Camp Tamarack is owned and operated by the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin. Located on over 180 acres outside of Waupaca, and holding considerable frontage on the beautiful Chain of Lakes, Tamarack offers a retreat for youth and adults of all beliefs throughout the year.
If you are interested in utilizing our facilities at Camp Tamarack for your next retreat or family gathering, please contact Associate Regional Minister - Camping: Rev. Carolyn Dugan at carolyn.dugan@abcofwi.org or call/text 715-281-2269
Come, enjoy God's beauty, and fellowship in this wonderful facility.
New Summer 2020 Camp Director Announced
Early May 2020 we announced that unfortunately we have decided to cancel all the overnight camp programs at Camp Tamarack, our ABC Wisconsin region camp in Waupaca, originally scheduled for June and July 2020 due to the current COVID-19 health crisis. Our decision was made in large part due to our commitment to the health and safety of staff and our campers.
We also remain committed, however, to connecting in creative ways with our campers, camp families and seasonal staff, many of whom had originally planned their summer with Camp Tamarack on the top of their list.
To lead us in this effort, we are excited to announced that we have hired Mrs. Dianna Brophey as our Summer 2020 Camp Director.
A wife and mother of three, Dianna Brophey has spent the better part of her life as an educator. She is a member of First Baptist Church of West Allis and attended Camp Tamarack as a youth. She continued coming back over the years as summer staff, cabin leader, health officer, and Primary Camp director while introducing her own children into the camp family. Her family cherishes the connections made there, and one of her goals is to continue the tradition for new and returning campers.
Dianna shares, “I love Camp Tamarack! This camp season, I look forward to sharing the peace and grace of God I have come to know at Tamarack. The goal this summer will be to make that connection in new and different ways as we embrace transformation.”
As an educator, Dianna has already been pivoting in new ways as she has led her virtual classroom over the past several weeks, and I trust she will bring all her experience, creativity, and skills to the challenge of exploring, designing, and implementing virtual summer camp experiences, and, if safe to do so, alternate in-person activities at Camp Tamarack later in the summer.
She knows it will take a team of leaders and helpers, as has always been needed in all previous camp seasons, and she has many relationships within our Camp Tamarack family with which to draw upon.
This part time summer position is necessarily designed to be flexible, so stay tuned in the coming weeks for ways you can join our “Transformed Summer 2020 Camp Season Team,” learn more about how your youth and families can still experience Christ’s love through “camp” and “outdoor ministry,” or simply offer your support to Dianna. She can be reached at dianna.brophey@abcofwi.org.
Her focus area will be summer programming, and she will work alongside Kim Drost, Assistant Minister Camping – Facilities and Guest Services, who continues to oversee the stewardship of the grounds and manages the rental opportunities of Camp Tamarack.
Please join me in welcoming Dianna to our region staff team, and please keep her and our Camp Tamarack ministry in your prayers as we still have a lot to discern about how God is seeking to transform this ministry through this season.
Winter Youth Retreat at Camp Tamarack 2020
Winter Youth Retreat is a time for those currently in 7th-12th grade to come together for fun and fellowship. The dates for 2020 are Friday, Jan 24th to Sunday, Jan 26th.
The weekend consists of time for: Worship, Bible Study, Games, and More!
You can find more information and how to register for the weekend HERE
4th Annual Men’s Retreat
Fri, May 31 – Sun, June 2 at Camp Tamarack
Facilitator for the weekend:
Rev. Dr. Marcus Allen, Sr.— Mount Zion Baptist Church, Madison
A time to gather…
- to retreat from the demands of everyday lives
- for recharging and revival
- through interaction with Scripture and one another
- so we can come to a deeper understanding and
appreciation of faith and witness.
Arrival starting at 5:30 pm Friday.
Official program runs Saturday 9am—Saturday 5pm with an option to stay until Sunday.
Any questions, please contact:
Franklin Onwubuariri at 510-393-8546 or foariri@gmail.com
Carolyn Dugan at 715-281-2267 or Carolyn.dugan@abcofwi.org
You can register on line here
Camp Tamarack – Summer 2019
You can find the summer brochure here: 2019 Summer brochure
You can register on line here: https://camptamarack.org/reservations-forms/
Winter Youth Retreat Feb 15-17, 2019
This event is held at Camp Tamarack and is for youth currently in grades 7-12.
