For the past two summers, Camp Rockfish has been able to expand its summer resident camp program to children of deployed military. This past summer, Operation Purple at Rockfish provided a week or more of summer camp to 830 children who had at least one parent deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq.

Operation Purple is a program begun in 1994 by the National Military Families Association. This year, several major financial sponsors, including the Sierra Club and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, partnered to fully fund summer camp experiences for close to 4,000 children of deployed military of all services, both active and reserve.

These children are carrying an unusually heavy burden due to the long absences of one of their parents and the anxieties and uncertainties associated with war time. Not only did the children experience the usual camping activities, but they were also involved in programs designed to help them deal with the issues associated with an absent parent because of deployment in a war environment.

During the 2007 summer season Rockfish was one of 34 sites in 26 states providing a camping experience. Rockfish has been the largest of those sites, serving 360 children in 2006 and 830 children in 2007. Because Fort Bragg is the largest US military base and North Carolina has a very large National Guard deployment, the impact of current deployment on children and families in our Conference is enormous.

While most of the 34 Operation Purple sites provided only one or two weeks of camp, Rockfish provided six one-week camps and two two-week leadership camps, one for middle school age and one for high school age. While providing these special camps, Rockfish has continued to serve its growing regular summer camp population as well.

Because of the success of the Rockfish Operation Purple camps, National Military Families Association (NMFA) asked Camp Director Gene Joiner and his staff to lead a pilot program in California for children of military parents injured in the current conflict. Gene accepted the challenge, contracted for the use of a United Methodist Camp in California, and flew most of his staff there to run the program the week of June 17.

While the majority of Rockfish staff was in California, a small group of staff remained to host “Royal Family Kids” (RFK) a ministry for children who have experienced abuse. The Rockfish staff provided specialty programs while RFK provided its own cabin staff and program.

While the opportunity for this unique and timely ministry to families has been gratifying, it has also strained the resources of Rockfish, both human and physical. Summer camp support staff had to give up their own space and move into the Bergland Adult Retreat Center for the summer. Every available space was converted to housing. The dining hall had to operate double shifts for lunch and dinner.

Thanks to the Fuquay-Varina UMC and Raleigh District United Methodist Men, four new cabins are in the works, one built this fall and three to be built in the first quarter of 2008. It is fortuitous that the Board of Directors of Camp & Retreat Ministries had just completed master plans for each of the three camp & retreat centers (Rockfish, Chestnut Ridge and Don Lee), and that the Rockfish plans called for four replacement cabins. For the foreseeable future they will serve as additional cabins rather than replacements, providing more quality housing for all of our campers in 2008.