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Help us Help the Dining Hall!
After admitting to ourself that our vision is forever exceeding our
check book, we have made a decision to include our alumni and friends
of Cedar Lodge in our building process and vision. We hope we can
convince all of you to participate in our first fund drive. Over the
years we have had many alumni and friends make donations to both camp
and the scholarship fund. Those donations have been much appreciated.
We are hoping to raise $5000 from our camping community for a new
project for camp.Maker Space
Goal: create a space for advanced Arts and Crafts/ MusicLocation: basement of the dining hall The Maker Space would be an area for advanced arts and crafts. A space where a camper could take on a more in depth project, one that may require weeks to finish. We also envision a home for the expanding music program. We see the area of the Maker Space, approximately 725 square feet, to be an area to enable us to offer more in depth art projects. For a $20 donation you receive (besides a thank you) updates on the progress and dinner at the following year alumni weekend. For a $50 donation you receive everything above plus a custom tee shirt designed just for the project.  For a $100 donation you receive everything above plus a dozen triangle donuts to mail to you sometime during the holiday season.For a $500 donation you receive everything above plus 2 free nights at Cedar Lodge main house guest rooms, and an autographed photo with Amy. For a $1000 donation along with everything above, we will sing about you. We will modify a camp song about you and record it during the following summer and send it to you. The song, we're sure, will become part of camp lore for years to come. For a $5000 donation you receive everything above and we will grant you the right to name the space. We will do a video of your song and post it on you tube. What we hope to achieve with the fund drive is to reach enough funds to start this project. Our goal is $5000, of course more would be better, but with $5000 in donations, we would be able to start the project. Please read the next renovation part of the “History of the dining hall” for more details, and please see the bottom for how to donate. Brief History of the Dining Hall at Cedar Lodge
 Here is a brief history of the Dining Hall. It is only a brief account of the building history from before we took
over the property. We bought the property which is Cedar Lodge in 1964.
The building which is the Dining Hall was a cow barn at that time. There
were stanchion for the cows in what is the basement and hay and grain
storage took place on the 2nd floor and attic. There was a silo located
in the center of the building on the lake side. We were told the
building originally was built on the corner of 52nd Street and 48th
Avenue, which is the southeast corner of the camp property. It was a
church. I have found an Arlington township map from the 1890s which
show a church located at that intersection. I also found one from 1910
which shows the church gone. The story is the church building was moved
to its present location somewhere around the turn of the century. When
we first took over the building, along with the cow parlor in the
basement, you could see the outline of the pews on the wainscot which
is now the main dining room. At the north end, there were massive nine
foot double doors which opened to the outside. This is currently the
door into the kitchen from the center work room. It had tall windows
where the windows to the east porch are and also two to the west where
the doors are located. The silo was between the windows.  The First Camp RenovationThe first changes to the building came with the removal of the cow equipment, taking down the silo, adding a staircase both from the basement to the main floor and from the main floor to the attic. A floor was put in the attic and one of the first uses was a radio shack in the attic. The first year we did some arts and crafts in the basement and the big room on the main floor was the recreation room. The next big change came the following year when the camp kitchen and dining room was relocated from the farm house to the basement of the Dining Hall. An addition was put on the front in the form of a screen porch and where canteen is now was a shower house (it was just a boys camp at this time). Eddy along with Doc Tatter(Camp Watervliet) bought a semi load of western red cedar logs from a log home company. These became the porches around the west and north side of the building and a deck on the south. Doc Tatter used his to create a barn at Camp Watervliet. There was a sizable amount of wood left and among other things, its now part of the Bath House on the hill, the addition on the farm house and a cabin at Watervliet. In the dining hall, bathrooms were located upstairs in much the same area as the bathrooms are now and there were two bedrooms or offices as their use changed over the years.  The Second Renovation: 1983The second major renovation of the Dining Hall came after our return as Cedar Lodge. Because of changes to laws governing camps we need to abandon the interior staircase and even though the basement was the most comfortable place in camp on a hot day, we needed a larger kitchen and eating area. We also were trying to expand the seasonal use of the building and saw the need to close in the porches. This led to moving the kitchen to where it is now on the north porch, changing the interior two rooms into better bathrooms and the dish washing room, and changing the recreation room into the dining room. We also put a roof over the south deck and enclosed the room. We enclosed the lakeside porch with walls and windows and had a storage room in the southwest corner. Part of the next expansion was to add the east porch, add the walk in cooler and to remove all the walls and windows on the lakeside porch, adding screens to allow for both a better breeze and view. The basement and attic were assigned storage duty. The camp office has been arts and crafts, computer room, bedroom, and storage. The dish washing was moved to the east porch next to the walk-in. The layout of the Dining Hall has always been like trying to hit a moving target, ever changing as we try to meet the current and future needs of the camp. The Next Renovation As we have moved through the last few years we have faced some more changes in state laws concerning camp buildings. The one that we have been working with most recently deals with storage areas. In the Dining Hall we have two, the basement and the attic. We find ourself re-evaluating the usage of these areas due to a need to change the interior of these areas to conform with state law. 
renovation possible with their kind support. We have a large enough community that if everyone made a small donation of $20. we could make this happen. Thank you for your support. Cedar Lodge Donation Page
We have many ways you can donate to Cedar Lodge. We accept cash,
checks, and PayPal. While we currently don't accept credit/debit cards
we are working on that option.Please make checks out to Cedar Lodge and memo “Maker Space” You may access information for donating by PayPal on the Cedar Lodge web site. For you gift we will need: Name: Address: City/State: Zip: Amount of donation: 20 50 100 500 1000 5000 other For donations of $50 or more please include shirt size Please mail donations to: Cedar Lodge Po Box 218 Lawrence, MI 49064 |