Meet Our Board

I became a Christian while a camper in Sherwood Forest, renewed my commitment to God while participating in the AIM program, and was honored to serve others on their faith journeys during my five summers on staff. I love the campfire area in Sherwood Forest. This area provides the perfect combination of bright colorful banners and playful, fun, and silly songs as well as serving as the ideal location for the staff and the Friar to proclaim God's message of love and salvation. I enjoy serving as a volunteer at Calvin Crest, at our church, at my kid's schools, and in community organizations. I appreciate opportunities to invest in my friendships, and I love to spend time with my husband and three children. I am excited to see where God is leading Calvin Crest in this new season. I look forward to expanding the tribe of people we serve and see a new generation rise up as leaders. I am hopeful that we can invest in the current facilities and invest in new ones that will increase our capacity to be increasingly hospitable to our guests. Calvin Crest is my very favorite place on Earth.

I attended Calvin Crest as a high school youth, attending High School Camp, AIM, and also serving as a counselor at Sherwood, Jr.High camp, Outpost and Miwok. As a teenager, Calvin Crest was a place where I would experience God’s presence and deepen my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. I love the ropes course and high adventure elements. They have always been challenging and thrilling to me, and I enjoy sharing them with my children now. I enjoy sports, cheering on my children in all their extra-curricular activities and spending time with my family. I want for Calvin Crest to continue its legacy as a place of beauty and peace where individuals can come to enjoy powerful programs and extravagant hospitality and then return home eager to follow Christ into their neighborhood and community.

Calvin Crest has played an integral role in my life and faith journey through multiple seasons of life. I got engaged at Calvin Crest, spent my formative 20's working summers and then year-round at CC, and raised my family within the CC community while my husband Rick was the Executive Director. Woven throughout, my walk with the Lord has grown and been challenged, my theology sharpened, and relationships and lifelong friendships formed. It is impossible to imagine what I would be like without the influence of Calvin Crest's unique ministry in my life. One of my favorite places on earth is Sherwood Forest! It is an honor and privilege to be returning to ministry at Calvin Crest as a member of the Board after 13 years of living and working in camping ministry in Southern California. It has been so fun to be on the grounds again and to reconnect with the CC community. I look forward to many more years of service and association.

To me, Calvin Crest is where I’ve experienced closeness to God through the beauty of his creation, the relationships I’ve formed and in the growth I’ve experienced each and every summer. I’ve been making the trip up the mountain to Calvin Crest for over 20 years. I started my camp journey in Sherwood Forest (go Greenwell), to junior high camp, winter camp, and high school camps. I’ve also served as a counselor, volunteer, and staff member. The beauty of this place is that it is always so familiar even through the multitude of changes over the years. Through Calvin Crest I’ve met many of my closest lifelong friends, as well as my best friend and wife. It’s been extra sweet the past few years to take our growing family up the hill and watch our children play and explore. 

Calvin Crest was a big part of my Jr. High and High School summer camp experience. At Boomtown on June 24, 1992 around the campfire, the Jesus I knew about in and through my family and church community became the Jesus I now know in deep, abiding relationship. Paul Barrett, Janeen Steer, Bill Ekhardt, and that generation of superbly dynamic leaders gave me great guidance in my faith, and it’s a joy to stay connected with what they are doing in life and ministry. There is a feeling of peace and serenity in the early evening air on a walk around the pond. Something about that place allows me to breathe more deeply than most anywhere else. I believe the framework for doing our best camping ministry could stretch and grow in Christ-like ways to welcome an ever-expanding spectrum of people to experience the love of God in Jesus Christ. Like patient new growth after the fire, our vision for how Calvin Crest can serve God's kingdom has the great potential to be revived and renewed in this coming season.

My family moved from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara when I was 7 years old.  Meeting our church family friends from Las Vegas at Calvin Crest Family Camp is what kept us connected to each other and to our shared faith.  It is also what began my relationship with Calvin Crest, lifelong friendships, and ultimately what has shaped my faith and who I am as a person today.  I was blessed to spend every summer thereafter, returning to the excitement and life-changing experiences of Calvin Crest, and as a parent, watching my children do the same. Experiencing the staff at Calvin Crest as a camper and later joining this team on staff has provided the richest leadership skills training imaginable and has shaped my work within my local community. I look forward to returning each summer to the magic of Week in the Forest, basking in the serenity of the grounds, feeling God’s powerful presence, watching the amazing staff team at work, and seeing God’s work every moment of the day.  I am richly blessed with the opportunity to serve on the Calvin Crest Board and be a part of the many lives it shapes and changes.

