Berachah Church’s facilities for campers called ‘a huge win’

Organizers said the Berachah Church property on Johns Road was the ideal location to host WinShape Camps for Communities last week.

The inaugural summer camp in Middletown attracted 220 children, and Pastor Lamar Ferrell said the site has the potential to host up to 600 kids in the future. Berachah, located in the former Verity Middle School, has enough classroom space for the arts instruction and Bible study and the acreage for the 21 outdoor activities such as flag football, archery, basketball, cheerleading and soccer.

The only negative, he said, was that more campers didn’t get an opportunity.

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In 2015, Berachah purchased the school and the 58 acres for $293,000 from the Middletown City School District, and Ferrell said the church invested $1.7 million renovating the 77,000-square-foot school that was built in 1970.

Ferrell said the church is located in the “center of the city.”

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Camp director Kenny McBride, 25, a recent graduate of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, said the inside and outside facilities at Berachah were “a huge win for us” and he sees the potential for registration growth at the camp. He said the average WinShape camp has 275-300 participants.

The camp was run by McBride and 26 college students and Berachah provided volunteer support staff, Ferrell said. Also, he said, the city’s police and fire departments supported the camp and provided campers one of the meals.

WinShape Camps was established in 1985 in Mt. Berry, Ga., to provide a camp experience that would enable campers to sharpen their character, deepen their Christian faith and grow in their relationships with others, McBride. WinShape Camps partners with Chick-fil-As around the country to bring camp to their communities, he said

WinShape has more than 90 day camp locations across the country, and Middletown and Canton were the only two in Ohio. Middletown was chosen after the host site in Centerville became unavailable.

Ferrell said several local organizations — Middletown City Schools, Middletown Tube Works and Atrium Medical Center Foundation — were major sponsors.

He said most of the campers were from Middletown and were supported through the district’s scholarship program. He said some local children were given a camp experience for the first time.

“People really do want to invest in the generation,” Ferrell said. “They want to invest not in tomorrow, but in today. Today is pivotal in the lives of these kids.”

It afforded the kids an opportunity to have a week of “structure, character building,” Ferrell said.

When parents have completed surveys about past camper experience, they mentioned fun, fitness, faith and friends, McBride said.

This year’s theme was “No matter what, God is never changing.”

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