Laboring and Loving It

Twenty-seven volunteer workers. Four full-time and two part-time Florida College employee workers. A total of 630 labor hours worked. Approximately $24,000 saved. Weeding, trimming, scrubbing, cleaning, painting, removing, replacing, patching, pressure washing, repairing…the fourth annual Labor Camp came and went, and the campus has been transformed.

Campers arrived on Sunday, June 15, and were greeted by directors Craig and Tami Bean (’80, ’79) with an armload of sheets, towel, toilet paper, name tags, and a camp shirt. The week began with introductions, instructions, and a singing on the first floor of Hinely Hall.

This year’s Labor Camp was successful not only in its productivity and the amount of money and hours saved by attendees. It was also filled with fun activities, camp memories, and inspiring spiritual activity. These were all outcomes predicted by the Beans when they came up with the idea four years ago.

As longtime FC booster club camp directors, the Beans have talked to parents dropping off or picking up their kids year after year. And so many times those parents express their wish for some kind of camp equivalent for adults.

When their oldest daughter was in her first semester at Florida College, the Beans were walking along the Riverwalk and noticed several administrators—including President C. G. “Colly” Caldwell—planting shrubs and working on the newly created walkway.

“We could have done that,” Craig remembers thinking.

Suddenly these two ideas converged—along with the wish of many alumni to contribute to the school, but lacking the ability to write a check for $10,000. The dream of FC Labor Camp was born.

With the help of public relations director Ralph Walker, the first camp was held the next summer. The number of campers (and consequent success) has increased every year.

The purpose of Labor Camp appeals most directly to recent alumni and alumni with children now attending FC…but every year the camp hosts people who have little or no association with the school. “They’re just people with a servant’s heart,” Bean said, “and they love it.”

Yet there truly is a special bond felt by those who have passed through the halls of the college, even if, like two of this year’s campers, only for one semester. That bond is seen nowhere clearer than in the people who attend Labor Camp, evidenced by the sacrifices they make to come.

The value of the camp, according to Bean, is very much the value of Florida College itself. “The things that you love about this place,” Bean said, “are being together, growing spiritually, and doing things you don’t normally get to do.”

“Not to mention,” he added, “it makes for a really cheap vacation.”

Labor Camp Report
Total volunteer workers	33
Total labor hours	630
Value of labor	$24,000