Oh, the stories this place could tell...
Phase 1 - The Front Porch
The first thing we needed to do was build a new welcome center adjacent to Skipper Hall. This "Front Porch" houses our new Snack & Gift Shop and provides a much needed gathering space for our many groups. The building which housed our old Snack & Gift Shop has been cleared to make way for our Phase 2 project, Sacramento's new Family Life Center. The mountains which provide the beauty and peace of Sacramento also leave us few places to expand, so the old had to go, making way for the new. It's an essential part of Transformation. This new welcome center is truly our new "Front Porch" and provides many benefits and long-needed improvements to our ability to serve.
- It provides a central hub of activity at Skipper Hall, in addition to adding a striking visual centerpiece to our most used building, and the first thing our guests see on arrival.
- It allows us to operate the Snack and Gift Shop with greater efficiency. With a location adjacent to our offices, we are able to quickly open it as our guests need it.
- It provides a much needed common area space for our groups to use. Our lobby in Skipper Hall was quickly overrun when even a small group was using it. With our new outdoor deck and courtyard, indoor gathering place, as well as an additional loft space, guests have more places to spread out and fellowship anytime, day or night, whenever the need to "Refresh" arises.
Phase 2 - Family Life Center
We have already begun to prepare the land for this vital new building. Our Family Life Center will be the hub of activity for many groups, and will allow us vastly increased flexibility in handling multiple groups at a time.
While it was bittersweet to see the old building start to come down, we fondly remember the generations of changed lives that went through its doors. It served us well for its time, and now the new building will do even greater due to its modern features and multiple configurations.
One of the things we've learned in our years of camping ministry: you can never have enough beds, and you can never have enough meeting space. One of the major challenges we have faced with our record usage numbers is an inability to adapt quickly to different types of groups.
In order to operate efficiently in the modern era of camping, we must have a building that can shrink or stretch from week to week. The new Family Life Center has been designed to give us that flexibility. In addition to adding over 100 beds, we can configure the rooms in a variety of ways.
- Suite doors between the rooms will allow us to double up for certain groups.
- We will have 2 apartment-style rooms with full kitchens.
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Additional and flexible meeting spaces will provide essential adaptability for hosting multiple large groups at once.
Phase 2 : The Family Life Center - 2024 Update
Because of the generosity of our donors, we completed construction of the first wing and conference center portions of the Family Life Center. We opened the first wing for guest use in the Spring of 2021, and the conference center in the Spring of 2024!
Hughes Conference Center is Now OPEN!
The Journey Continues
With Phase 1 completed and 2/3 of Phase 2 operational, we still need $3,500,000 to complete the project. We need your help to finish. Construction in the mountains is a challenging and expensive endeavor, but we have partnered with a build/design firm that knows the process well.