GLEN JEAN, WV (WOAY) – Camp Royal, a faith-based outdoors and sporting camp, has had their facility in Glen Jean for the past three summers.
As they gear up for Summer 2020, the staff was disappointed to learn of an apparent scam where people were going around posing as camp affiliates asking for money.
Randy Heidemann, who oversees facilities at the camp, says it was the community who let them know that people pretending to be affiliated with the camp were coming door-to-door asking for money.
“They started to reach out to us and they started to say, ‘Hey, we are finding people coming door-to-door that are trying to raise money. They say they work with you guys but we don’t recognize them,’ but with the relationships we have, a lot of them know who we are,” Heidemann said.
Heidemann went on to say that people from the camp might come to your door to tell you about the camp but will never ask for money, so now they’re asking the public to be mindful and vigilant.
“These are desperate times and people are hurting and so I understand why somebody would do stuff like that,” he said. “It’s not right. Like I said, I know God knows who they are and God loves them and wants to take care of them, but we just don’t want people to be thinking they’re part of us when they’re not.”
Now they’re looking toward this summer as day camps are expected to begin in July.
The camp has spent this time revamping their facility adding new trails, building on dorms and fixing up the building that was once Glen Jean Elementary to make it even more of an adventure haven for local kids.
“To go from dreaming about something to actually see kids come for the first time, to see those vans pull up for the first time for the first camp is just an incredible feeling and to see the kids change from day one to day five is just incredible,” Program Director Timothy Davis said.
Some may be wondering what the future holds for the Christian camp this summer in the midst of a pandemic.
They are permitted to run a camp this year and will be doing their one-week day camps for three weeks starting on July 13. Then, their first overnight camp will start on August 2. Here they will empower local kids through teaching them adventure sports like skateboarding, BMX, mountain biking and more.
The crew is excited to welcome kids back and show their new amenities.
“We’ve got tons of mountain bike trails. We’ve got tons of cross country trails,” Davis said. “We’ve got new airbags. We’ve got a whole new lineup of athletes coming out, but the way that they can register for camp and there’s still a handful of spots left. They can see us on Camproyal.com or weareroyal.com.”
You can check their website for pricing, and Davis says there are scholarships available.
