Camp Rivervale

Camp Rivervale For 100 years, Camp Rivervale has been serving the United Methodist Church and its community.

This historic camp and retreat center provides guests with the opportunity to reflect on the past while benefiting from today’s modern facilities.

We heard you were coming soon we baked a cake!Summer Staff is excited to meet you!
05/28/2026

We heard you were coming soon we baked a cake!

Summer Staff is excited to meet you!

Meet the Staff: LorraineHi, I'm Lorraine, and this is my first year on staff! I'm most excited for all the fun the summe...
05/25/2026

Meet the Staff: Lorraine
Hi, I'm Lorraine, and this is my first year on staff! I'm most excited for all the fun the summer is going to bring, and strengthening my faith and walk with Christ. My favorite hobby is anything art related - I love sketching, painting and doing crafts.

Meet the Staff: GraceHi, I'm Grace, and this is my first year on staff! I'm most excited to learn new skills and help ot...
05/24/2026

Meet the Staff: Grace
Hi, I'm Grace, and this is my first year on staff! I'm most excited to learn new skills and help others this summer. In my free time, I enjoy fishing, listening to music, and teaching the toddler class at my church.

Meet the Staff: AmiyahHi, I'm Amiyah, and this is my first year on staff! I am most looking forward to meet new people, ...
05/24/2026

Meet the Staff: Amiyah
Hi, I'm Amiyah, and this is my first year on staff! I am most looking forward to meet new people, trying new activities, learning and becoming closer with the Lord. My favorite hobby is going on adventures.

Meet the Staff: NevaehHi, I'm Nevaeh and this is my first year on staff! I am most excited about working with all of you...
05/22/2026

Meet the Staff: Nevaeh
Hi, I'm Nevaeh and this is my first year on staff! I am most excited about working with all of you getting to know everyone. My favorite hobbies/activities include reading, drawing and painting.

Dear Friend, Summer camp is almost here! Soon campers will be singing songs of faith, experiencing loving community, and...
05/21/2026

Dear Friend,

Summer camp is almost here! Soon campers will be singing songs of faith, experiencing loving community, and exploring God’s creation.

For most kids, a week at summer camp is a fond memory. For the students who come to camp through The Hope Project, it is often something they have never had before.

For ten years, Emily has watched kids from under-resourced neighborhoods arrive at camp — kids connected to camp through Indianapolis neighborhood centers. They come at no cost to their families or community centers. Some have never left the city lights.

What stays with Emily most are the moments, on cloudless nights, when kids look up. “I especially remember Bea’s reaction. ‘There are so. many. stars! Are you seeing this!?’ She didn’t want to come inside.”

Away from the streetlights and glow of the city, the sky at camp fills up. For kids from Indianapolis neighborhoods who’ve never seen a sky like that, the reaction is incredible.

Psalm 19:1 reads, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." For some campers, that declaration is new. The same stars that have always been there, waiting, finally seen. “The parallel is striking.” Emily says, “Sometimes campers feel like they’ve been waiting to be seen. Camp is a place where we’re blessed to show these kids that God sees them, even in the vastness of creation.”

The Hope Project exists because a handful of organizations and donors decided that camp should be available to everyone. The woods, the water, the stars — and the God who made them — belong to every child. Sometimes all it takes to change a young person's picture of what the world can hold is to see the stars for the first time. Then begin to understand who put those stars in the sky.

Your generosity to Impact 2818’s scholarship fund gives children like Bea a place to dwell richly in the creation and grace of God. As we prepare for summer camp, we invite you to give a gift of $25, $100, $500, or more. Thank you for helping us inspire faith, build relationships, and transform lives!

Nick Yarde, Executive Director

P.S. – Your gift today will help ensure continued places for kids to learn of God’s love for them. Please give at >https://bit.ly/4pjhaHO

Meet the Staff: CorabelleHi, I'm Corabelle! This will be my second year on staff, and I will be serving as program suppo...
05/18/2026

Meet the Staff: Corabelle
Hi, I'm Corabelle! This will be my second year on staff, and I will be serving as program support this summer. I am most excited to see how campers will enjoy camp this year and growing myself with my fellow staff. My favorite hobby is to find interesting spots in nature or the built world and let them inspire me through art and photography.