You can register on-line here: https://camptamarack.org/reservations-forms/
You can find the brochure: here
New Wheels at Camp Tamarack
Camp has received 8 new wheels this fall!
Attached to those wheels are a new John Deere tractor for mowing+ and new Camp truck for hauling+!
The First Baptist Church in Ixonia heard our plight of the riding lawn mower deciding not to work anymore this year and really stepped up to work with Kim and provide Camp a brand new John Deere X570 that will mainly be used for mowing grass in those hard to reach places that the big tractor just can’t get, but is too big for a push mower to handle.
Earlier this year, Carolyn reached out to Carmen Porco at Housing Ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin to see what they look for when purchasing a new truck in anticipation of replacing the current truck. The response was – if you can wait a couple months, we have a truck we can give you. What a truck indeed – we received a 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 in excellent condition with a snow plow attachment!
As we enter in to the year of Collaboration these two examples are a great showing of how ministries can work together for a common goal. We are extremely grateful for the generosity shown to Camp so we can focus on care of creation and those that come to “be” in that space.
Meet our new tractor “Hosanna”
Here is our new truck “Name to be determined 🙂 ”
2018 Advent Retreat at Camp Tamarack
Join Us at Camp Tamarack before the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving and Christmas during the weekend of November 2nd-4th, for some time to be creative and reflect on the season.
Each session will include a meditation on the Advent themes of Faith, Hope, Joy and Love, plus an opportunity to create 6 cards of one design on the left with Heidi Olsen.
Sunday morning will include a bonus session of present tags.
If you don’t want to make cards and want to spend time working on your own projects, you are welcome to do that as well!
You can find out more information here and register for the event here.
Register by Oct 1st to secure your spot and supplies.
Tamarack Tales: The Water Tells A Story
Camp Tamarack hosted its first-ever Tamarack Tales nature camp in July of 2018. With three lakes and a little over 180 acres, there is a lot of nature to be had at Camp Tamarack.
With our mission of providing a safe environment for all individuals to experience Christ; to test and strengthen their faith commitment; and to sharing in community this was a great opportunity to be a part of the natural environment in the larger community.
Most campers know about Orlando Lake, which is where our swimming beach is. Some know that Orlando is connected to Knight Lake, which is what the Vespers area overlooks. A few know about Youngs Lake, which has its own Tamarack water access and a dock just down the trail across from the Basile Retreat Center.
During Tamarack Tales, campers had the opportunity to do citizen science by examining the water quality of Orlando and Youngs lakes using Digital Observation Technology Skills kits borrowed from the UW-Extension at Upham Woods. Campers used the eight instruments in the kits to record salinity, dissolved solids, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, phosphate, turbidity, take pictures and other readings to get a baseline picture of Camp Tamarack’s lake water quality. All of the data was shared with the Environmental Protection Agency and the WI Department of Natural Resources. We were doing real science!
Among the more interesting discoveries of the camp was the realization that the lake is teeming with macro-invertebrates – bugs of all shapes and sizes that actually are among the indicators of lake water quality. Some bugs simply will not tolerate pollution, so the fact that we found some of those picky buggers tells us that our lakes are not suffering from pollution. We have algae, so we have more phosphorus than we should have, but overall our lake water quality is very good.
We saw things under the microscope that blew us away. The shell that is pictured on this page was so small, we almost didn’t even notice it was a shell – we thought it was a speck of sand! The little dot in the upper left is what we saw with just our phone camera. But when we put it under the microscope, we saw it was a really pretty shell with stuff growing on it! Who knew?!
In addition to water quality, we were led on a nature walk by Dr. Shannon Davis-Foust of UW-Oshkosh, who told us about prairie pollinators (bees) and plants. WI Master Naturalists Bob and Christine Faulks led us on a tour of the restored prairie next door to Camp and of Tails & Trails, a nearby leash-free dog park in which they have restored a wetland and prairie. Jeff Huelsbeck, another WI Master Naturalist, helped with the DOTS surveys and talked to the campers about what you should bring with you to be safe in the woods.
If you have questions about what was shared or want to attend next year please contact Carolyn at carolyn.dugan@abcofwi.org or Kim and kim.drost@abcofwi.org.