BY KAREN BOSSICK
Camp Rainbow Gold wants to build a new 200-bed facility in East Fork Canyon south of Ketchum.
The Boise-based camp announced this week that it has received a $1.76 million donation to build the new camp on 275 acres of land at 708 East Fork Road.
The camp would replace its current 200-bed facility at Cathedral Pines north of Ketchum.
The camp has entered into escrow and the agreement is in due diligence.
Rich and Nancy Robbins, longtime supporters of Camp Rainbow Gold, are donating their property, which is worth $1.76 to the camp the total cost of the property in question is $3.75 million.
Owning the facility would allow the camp to hold more sessions each year.
Camp Rainbow Gold currently leases Cathedral Pines Baptist Camp and Camp Perkins Lutheran Camp in the Sawtooth Valley for camps and volunteer training. Neither of the camps were designed with medically fragile children in mind, which means the most fragile children have not been able to attend.
All five of Camp Rainbow Gold’s annual camps are at capacity.
Camp Rainbow Gold had a variety of items on its wish list, including sufficient and quality land, aesthetic beauty, year-round access, seclusion, a river or pond, proximity to the Wood River Valley and medical facilities and peacefulness.
A search committee worked for more than a year exploring other properties, with the help of numerous organizations, including the Wood River Land Trust, Keller Williams and Sun Valley Realtors.
Camp Rainbow Gold started in 1984 as a week of camp for a handful of children diagnosed with cancer. In recent years, it expanded to include a sibling camp and a family camp.
Based in Boise, it’s supported by more than 400 volunteers and has been accredited through the American Camp Association since 2002.
The project is still in a very early stage, said Elizabeth Lizberg, executive director of the camp.
“One of the first things we did was confirm that the kids would still be able to shout at the man in the mountain from the new property,” said Lizberg.
Currently, campers shout out at the Boulder Mountains from an amphitheater at Cathedral Pines. And the mountains answer back in the form of an echo.