Meet the Staff: JohnHi, I'm John! This is my first year on staff, and I am serving as kitchen assistant this summer. One...
05/15/2026

Meet the Staff: John
Hi, I'm John! This is my first year on staff, and I am serving as kitchen assistant this summer. One thing about camp that I am looking forward to is a not stop summer of fun and faith. In my free time, I like to watch tv shows and play video games.

What a blessing our Rivervale Work Day was! 💚A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out, worked hard, donated supplies, p...
05/15/2026

What a blessing our Rivervale Work Day was! 💚

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out, worked hard, donated supplies, prayed, encouraged others, and gave their time to help make the day such a success. From cleaning and organizing to fixing, building, and preparing camp spaces, every helping hand made a difference.

Because of your willingness to serve, we are one step closer to creating an amazing, welcoming place where campers can experience fun, friendship, and the love of God this summer. ☀️🏕️

We are so grateful for this incredible community and all the hearts willing to serve behind the scenes. Thank you for investing in our camp and in the lives of the children and families who will be impacted because of it!

Meet the Staff: HannahHi I’m Hannah, and this is my 3rd summer on staff! I will be serving as the Assistant Program Mana...
05/15/2026

Meet the Staff: Hannah
Hi I’m Hannah, and this is my 3rd summer on staff! I will be serving as the Assistant Program Manager this summer. I have loved Rivervale since I was little, so I enjoy returning and sharing my love for outdoor ministry to all the young minds we serve. I’m most excited about getting to continue to serve and share the Lord with everyone! Outside of camp you can find me enjoying my free time exploring the outdoors and spending time with my friends and family.

Crossing BarriersChris has never met a stranger. Ask anyone who knows him — he'll talk to anybody, remember everybody's ...
05/05/2026

Crossing Barriers

Chris has never met a stranger. Ask anyone who knows him — he'll talk to anybody, remember everybody's name, and somehow make you feel like you've been friends for years within the first five minutes. It's just who he is.

So when The Hope Project started at Camp Indicoso, he was excited to get to meet more kids and make more connections.

The Hope Project allows kids and teens to attend camp who would otherwise be unable to attend due to their families’ financial situations. Two Indianapolis neighborhood centers connect these families to Impact 2818 with the help of grants and donations to Impact 2818’s scholarship fund.

Chris has been volunteering as a counselor, then director, at Indicoso for over 20 years. Every year, in the first hours of camp, he notices clusters. Teens arrive and do what teens — what people — naturally do. They stay close to who’s familiar. The students who came together from the same community sit together. They walk together. They find each other in the crowd and hold on. It makes sense. When everything around you is new, you reach for what you already know. Chris sees it, and “I get it. But I like what comes next.”

Because something always comes next. A game that scrambles the groups. A prayer partner assignment that puts two strangers together. A moment at the lunch table where the only open seat is next to someone you didn't come with. And then, if the conditions are right, a conversation starts. A real one. The kind that doesn't happen on a screen, but face to face, with nowhere else to be.

Chris has watched teenagers who arrived locked inside their own circle take one small step outside of it and discover something they didn't expect: that the kid from the other side of the city, the one they never would have met back home, is someone worth knowing.

“That’s one of the best things about camp,” Chris shares. “The cliques, groups, stereotypes … stop mattering at camp. To see that happen among teenagers who didn’t know each other at the beginning of the week is special.” It is the work of the Spirit in real time. The same love that crossed every barrier to reach us, reflected back in the small, brave moment when a teenager decides to sit down next to someone different than them and say hello.

Camp offers the space to disconnect (literally, no phones are allowed at most sites!) and connect with others around you who are also seeking God. It removes the noise and gives kids the space to actually see each other; not as strangers to be cautious of, but as people made in God’s image. As friends they just haven't made yet.

Fifteen years of The Hope Project at Camp Indicoso. Fifteen years of kids arriving in clusters, and leaving in something bigger. For fifteen years, Chris has watched it happen. And every year, he shows up again, because he knows what's coming, and he doesn't want to miss it.

The Hope Project is made possible through a partnership between the Indiana Conference of The UMC, Impact 2818, Concord Neighborhood Center, East 10th Children & Youth, and the Indy Summer Youth Program. Students attend Camp Indicoso and other Impact 2818 sites free of charge through this program.

Address

496 Rivervale Road
Mitchell, IN
47446

Telephone

+18128496824

Website

http://www.camprivervalerocks.com/

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