Service and Mission
Camps for Healing: Ferncliff has a national reputation for creative service and outreach. In 1998, after the Jonesboro school shooting, Ferncliff organized a series of special camps to help with healing for the Westside Middle School children. The camps grew to include youth from Paducah, Columbine, Bosnia, New York City (after 9/11) and other sites of violence.
Outreach Camps: Over the years, Ferncliff has conducted camps for children whose parents are in prison, foster care children, hurricane evacuees, children of homeless parents and children with asthma.
Disaster Response: Ferncliff is the only camp in the nation with its own 10,000 sq ft Disaster Assistance Center (DAC). The DAC is run in partnership with Church World Service (CWS) and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). Churches make Gift-of-the-Heart disaster kits (www.churchworldservice/kits) and if the church is closer to Arkansas than it is to Maryland (CWS national warehouse), they can send the kits to Ferncliff where volunteers receive, inspect and prepare the kits for shipment. The DAC also stores materials for PDA and has a large wood working shop where Emergency Storage Units and other disaster related buildings can be made.
Solar Mission Training Center: Starting in 2010, Ferncliff is working with the Synod of the Sun (www.synodsun.com) to build a center where volunteer teams can be training in how to install a solar energy system in third world mission projects. Modeled after the successful Living Waters for the World program (http://www.livingwatersfortheworld.org) with the Synod of Living Waters, this Solar Under the Sun project will initially start by adding solar power to existing water purification projects. The first training class is will be conducted in late 2009 or early 2010.