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Here is a list of our most frequently asked questions at BLC.
If your question is not in this list, please feel contact our offices at 260-799-5988 or info@bearlakecamp.com.
When you go to register your child for camp and a session is full, you will have the option to be added to a waitlist. This means there are no available spots left for that week of camp. A spot may open up in that week if someone cancels or switches to another week and the first person on the waitlist will have a chance to register.
If you are able to attend another week, we recommend registering for that week to guarantee a spot to attend camp this summer.
Bear Lake Camp hires our staff through a very intentional process to ensure we are able to provide your camper with the safest and best possible camp experience. Our hiring process includes recruiting, an in depth application, reference checks, a personal interview with Leadership Staff, and a background check. We do this to find college students who are not only passionate about Jesus and want to share that passion with your child but who are also qualified to work in our programs. Our favorite way to find staff is when our campers grow up and want to come back to be a part of the ministry team, but we also love to have new, fresh faces mixed in as well. We strive to put together a team of staff members who are mature, well trained, actively growing in their own relationships with Jesus, and excited about spending a summer serving our campers and you!
Bear Lake Camp offers 8 different residential camps for students entering the 2nd grade through graduating high school seniors. Our camps are are 5 night camp except for our youngest campers. Our Junior 3 week is 4 nights and ends on Thursday evening, and our Primary Overnight is a 24hr “taste of camp.”
Our camps are broken down by grade ranges and can be found on our Summer Program page.
Check in time for each week is Sunday from 4:30-5:30pm.
(Except Primary Overnight- 10:00am Friday)
Pick up is at 6:30pm Friday evening.
(Except Primary Overnight is at 10:00am on Saturday and Junior 3 is at 6:30pm on Thursday evening).
During the other three seasons, BLC offers and programs high school (Defrost) and middle school (Recharge) retreats as well as a women’s retreat (Breathe). We also have an annual “Sr. Day Away” for friends of the camp who are over 55 or older.
Beyond our own programming, we also rent our facilities out to retreat groups from local churches and parachurch ministries.
Yes! You can set up a tour of the camp at a time that is convenient for you and your family. Contact the camp office to arrange a time to tour facilities and hear all about a typical day at camp.
Please see our “What to Bring” page.
As part of the registration process, each camper is allowed to REQUEST up to two “cabin mates.” These cabin mates must be of the same gender as the camper. We do our best to honor at least one of these requests for every camper, but we are unable guarantee this due to cabin-group size, other campers’ requests and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together.
In the event that your camper is not placed in a cabin with either of their cabin mate requests, fear not! This does not mean they will not be able to spend time together during the week. There are many opportunities to spend time with these friends during non-cabin activities.
We also highly encourage campers to develop new friendships at camp. Camp is a great place to get a chance to find new lifelong friends!
We do not accept counselor requests due to the fact that we always have multiple new counselors each year and we like to give campers the opportunity to build relationships with multiple staff people over the course of their years camping at BLC.
Camp sessions are planned in such a way that camp is a journey for each attendee. The spiritual, relational, and even recreational aspects of camp are designed with the entire Sun-Fri time intentionally used for the best experience and outcomes for each child. Picking up your camper early will not only prevent them from participating in the closure of the week, it also is a distraction to other campers and the staff to have a camper leave before the end time.
If there is no way to avoid an early pick-up, we ask that you 1) notify the staff during check-in on Sunday evening and 2) call to confirm the pick-up 24hrs before arriving to pick up your camper.
No, our Snack Shack operates on a debit system and each camper has an account that can be deposited into with the registration or at check-in on Sunday. There is no need for a camper to have any money in their bags or on their person during the week.
One of BLC’s Core Values is “Awayness”. What this means is that one of the things that makes camp special and effective is that when you are at camp, you get to take a vacation from the distractions of life. By registering and attending in a BLC program, you and your camper are agreeing to either not bring or turn in your cell phone and other devices fully engage with God, others, and the camp program.
In addition, having cell phones in cabins and at other activities presents a privacy and safety issue that is best avoided by not having the devices present. While it may be intimidating to think about going a whole week without your device, the vast majority of our campers come back to camp again looking forward to a week with no pressure to be constantly posting and liking.
If you have questions about our policy, please feel free to call our office at 260-799-5988 or email us at info@bearlakecamp.com.
Each registration must be accompanied with a $25 non-refundable deposit to guarantee a spot for that registrant.
Account balances must be paid in full before or during check in on Sunday afteroon of your camper’s arrival.
If a registration must be cancelled, all but the $25 deposit is refunded to you.
BLC Offers two registration discounts: the Early Bird Discount and the Share the Love Discount.
Early Bird is a $40 discount applied to each registration received by April 17th, 2021.
Share the Love is a $50 discount for inviting a first time camper who then registers for and attends the same week of camp as your camper. Due to the criteria for this discount, Share the Love cannot be applied to your account until check in for your week of camp.
Neither of our discounts can be applied to the Primary Overnight.
7:00 am Polar Bearing
7:30 am Wake Up!!
8:05 am Flag Pole
8:15 am BREAKFAST
9:00 am Cabin Clean up
9:25 am Personal Devotions
9:50am Cabin Bible Study
10:30am Choice Activity #1
11:20pm Choice Activity #2
12:15 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm Cabin Time
1:30 pm Rotation #1
2:30 pm SNACK SHACK
3:00 pm Rotation #2
4:00 pm Free Time / Tournaments
5:30 pm SUPPER
6:30 pm Evening Activity
7:30 pm SNACK SHACK
8:15 pm Worship/Chapel
9:30 pm Night Activity / Camp Fire (Older Campers only)
10:15pm Cabin Time
We do offer a limited number of scholarships, both partial and full. We ask that you first request assistance from your home church so that we can provide scholarships to those who have exhausted all other possibilities and would be unable to attend camp without a BLC scholarship.
We don’t ever want money to keep a child from experiencing camp and are always seeking more people to sponsor campers who are unable to pay their own way.
A scholarship application can be found at the bottom of our registration page.
YES! But this must be done by our Registrar to prevent you from being automatically charged $25 for cancelling a reservation and submitting a new reservation.
Please call our offices at 260-799-5988 M-F between 9 and 4 to request a reservation transfer.
Each camper is required to have a health form filled out with their registration (registrations are not accepted without this form). Each week we have a licensed RN or LPN on staff to administer all medications and first aid.
Part of Check In for your camp session is turning in medicine to the nurse with all instructions for administration as well as to either approve or deny permission for the nurse to give your child Tylenol or Ibuprofen if they should need it.
In the event your camper were to become sick, we will contact you regarding care and/or need for pick-up. All medication (prescription and over the counter) must be turned into the nurse- rescue inhalers and insulin pumps are exceptions to this rule.
In case of an emergency, please call our office phone number: 260-799-5988. This number is forwarded to a leadership staff member’s cell phone when no one is in the office. If we are unable to answer your call, please leave a voicemail and we will return it ASAP.
There are two ways to communicate with your camper when they are attending camp.
Email: send emails to camper@bearlakecamp.com and please put your camper’s name in the subject line. We distribute emails once a day.
Snail Mail: Letters can be sent to
Camper Name
c/o Bear Lake Camp
1805 S. 16th St
Albion, IN 46701