Summer camps are one of the best ways to bring young people into the life of their home church, or get them connected with a church if they have never been a regular attendee at one before.

Sound View Camp has a unique role to play in developing new approaches to ministry that will engage and inspire young people.

Churches in Olympia Presbytery will be missing future opportunities if they have no presence at Soundview.  Based on the above three successful principles of transformation I see Soundview as an effective mature ministry that needs to be strengthened and a ministry that is ripe for fearless experimentation.

I have 2 grandsons that have attended Sound View for the past three years.  They are looking forward to Jr. High camp this year.  They are also hoping to become counselors when they are old enough.  I don't want to tell them that the Presbytery doesn't think their needs are important.

[Kristan] maintains his Christian testimony in a very elite field, and is professionally as well as on a personal level, living a balanced life.  I contend this would not have happened without the influence of Sound View Camp.  I will be forever grateful to the Presbytery, the directors, and the staff of Sound View.

The leadership at Soundview builds an amazing culture of acceptance and love, and this literally saved my daughter.  The warmth, compassion, and understanding of the LIT mentors and other campers was truly amazing and opened the door to many things for her, including a renewed connection to God.

I have faith that god is not done sound view and the potential lives, that he can change. I know he drastically changed my life at camp, and I know former staffers, and campers whose life it also changed. God has used camp to inspire me, push me, grow me, challenge me, teach me, humble me, and teach me how to live.

Sound View provides a great opportunity for Christian growth and discipleship in a beautiful setting.  The future of Sound View will be in our prayers.  Please make every effort to keep the camp open beyond 2016 for many years to come.

As the only Presbyterian camp I know of that is west of the Cascades, it is a hub for local churches.  My home church, Newport Presbyterian, has been having it’s annual church retreat at Sound View for 6 years, this will be it’s 7th.  I love these retreats because it gives me a chance to be at Sound View.

Sound View gave me a home when my real one was suffering. The people I became close to are the best people I know. Even though I've moved across the country, whenever I feel alone I have my SV family. Those relationships have been with me for years and gotten me through everything. I learned to be a better person there.

Saw first hand what SV could do for struggling kids and for struggling teens trying to find their place in the world. I have taken so many people to sound view to see show them the amazing historic place of refuge.

But in the near future, my child will be old enough and mature enough to go off to camp and I certainly hope my child would have the opportunity to go to a camp that is connected to our community of faith. I want for my daughter to go to a place that is loving and caring, sure. But I also want my child to go to a camp that is lock-step in line with the values we hold both at home and in church. I want a camp that teaches my child that God loves everyone, no exceptions, and that no matter who she is or what she is struggling with through her childhood and beyond, that there is a body of believers who are there to hold her up and pray with her and be there for her, just the way God is always there for her. I live, work, and homeschool my child in the same neighborhood as Sound View. I have done my research. There is NO camp that fits this description better than Sound View.

Today more than ever kids and teens (and adults too) need a place to get away to where they can disconnect from technology and screens and instead connect face to face with real people and nature and develop relationships naturally and organically and in a place they can feel safe to truly be themselves without the pressure and expectation of modern society and their every day lives.

We can not cut a vital mission of our church. That is how we need to start looking at this. Our youth and kids need a place like Sound View to get away from this harsh world and all the stresses they are under.

We are writing to express to you the deep and lasting impact that Sound View has had on our family.

Over the past ten years both of our children attended Sound View every chance they got.  They are both in their 20's now, but those opportunities included camp sponsored weekend retreats,
all-church and youth group weekend work projects, multiple weeks each summer as campers and LIT's (Leaders In Training) and our son being on staff as a counselor in the summer of 2014. 

We are writing this letter to implore you to keep Sound View Camp open. This camp has changed our lives as well as countless others. We wish we could be at the Presbytery meeting to try and explain to you and show you how much it would mean to us, the Sound View family, and many others who still wish to attend Sound View in the future if you would help keep it open.

It was the loving actions of the camp staff that showed me that faith in Jesus Christ was only real if it was accompanied by the act of loving others. I had a rough childhood, and so many other kids just like me had a pretty rough go of it, but the staff didn't care where you came from. They didn't care if you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior or not. The only thing they cared about was every single one of those campers, including me.

I left Sound View a stronger person. I had a more solid foundation that strengthened my walk with God. I learned how to be a more independent thinker and I learned how to open up and embrace people, life and myself.

Camping is a valuable addition to any church’s youth and children’s ministry.  But a small church is unable to provide that ministry on its own