Notorious Scrapaholics Retreat 2006
2006 Sumatanga Retreat
Our first experience hosting a retreat was in January of 2006. We chose Camp Sumatanga in Gallant, Alabama for many reasons. Besides being a beautiful camp, it is located only a few miles from Gadsden and was a convenient place for us to hold a weekend long crop.
Paulette and Phronsa went to a retreat there which was held in 2005 by Renee Johnson and attended by seventeen ladies. They had a blast! Renee was a terrific hostess and introduced P. & P. to some fantastic new friends and the majority of those new friends came to our first retreat. Since they enjoyed the relaxed and cozy atmosphere of Sumatanga, it was only natural that the camp would be the place where we held ours as well. We’d like to thank Renee again for introducing us to so many wonderful women who we now consider some of our favorite friends!
The days leading up to the weekend of January 20 through 22, 2006 were filled with planning, shopping, and anticipation of what fun was to come. Paulette, Rheba, and Phronsa spent many hours stuffing goodie bags, putting prize kits together, and getting everything in order for the big event. *Thirty eight of the 39 attending ladies cropped until their little hearts were content. New friendships blossomed, pages were completed, lots of prizes were given away, much laughter filled the Eva Walker Lodge, and our first endeavor was a success.
That weekend, we were able to give away approximately $1,400.00 (retail value) in gifts and prizes. In addition to our thrifty shopping, we also were blessed with many generous donations. Every attendee won some type of door prize and many won other smaller prizes when we played games and had random drawings.
One of our favorite things about the retreat is that each lady created a page about themselves for us to place in an album. This is another excellent idea we got from Renee Johnson. We asked everyone to bring a photo of them and make a layout showing “who they are”. How amazing and interesting it is to see so many different styles! We treasure our books and enjoy looking back and remembering that special time.
The Eva Walker Lodge we used was very comfortable and convenient (for most of us) because the sleeping rooms surrounded the octagonal shaped meeting / crop room where we spent the majority of our time. Unfortunately, there was not enough room to accommodate all of the ladies. So, some of our cropping queens had to drive to another building when they were ready to sleep and they felt a little isolated because of that. Also, 39 was the maximum capacity in that building for each cropper to have a table to themselves.
Camp Sumatanga has larger meeting rooms which could be used for a crop hall. However, because of the vast number of church retreats and state conferences held there on a regular basis, it is almost impossible to “qualify” to use one of those larger meeting rooms. Unless our group was the largest group present during the weekend that we were there, we would not be allowed to use the grand auditorium.
We are so thankful to the folks at Camp Sumatanga (www.sumatanga.org) for their generosity and patience with us during our planning, preparations, and carrying out of the first retreat. A special thanks to Linda Snow, Reservations Coordinator, for her generosity and understanding every time we had yet another question. It was an absolute pleasure doing business with her.
*One attendee was not able to stay for the weekend because of a tragic family emergency. After learning of the circumstances, the camp was very gracious and thoughtfully refunded her money in full.
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