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12.02.08 - Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation Make Largest Gift Ever to Young Life for Camp in Oregon
The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation has made a gift to Young Life of $30 million to expand the youth camp at Young Life’s Washington Family Ranch near Antelope, Ore., three hours southeast of Portland. The gift will fund facilities for middle school campers aged 12-14 years. The Washington Family Ranch is a 64,000-acre property that was donated to Young Life by Dennis and Phyllis Washington in 1998. Through this additional gift, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation continues its strong support of Young Life, a premier worldwide, non-denominational, Christian youth ministry, with the hope that Young Life’s Washington Family Ranch will continue to grow and become one of the largest youth camps in the world.
“As a former camper and youth leader, I know how just one good week at camp can impact a life forever,” said Phyllis Washington. “Many have described a week at Young Life as the ‘best week of their life,’ but beyond this campers take away an inner strength that will help them make good choices as adolescents and will sustain them throughout their lives.”
The new camp will feature a unique water park theme. With an added capacity of 350 guests per week, this new camp will be built specifically to serve Young Life’s WyldLife ministry, which reaches out to middle school students. The current high school camp, with a capacity of 625, has served 143,982 campers, leaders and guests since 1999. Many of these campers have been supported through the Young Life Campership Fund, an ongoing camp scholarship program. More information about this program is available at younglife.org.
The design of the new camp is underway and construction will begin this spring, to be completed by the summer of 2011. It will be on the same property as the existing camp and will share some infrastructure.
“This is without doubt an unprecedented gift to the mission of Young Life and a cause for celebration. It will allow us tremendous flexibility as we look to the future growth of our ministry to kids in the Northwest,” said Denny Rydberg, president of Young Life.
“Young Life leaders, most of whom are volunteers, enter the world of kids, focusing on what matters to them — fun, adventure, and friendship,” continues Rydberg, “In doing so, they earn the privilege of talking to kids about something that we think matters most of all — the truth about God and His love for them.”
Founded in 1941, Young Life is a worldwide organization for middle school, high school and college students. Young Life is active in more than 50 countries reaching nearly one million kids annually. Young Life leaders bring almost 90,000 kids to one of our 20 premier camping properties in operation in North and Central America; approximately 20,000 kids experience Young Life camping in other locations around the world.
The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation was founded in 1988 with the mission of “investing in people to improve the quality of their lives.” Since its inception, the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation has distributed over $100 million in grants with a special emphasis on undergraduate and graduate scholarships to underprivileged youth. The Foundation also awards grants in the areas of Education, Arts & Culture, Community Service, and Health & Human Services.
