Ocean Lakes

For those of you who don’t know, Sunday, April 22nd marks the 42 nd year of observing Earth Day. When you think about it, it’s really ironic that we had to set aside a day 42 years ago to celebrate the Earth we rely on for our survival.   So when we asked our very own Nature Center curator and retired minister, Leonard Raker about his thoughts on a special day set aside for the Earth…well…we just had to share it with you… “Earth Day? Did you really ever think about it? Maybe that could be the problem with this old world! We live in it daily. We see all that’s around us. We walk on it, we look at it, we play on it and we even walk by the mess that others leave. It is kind of funny that we have to have a day to appreciate all that God gave us to live in, when it really needs to be appreciated every day. Thank God for every day! God when I see your wonders…I really love you. Thanks!” So, Leonard inspired us to come up with some easy things we could all do to that would help...

By Leonard Raker Could an ugly old Catfish have an Easter message for us? The answer is “yes” if it happens to be the Sail Cat. Ugly as it may be, the story is ever so beautiful. Like all of our thoughts, reality gets lost as we overlook the truth of the God of Easter. As you begin to clean the fish in preparation for dinner, you begin to find signs of a heavenly message. That message fully appears when you finish the enjoyment of your dinner. There is something so very different to that backbone. There before you is the story of the Crucifixion, plain as the nose on your face. Looking upon the top of that bone, plain as day, you notice the stripes that Jesus received. As you partially turn the bone, there lies a puncture; the spear in the side while on the cross. Completing the turn you see the shape of the Cross on which Jesus died, and if you want to get a “wow” moment, just shake the bone and you will hear the rattle of the dice thrown for His Robe. Yes, y...

Is summer ever close! This time of year is kind of exciting at Ocean Lakes Family Campground , especially from a teammate standpoint. It’s the time of year when everything starts taking shape for the new season and our team is busy getting the park ready for our guests who will soon arrive in mass for spring break and Easter. Behind the scenes there is an excited energy. For those of us on the “inside” Easter is basically the deadline for all things new at Ocean Lakes. Many of our first quarter guests (January-March) find this activity somewhat intriguing, maybe fascinating at times and always reassuring. It provides evidence that we “re-invest” in our campground on an annual basis and that striving toward better is our normal mode of operation. At times, it can be a little distracting and possibly disrupt the “flow” of things, but only briefly. An example would be the new curbs that were put in around Spring Lane leading to the Golf Car Building and parking area beside the M...

Okay, I am not much of a dancer. There I said it. There is no excuse (and I hope that Judy Duke is not reading this blog). This coming weekend we are hosting an event for people like me…and for those who are more coordinated then me. On Friday (17th) and Saturday (18 th ), I could address this problem… and so could you if you share my dance dilemma. Ocean Lakes’ Beach n’ Boogie Weekend is all about family fun, live music with The Fantastic Shakers and the Band of Oz , and the Shag . If you are not from the Carolinas, you may not know much about the Shag . It is our state dance and it has roots in the “jitterbug.” Thanks to Google, I won’t have to say much more than that, or try to describe the jitterbug to the young whippersnappers in cyberspace. (However, if you are from Great Britain, the term has a much different meaning in the Carolinas.)  North Myrtle Beach is famous for it’s Shag clubs like Fat Harold’s, but actually the entire Grand Strand has hosted generations of t...

What Are You Going to Do with Your Extra Day this Year? Once every four years, the world gets one more day to enjoy. To commemorate the 2012 Leap Year, Ocean Lakes Family Campground is going to have a yearlong celebration called “Leap Into Fun.” Campground teammates will designate certain days that have fun themes with activities for guests in park, and our fans who can only share that day through the virtual "online" world. Holiday celebrations include “Lost Sock Memorial Day” (one we are having fun planning!) and “Bubble Gum Day.”  Every month, there will be several dates selected by our teammates because they are a unique "unofficial" holiday and because they relate to various aspects of Ocean Lakes’ amenities, activities and culture. Ocean Lakes hopes that these fun “holidays” will give our loyal guests and teammates ideas about how to spend that extra day in 2012, which prompted the tag line ‘What are you going to do with your extra day this year?’  Ocea...

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s the time of year Americans reflect on all we are thankful for and generally eat way too much. We celebrate family and friends and some wait in anticipation for the Black Friday sales. Ocean Lakes Family Campground is a busy place at Thanksgiving, and we are thankful for that! If you are spending this holiday at Ocean Lakes, check out the decorations in the Recreation Center (by Noon on Saturday). It has been a tough couple of years for many Americans. Yet, no matter the situation, often Americans look at what we have been blessed with and reach out to those who are less fortunate. I guess many of us did learn to share when we were younger. This Thanksgiving holiday, Ocean Lakes’ teammates have looked to their creative, resourceful, “green” selves to help raise money for “Substitutes for Santa,” a local charity that provides a Christmas experience to between 50 and 85 underprivileged children from the Loris and Myrtle Beach communities. Several of own te...

On July 2 nd , 2011 Ocean Lakes Family Campground turned 40. It’s hard to believe that we could fit so much fun into a season, but even harder was doing it without our precious founders, Mary Emily and Nelson Jackson. We lost both of them in 2010, Mr. Jackson in February and then Mrs. Jackson in December. As a team, and a “family,” we have all enjoyed the continued presence and guidance of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson’s five daughters who could be seen throughout all of our events and celebration. Their warm words of gratitude and encouragement ever present as we all strive to live up to the amazing legacy that Mary Emily and Nelson Jackson created. And we all miss them. We kicked the celebration off in April with our Cake Gala and Contest . Ocean Lakes worked on being good stewards to the earth and added the first Level Two EV Charging Stations on the Carolinas Coast! The “SurPrize Patrol” gave away 105 prizes per week starting at the Cake Gala. On July 2 nd , we celebrated our 4...