Lake Beauty Bible Camp in central Minnesota is where Josh Carlson learned the value of giving back. Now the cooperative broadband installation supervisor is coming full circle, helping build a fiber-optic network for the popular retreat with donations and volunteers.
“Camp was a place where I learned that volunteering is where I get the most joy,” said Carlson, who joined Litchfield-based Meeker Cooperative Light and Power Association four years ago. “I really appreciate what camp did for me.”
Surrounded by deep forest, the buildings, dorms, cabins and offices that dot the 616-acre camp are far beyond the service territory of Meeker and its broadband arm, Vibrant.
But when a local telephone co-op won a state grant to serve the remote area, Carlson wanted to make sure LBBC had everything it needed to get connected quickly and as cheaply as possible.
He leaned on his co-op experience and planned a fiber backbone to connect the entire campus with a single hookup. Then he reached out to his list of friends and industry contacts, who responded with offers of donated material and muscle.
A contractor lent his vibratory plow to place in the ground duct that was donated by a vendor. A skilled utilities locator volunteered weekends to ensure the team avoided underground services. A national manufacturer committed 8,000 feet of fiber cable with 48- and 12-count strands for the entire network. A service station in Willmar that subscribes to Vibrant will buy the 14 fiber termination boxes for connecting the camp buildings.
No connection date has been set by the telco, but the bulk of the prep work is already done. Once the fiber arrives, volunteers will pull it through the ducts into buildings and splice it for lighting.
“I just wanted to get ahead of the game and get ready,” Carlson said. “The snowball effect really helped bring a lot of people together saying, ‘Yeah, I’m in.’”
The broadband service will be limited to the camp’s 20 staffers, 16 of whom reside there full-time. There will be no public Wi-Fi, but strategic uses of the technology for conferences at the camp are being considered.
“The camp’s motto is, ‘A place set apart,’” Carlson said. “We want people to engage with each other, build relationships, have conversations. But business still needs to get done. Staff members need to be able to connect. Their quality of life will be enhanced.”
As a board member of the camp, which is supported by 61 churches, Carlson says it’s his “personal passion” to find ways to sustain LBBC, which serves about 2,200 children, families and seniors each year.
“One of the ways is to find volunteers or find new revenue by gifts,” he said. “We all have relationships. How are we going to leverage those relationships to do, to be honest, the Lord’s work?”
Cathy Cash is a staff writer for NRECA.