Ionian Village suffered massive damages at the hand of a tornadic waterspout, or a tornado that originated over the sea and made landfall at the Ionian Village campus. The storm caused over one million dollars in damages, mostly due to the extensive number of trees that fell, and their root systems compromising most of our internal infrastructure.
Since the days after the storm hit, we have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support for Ionian Village. Our Parishes, our Philoptochos Societies, our Greek-American organizations, and of course our family of alumni and friends all responded and helped up raise most of the money needed to rebuild. All these people and organizations, together with Leadership 100, who gifted $250,000, have raised over $790,000 for the #RenewIV fundraising program.
We are happy to report that all of the work to rebuild the camp has been completed, luckily in time before the summer programs began. Our campus is better than ever, completely renovated after the storm, and improved after 47 years of wear and tear.
All of the repairs and improvements were made to both maintain the original design aesthetic of the campus, as well as to make it more efficient than ever.
The reality is that the camp was repaired thanks to an extraordinary effort by our local contractors and vendors, and we must do all we can now to make sure that they are repaid.
At this point, we owe a little over $540,000 to contractors in Greece for the work that has been done. Today, I’m asking you to help us close this gap and pay off the good men and women who worked so hard to ensure that our beloved camp will be a reality for future generations.
Please, look into your heart and find a way to support the camp that has done so much for so many, and will continue to change the hearts and minds of our Greek-Orthodox Christian youth for years to come.