Stewardship Stories: Thanks to Sharron 

“Handle with Care.” That’s the name of the curriculum that we wrote this year thanks to The Sharron Blezard Innovation Fellowship from the Stewardship of Life Institute (SOLI). HopeWood Outdoors is a year-round camp and retreat ministry in Ohio. Annually, we serve more than 5,000 campers through overnight camps for kids and families, day camps with congregational partners, environmental education (EE) for public and private schools, and more.

With this financial support from SOLI, we gathered campers from all these expressions to help us produce a curriculum not only for summer camp attendees, but also for retreat participants and EE students throughout the year. Contributors include teachers, school administrators, parents, children, artists, environmentalists, and theologians. The result reflected how our broad community of campers approaches stewardship: of our bodies, of our vocations, of our environment, and of our faith. This included both the creation of new materials and the curation of vibrant camp activities that support stewardship education for every generation.

But we’re not done yet. Thanks to Sharron’s legacy, we will edit this curriculum in light of camper feedback to further enhance the final product. We will then make it available for others to use in their own contexts, and not just other Lutheran Outdoor Ministry (LOM) organizations. Church camps across the company can put the weeklong curriculum to use. Day camp materials can support congregations with a summer VBS alternative. Retreat programs offer complete lesson plans for youth group lock-ins. The family camp content provides great opportunities for intergenerational engagement. From crafts to worship guides, from games to Bible studies, “Handle with Care” is a stewardship resource available to the whole church.

All thanks to Sharron.

We can’t wait for you to see “Handle with Care.” Not only because we believe it is a valuable resource in itself—we certainly do—but even more so because we’re honored that it, in a small way, will carry Sharron’s legacy of faith for you and for others.

I never met Sharron Blezard. I was never fortunate enough to share space with her or directly hear her passion for stewardship. I have been blessed by her writings that live on, some of which shaped the curriculum’s stewardship framework, but even that is only a glimpse. Yet, it is the stewardship of others who knew Sharron personally and love her deeply that made this curriculum possible. Even before wider distribution, Sharron’s memory has now made an impact on thousands of lives. Thanks to the fellowship’s continued generosity, Sharron’s love for Jesus and passion for stewarding God’s gifts lives on through the work of the Holy Spirit in grant recipients like us.

So, today, all of us at HopeWood Outdoors say two things: “Thank you, God,” and “Thank you, Sharron.”