Dear Friends of Camp Stevens,

At last the tragic “Cedar Fire” is now nearly fully contained!  We are very grateful to all of you who have sent prayers, calls, emails and other forms of love and concern.  We are all very thankful for the hundreds of fire fighters, who with the help of a dramatic change in the weather, were able to save the townsite of Julian and  much of the surrounding area, including all of Camp Stevens.  Our hearts and prayers go out to the 300 to 400 families who lost their homes in the area and to the 3000 more in other parts of Southern California.

All of the Camp Stevens staff are now back on site and busy at work opening the camp for our weekend groups.  We have telephone service but no electricity.   We now have generators at the kitchen, in the office and to pump water to our storage tank.   We are hoping to have the power back on by the end of the week.

Camp Stevens and the Episcopal Dioceses of Los Angeles and San Diego will offer assistance to local families who have lost their homes by providing temporary lodging here during the week so that children can remain in school and preschool.   We will open our eighteen rooms to families Monday through Friday at no charge.  We will provide three free meals each day for the families, Monday through Thursday and breakfast on Fridays.   We will also provide some child care for younger children and some after-school programs for school-age children.

I will provide additional information as soon as it is available.

Sincerely, Peter Bergstrom, Executive Director