At Camp Namanu, first graders through high schoolers experience the magic of being outside in a welcoming community. Namanu’s facilities are truly unique in Oregon. The youngest campers bunk in newer cabins with lights, heating, bathrooms and showers. As campers grow, they get to sleep closer and closer to the natural world, with the oldest groups sleeping in open-air cabins or even tree houses above the Sandy River.
With support from the Gray Family Foundation in 2016, Camp Namanu made some essential upgrades to make the camp safer and add to facilities’ longevity. The Camp did some major re-roofing: on eight cabins of Pioneer unit, an open-air housing for 8th- and 9th-graders, as well as four cabins in its horse camp, and also its shop, where the roof was leaking.
“We’ve easily added another 20 years to the life of the buildings,” says Andy Lindberg, Director of Programs & Facilities
The camp also upgraded valves in its water system that had broken underground and improved the pool deck, where the pool-liner coating was starting to come off.
With some structures dating the 1930s and 1940s, Namanu has former campers from decades ago that can recognize buildings from their memories. “It’s this kind of maintenance work that allows that to happen,” Lindberg says.
“That’s one of the amazing things about the support that the Gray Family Foundation provides us. These are the kind of projects that are hard to get donors excited about… and so it’s always great to know that that resource is out there.”