Sky Ranch at Ute Trail 2011

Greetings from The View From The A Frame Blog. This blog will be an important part of the new Ute Trail Ranch Alumni Association website.

2011 has been an excellent year for Sky Ranch at Ute Trail. This year we had more people come to the camp and ranch than ever before. For the summer we had a total of 1004 attend our three Christian camping programs. In addition, we added some significant improvements. These included two new staff residence cabins, a new giant alpine swing by the ropes course, a smaller swing by the soccer field, a fourth hangout cabin for staff located to the east of the three staff cabins, a new roof and south wall for the Lodge and some additional swings and fort equipment by the pond.

For the year 2012 we have the following improvements going in:

1. A new entry archway
2. Some new, larger windows on the east side of the lodge
3. A new maintenance/storage shed back at the parking lot
4. A new pump for our sprinkler system
5. A new railing and fascia for Powderhorn
6. New kitchen equipment
7. Some additional landscaping

These additions will be completed by June 1st of 2012

Our operations manager for the camp, Matt Ravanesi and his wife, Jennie, have welcomed a new baby girl into the Ravanesi and Sky Ranch families. Her name is Lizzie and she weighed in at 6 lbs., 6 ounces. Mother and daughter are doing fine.

Thomas Ufer, our camp director, has moved to Dallas and is working in the Sky Ranch downtown office located on Pearl Street. Thomas is living in North Dallas. Thomas and his dad restored the old covered wagon the Hopkins used to use and it looks great!

Angie Fleshman, Executive Director of Ute Trail Ranch Foundation, is completing work on the new Ute Trail Ranch Alumni Association website. This website will allow us to provide information about the current camp programs as well as upload pictures of interest, stories about the current and past camps and publicize interesting information about what is happening at Sky Ranch at Ute Trail.

Russell Young, former camper and counselor in the Hopkins and Bowers days, is working on a complete history of Ute Trail Ranch which should be interesting to all former and current campers and guests. Russell and his wife, Kathy, were the hosts for the 2009 Ute Trail Boys Camp Reunion held at the camp.

Rachel Robinson Boling has continued to be a valuable help to the camp in the areas of marketing and public relations. Rachel and her husband, Kent, just moved back to Little Rock from Princeton, New Jersey where Kent was working at his company's headquarters.

I plan to write a new blog at least monthly and hope that our readers will follow "The View From The A Frame"

Sincerely


George Seay Sr.