Friday, December 30, 2011

Welcome to Retreat & Refresh Stroke Camp Blog

Thank you for visiting our blog site. We will begin officially publishing here soon in 2012. We will have many articles about strokes, our stroke camp, our Strike Out Stroke events, and our chimes choir. We welcome your comments and questions.

If you wish to leave a comment or question now, please do so. There will be someone regularly monitoring this blog even though it's not officially open, yet.

If you wish to be notified automatically when the blog officially opens then leave a comment and click the "Subscribe by email" link below the comment box. The one requirement is that you use the "Join this Site" button on the right of your screen or use the "Comment As" box below the comment window so that we can pick up your email address.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions by clicking on the red word Comment following this article.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone, from the staff and board of directors of the Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp! The best gift under the tree today is knowing you. You have enriched our lives and the lives of each other through camp: our stroke survivor friends, mostly you unselfish caregivers who give so much love, and our volunteers. Thank you all. And thank you sponsors and supporters for helping us here at Retreat and Refresh make these camps possible.

We love, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 RSV

 Please feel free to post any comments or questions by clicking on the red word Comment following this article. If you have any questions or comments about anything that you would like to share with us please feel free to do so on any of our articles. Don't worry about being off topic. Any question or comment is welcome on any of the article's comments section.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Phoenix Pictures Added

I promised to let you know when the Phoenix camp pictures from the COD Ranch are available. They are now. You can see them through the "Photo Gallery" link on stroke camp web page www.strokecamp.org or you can just click on the "Photo Gallery" link in the list at the left of your screen.

The Phoenix camp was a great camp and I knew it was going to be great when I first drove in on this remote, dusty road in the foot hills of Mt. Lemon and a Cougar ran across the road in front of me.  Then, when I got there, people were talking about having seen a bunch of Javelinas wandering through the area. We all learned that Javelinas are not part of the hog family but are part of the rodent family - who knew?! They sure look like wild hogs, according to observers. I think just about every camp we've done had close encounter animal sightings. Well, maybe not the one we had last year at the hotel on the McDonalds University campus. However, I think I remember a lake with a fountain in the middle so maybe there were some ducks and geese. Does anyone else have any camp animal stories?

 Please feel free to post any comments or questions by clicking on the red word Comment following this article. If you have any questions or comments about anything that you would like to share with us please feel free to do so on any of our articles. Don't worry about being off topic. Any question or comment is welcome on any of the article's comments section.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Chime Strokers Performance - OSF St Francis Chapel 12/7/11

Watch this video of our chimes choir.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6i8_ggq1A8



Back story of the narrator.  A survivor who's been coming to camp for 5 years who's struggled a lot with aphasia.  He keeps improving and just over a year ago realized that he could read again.  Since then has been reading everything he can get his hands on.  Susan adapted some of her words for him and he did a fabulous job in the shows.  He also has a beautiful singing voice so maybe some time in the future we'll get him to sing.  He came down from Paw Paw Illinois to help the chimers out. This performance has been permanently added to our Camp Videos and Photos page. You can always find that on the right side of blog. 

 Please feel free to post any comments or questions by clicking on the red word Comment following this article. If you have any questions or comments about anything that you would like to share with us please feel free to do so on any of our articles. Don't worry about being off topic. Any question or comment is welcome on any of the article's comments section.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Phoenix Stroke Camp 2011



The Phoenix Arizona Retreat and Refresh Stroke Camp for 2011 was held at the COD Ranch near Oracle Arizona. The ranch is a secluded, desert foothills area with modern cabins, excellent food, a large meeting room and a separate building for small meetings and dinning. A large fireplace is located in this building and covers one wall of the small meeting room that has couches and stuffed chairs for enhanced comfort.

The phoenix photos haven't been added yet but I'll let you know as soon as they're available.



Please feel free to post any comments or questions by clicking on the red word Comment following this article. If you have any questions or comments about anything that you would like to share with us please feel free to do so on any of our articles. Don't worry about being off topic. Any question or comment is welcome on any of the article's comments section.