A national conference to challenge and equip churches to create the most effective and relevant experiences for children, teenagers and families

Details are available at: www.theorangeconference.com

Lanny Donoho - The Chief

As most of you know, Lanny is the head honcho around here. The past few months you would find him in a creative chamber of fun as he comes up with curriculum ideas, music, and crazy things for camp! He is always busy prepping for camp, the camp CD, dreaming up big ideas for BigStuf, and as always, dreaming of Africa. He keeps all of us busy with his ideas, but we love it! Lanny is a busy man, but you can often find him cheering on his sons at ball games or helping them out with school projects on the side. Lanny and his wife, Peggy, are extremely proud of their 3 boys!

Brian Pirkle - Director of BigStuf Camps

Brian is busy. He just returned from a trip to Kenya getting video footage for us to keep around and use in the many videos that have to happen through the year. Brian is also busy with the Daytona Beach Camp, finalizing details of Panama City Beach camp, interviewing interns, going on production events, and much, much, much more. Brian and his awesome wife, Amanda, just bought a new house so they have been BUSY chasing their one year old daughter, Addison, while trying to move houses. Between moving homes, hopping to Kenya, and all of the production events Brian is at, it is rare that anyone actually knows where he is.

Gwen Blythe - Assistant to The Chief

Gwen is Lanny’s assistant. She is a champion. Without Gwen none of us would get anything done. She always knows where Lanny is (which may sound like an easy task…) always knows how to get in touch with him, and always knows what is going on through the whole office…we love her! Gwen just recently remodeled her kitchen! She would come in to work everyday with her update on how late she stayed up (which was LATE…let me tell you!) until the day of completion. We are all excited to bust up in her business and have a bar-b-que over there! Gwen is also developing her amazing talent as a photographer. She just got back from a trip to Hawaii and she came back with some INCREDIBLE pictures and stories! She even went whale watching…is that cool, or is that cool?

Jamie Eichler - Local Genius

Jamie is now known as the t-shirt king. He has been up to his ears in designs for totally awesome t-shirts for the summer and he has successfully landed some awesome designers and looks for the summer. He also stays busy working on stage designs as well as putting out all of the fires that happen daily in our crazy office. Without Jamie this newsletter would have to be called “The Signal” and it would be distributed by smoke signals and flashing lights. So thank you, Jamie, for keeping us connected to the world. In his free time Jamie has already been out on the lake this year wakeboarding! You can often find him in his full body wetsuit paroozing the glassy surface of the beautiful Lake Lanier.

Megan Gross - Assistant Director of BigStuf Camps

Megan is staying busy these days working out the logistics of the Daytona Beach Camp as well as keeping our brand new interns informed as to what they are about to get themselves in to! Megan does an amazing job at communicating with the interns and making them think they are about to have a relaxing summer at the beach! (Which they are, just take out the “relaxing” part.) Megan and her husband Matt just sold their house and are in the process of building a brand new fortress to live in. She is excited about the small details and is teaching all of us that there is WAY more to building a house than we (or at least I) ever knew about. Megan was ecstatic to see her beloved Florida Gators not only bring home the football national championship, but the basketball as well. We hear a lot of Florida talk around here! CHOMP CHOMP! (Or rather…blah blah)

Sheila Benton - The Registration Diva!

Sheila the Registration Diva has been busy as ever getting things ready for the summer! She is tackling the new project of Daytona Beach registration to make sure it runs as smoothly as the whole process does in Panama City Beach! In a calm and relaxed way, at the request of Sheila (the calm and relaxed part…) to the ever faithful readers of our newsletter (please, only the faithful read on, the rest of you slackers shouldn’t be reading now…) I would like to officially announce her engagement to Kerry “love of her life” Shouldeen. I would also like to apologize for misleading you in the fall issue of the newsletter. Apparently a lot of you believed that Sheila comes to work in wedding dresses. I honestly have no idea why I wrote that. I just thought it would be funny, but I guess I was taken way to seriously! In other news, Sheila has made a new friend in the form of a beautiful male Cardinal. He constantly slams into her window at her desk from morning until night…she really loves it.

Leah Moreton - Store Manager, Licensing/Copyrights,  and lots of etc…

Leah just recently turned 23 and decided that her new slogan for the year would be, “23 and diet coke free.” Literally, she quit drinking diet coke and is going through withdrawals. On a lighter note, she has been keeping busy with the store and lots of other random tasks lately. She is frantically trying to figure out what to put in the ever popular BigStuf store this summer while completing other jobs assigned by the big dogs! She is tired of writing this section in third person, so she is going to switch to first now. I just found out that I will be graduating in one year after six precious years in undergrad. I am also entertaining the possibility of seminary now that I have successfully told everyone I know “grad school? NO WAY!” I also love making up stories about the people I work with and putting them in this newsletter. I am considering a fabulous advice column entitled “Leah says so…so do it!” If I get some good emails with fascinating questions you can pretty much expect to see it in the next issue. (leah@bigstuf.com…no real names will be used…)

Clete Terrell - BigStuf Productions Technical/Graphics Director

Clete is the man you will talk to for BigStuf Productions. He oversees all of the productions gigs as well as equipment rentals and sales. If you have a gear question…Clete is your guy! Clete also stays busy, along with the rest of us, with LOTS of preparations for camp. He is the graphics and technical director in the summers and we rely on him a lot for the graphic “cool factor” at camp. Clete, like Gwen, is working on his photography skills. He is really good at Photoshop, so if you want a lil’ visual improvement, or perhaps someone else’s face fused into a photo, just get in touch with Clete and he can probably help you!

The 410 Bridge Staff: Kurt Kandler - Director of The 410 Bridge

Kurt is a busy guy. He just returned from leading a two-week trip to Kenya (and he got stuck there). This was the first mission trip for The 410 Bridge and it is exciting that he got to lead this team. They laid a foundation for a building in the community of Joska (if you were at camp we called this “The BigStuf House”), build relationships in the community, and then on Good Friday they had a feast for a different 410 community along with a soccer tournament. Back on the home front Kurt stays busy continuing to build relationships in the United States as well as Kenya and finding new ways for the 410 Bridge to serve these communities. Outside of work Kurt stays busy with his wife, Erika, and his 3 children. He also stays busy kicking the bootays of everyone in the office in Basketball Bracketology.

Suzanne Barber - Journey Internship Director

Suzanne has had a busy spring so far! She has had over forty interns to interview in efforts to prepare for her TWO, yes, that’s right, I said TWO Journey trips this summer. She has selected two solid teams and is now up to her ears in preparation for these college students. Support checks are pouring in, there are visa and Passport issues to iron out, preparing for training all on top of answering LOADS of questions from her two teams. Suzanne is a busy girl. On the weekends you can find Suzanne “riding” bikes. I put that in quotes because lately she has had a few interesting spills. Just look at her legs and arms, it looks like she fell out of tree. She is training for a 35 mile adventure race with some of her friends, so she is just making sure it stays heavy on the “adventure” side! Go Suzanne! She is so going to win….

Jessica Gardo - Assistant to the Director of The 410 Bridge

Jessica is settling into her new role here at The 410 Bridge. Kurt keeps her busy with the administrative side of the 410 Bridge. She also just returned from the trip to Kenya and it was her first time over there with the 410 Bridge. Jessica stays busy in the office coordinating all of the logistics and administrative details of the trip…let’s just say that without Jessica, Kurt would be lost! Outside of work Jessica is exploring the awesome city of Atlanta. She is getting more involved with her church and meeting loads of new people. She never seems to come to work without a smile on and she is awesome to work with…we love having her around!