!

It recently came to light that a lot of people really haven’t heard that CAMP IS STILL THERE!

During the rough days in August, many people mistakenly thought San Jose Family Camp was burnt down, damaged beyond repair, or that the forest is gone.

Not so!

Those photos were taken POST fire. We are still standing, and we are fine.

Please let your friends know. And their friends. And their friends. And so on and so on and so on. We have trees, we have all our primary support buildings and we have LOTS of lovely tents just waiting for YOUR family to come up this summer and fall in love again with the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Folks, the new on line system is up and running for regular camp sign ups (FISH CAMP IS STILL A SEPARATE SPECIFIC SIGN UP NOT AVAILABLE ON LINE),  and we thought we could give you a preview of some of the City Info!

Friends will be setting up spring work parties this WEDNESDAY night, Feb 12, 2014 at 7 pm at our usual meeting place. We have lots to work on up at camp since the Rim Fire of last season,  and lots to do for getting our registrations up.

Never forget that summer locations to enjoy the mountains with your kids are few and far between- and making memories like ours is even more rare. Help us get our camp back on track, with bigger events, more friends signing up and even better memories ahead!

The unanimous election of our sitting board to another term is very gratifying to us all. All our sitting board members (including our Vice President Tom Bonsack, pictured above with local Fish & Game Wardens during 2012 Fish Camp Weekend) appreciate the votes of support.

Camp Survived the Great Rim Fire of 2013!

Yes, it was touch and go there for a while, but with the valiant efforts of the Fire Fighters and the good luck of fair winds, camp has been saved. We did however suffer some losses, including the Friends of Camp Storage shed and all its contents.

We got our 3 min of fame on television and then it was back to work for everyone.

We have been working hard to get and keep traction while we waited out several developments:

1- The fire had to burn out. As long as it was going, the entire area was closed to everyone but fire fighters.

2- The Federal Shutdown. Once the fire was out, the Federal departments that needed to be in play were all closed down. We have to wait for several Federal clearances before rebuilding can begin.

3- City of San Jose approvals and clearance. We cannot enter or begin work without being allowed on site with dates approved in advance and our building/ repair agenda given the green lite. Items to work on include replacing several tents, the Friends shed, and camp repairs to infrastructure including water and electrical feeds.

You can see the unpredictable way the fire hit camp around our south/west end. We were,, however, very lucky, and we WILL be open this spring for Fish Camp Weekend!

We are working with the city to be allowed access and to donate our valuable free man hours to the effort. We will update you on how this is going!