Christian campground, Dry Gulch USA contacts waiting guests with a higher calling thanks to GuestCall church paging from HME Wireless
There are ordinary church campgrounds, and then there is Dry Gulch USA. This 300 acre camp for kids is privately owned by Church on the Move of Tulsa, OK, and features a 192-seat theater, a 600-seat auditorium/town hall, and even bunk houses, apartments and private rooms big enough to accompany 700 guests.
Founded in 1986, the camp is modeled after an old west boomtown, replete with a locomotive used to give rides to summer campers, and as a Christmas train for families in the winter.
The campground plays host to 8,000 kids each summer, but it was the Christmas crowds that led Dry Gulch USA to call on a GuestCall LTD church paging system from HME Wireless. That’s because every Christmas season the campground transforms its Palace Hotel into Santa’s Palace—four magical rooms with a different Santa in each, and long lines of excited kids just itching to see “the big guy”.
In stark contrast to their old method of contacting waiting guests, the new church paging system allows children and family members to roam freely, with no fear of missing their turn with Santa Claus. “We really love applications like Dry Gulch that push our technology”, said Russ Ford, Vice President of HME Wireless.
“In the past, we would give out a number and hope people were around when it was called,” said Dry Gulch’s A/V coordinator Stephen Arruda. “Now we page the kids when Santa is ready, and the whole system is a lot more fluid.”
Arruda is also pleased with the range of the GuestCall LTD pagers, noting that they work throughout the hotel without interfering with the campground’s two-way radios, wireless music and WiFi network. He also expressed satisfaction with the fact that the pagers buzz when out of range, which has dramatically reduced the incidence of lost pagers, “We’ve only lost two out of 60,” he said.
The staff at Dry Gulch USA embraced the new church paging system immediately. According to Arruda, they were “super-psyched” from the very first night they started to use them, “It was so easy, we just took them out of the box and started paging.”
The campground also uses the pagers’ advertising insert feature to promote upcoming events at Church On the Move and Dry Gulch. And in the summertime, they used the pagers to stay in contact with camp sponsors and counselors all over the campground especially at “the cove”, a far-flung location on the shore of Lake Hudson 200-300 feet lower than the rest of the camps elevation where most radio reception is weak.
“It’s great that the pagers are able to reach down in the dead zone where normally people can’t be reached,” said Arruda. “This will make it so much more convenient for staff members.”
For more information on church paging and complete on-site paging solutions from HME Wireless, call (866) 611-4202 or visit www.hmewireless.com.
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