Calvin Crest has been a consistent and sustaining place to draw me back to authentic connection to God, His Kingdom, and the community that can be found in Him.  My love for Calvin Crest has grown deep roots through watching my children’s faith become their own during their involvement in summer programs, including two who were on summer staff, through mine and my husband’s many summers volunteering on special projects to help restore the grounds, and through our time serving as AIM-Ma and AIM-Pa two summers ago. Not only do I have a passion for the spiritual side of camp, but as a junior high science teacher, I am passionate about the Outdoor Education opportunities that Calvin Crest offers. I am honored to serve on the Calvin Crest Board and look forward to working alongside the other members, as we continue to provide space for all to meet God, to feel His presence, and to experience the renewal and restoration I, personally, encounter every time I am on the grounds under the trees.

Calvin Crest has made life changing impacts on many lives, and I have been lucky enough to witness those changed lives since I was a young camper in Sherwood First. Shortly after my first summers in Sherwood Forest my father was offered the opportunity to serve as the Buildings and Grounds Director. During that 7 year period Calvin Crest also changed my life forever. I met my wife at CC, developed long lasting relationships with the CC community and my faith became my own. It has been 15 years since I was a summer staffer and 17 years since I was a staff kid. A lot has changed since then, but the mission of Calvin Crest has not. There are more exciting changes ahead. I am blessed to have been asked to serve again and I look forward to using my gifts and past knowledge of CC to humbly serve God, the holy grounds, the staff, and campers.

I was honored and humbled to be selected by the CC Board to serve. My connection is via my children, Josh, and Abby, who both started out as MIWOK campers many years ago and my wife Marci’s volunteer work at Calvin Crest.  When Josh attended MIWOK it rained, and that group was showered with God’s love literally.  He was happy, exuberant, and excited when I brought him home.  God obviously had blessed him richly despite the rain. Josh went to camp every summer through high school, then became a staff member, and ultimately,  served as the head of food services. Abby camped every year through high school as well as served as CCA and AIMer.  She served a term as a  CC board member just a few years ago.  Seeing both their love of and faith in God while walking with Jesus is truly an inspiration to me.  As an adult, I attended UPC Session retreats and men’s retreats at Calvin Crest, and I always feel a sense of excitement and the presence of God after I turn onto Calvin Crest Road.  My faith has been strengthened exponentially by my association with Calvin Crest, and my prayer is to learn to work to further and promote the mission and dream of Calvin Crest.

My earliest memories of Calvin Crest are of work party weekends spent bouncing through camp in the back of battered pickup trucks as we readied the facilities for summer, so I have always thought of Calvin Crest as a place to serve God's kingdom with mind, heart, and hands. Growing up in a church with close ties to Calvin Crest, I saw both in my own life and the lives of those around me how much of an impact it made in support of the mission of the local church. As a camper, experiences of God's grace in Sherwood Forest, Junior High Sno-Go, and AIM were key turning points in my growing faith. As a young adult, serving on staff for six years was life-changing. Calvin Crest is where faith became my own, where I formed my closest friendships, where I met and married my wife, and where I set out on the road that has led me to ordained ministry. It is an honor to serve now in a new way on the board. I am excited to see what God has in store for his people through the ministry of Calvin Crest in the years to come as hearts and lives are transformed for Jesus Christ!

Calvin Crest has been a special part of my life since I was a Sherwood Forest camper. I gave my life to Jesus as a junior high camper and returned year after year because of the life changing moments that camp provided. My time as a counselor and an AIMer, as well as 6 years on summer staff, provided opportunities to grow as a leader, deepen my faith, and understand what it means to be engaged in ministry. I met my husband while on summer staff, and we have served the Lord together ever since. I have always loved what camp offers - a place for people to experience God, His love, and His community. I’m honored to serve on the board and to continue to participate in the ongoing ministry of Calvin Crest.