Ascension School Camp & Conference Center

About Us

Ascension School is A Place Apart to connect with God’s sacred mystery, celebrating the dignity, diversity, and oneness of all creation.

Ascension School rests on the ancestral lands of the Umatilla, Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Nez Perce peoples. The Native people of this region nurture and harvest first foods, camp as part of their seasonal rounds, and gently care for the eco-systems of this region today, as they have done for thousands of years.

In the late 1800s, Samuel French settled the land and established an Episcopal girls’ school. In 1881, he deeded the school and surrounding 100 acres to the Episcopal Diocese. After a tragic fire, the land lay fallow until 1924 when Bishop Remington opened a summer camp for the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon. Since that time, Ascension School has offered a robust summer camp program and has expanded to offer retreat and conference facilities.

Eighty acres of the land has now been dedicated to habitat restoration with guidance and in partnership with the indigenous culture-keepers in Cove. The revitalization of the land and indigenous lifeways is central to our mission. The Tish Croom Nature Trail – named for a beloved priest dedicated to creation care – allows visitors to enjoy the land. Ascension School continues to offer summer camps and our facilities and grounds are available for guest retreats, social gatherings, meetings, and celebrations. We welcome people from all traditions with our Radical Hospitality.

Welcome and Inclusion

We believe in the dignity and the intrinsic worth of every human being. We welcome, affirm, support, and seek to adapt for ability and disability, experience, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, national origin, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.

Habitat Restoration

Habitat Restoration

Ascension School Camp and Conference Center sits on approximately 100 acres. For nearly a century, 80 acres of the property has been farmed. Through the discernment of our values around creation care and racial reconciliation, we were compelled to reimagine our stewardship of this land. In November 2019, the land was returned to Ascension School’s direct care, and we began implementing the vision to re-establish the native riparian and prairie eco-system and build a nature trail throughout the 80 acres.

 

About half of the project is part of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), which seeks to support landowners in establishing vegetation along streams, protecting water quality, and restoring fish and wildlife habitat. The restoration is monitored in partnership with the Grande Ronde Community Science Project.

All Ascension School visitors can view the project via a nature trail, which meanders throughout the property and creates a conservatory and sanctuary for those who visit.

We contract with Naknuwithlama Tiiachamna, Caretakers of the Land, for the management of the project.

A Word from Bobby Fossek, Co-Director of Caretakers of the Land:

Caretakers of the Land is an Indigenous-led organization (Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla) serving to steward and strengthen the symbiotic lifeways, languages, habitats, and traditional ecological knowledge of the Blue Mountain Bio-region and the Columbia River Basin. This mission is carried out through seasonal round immersion camps and ecosystem restoration projects.

We are guided by the seasonal patterns of the land and work with the cycles of the first foods, medicines, and materials. Many of our priority projects involve knowledge and skills that are fading from our collective memory but are crucial aspects of our unique cultural identity that our Ancestors sacrificed and worked hard to preserve for us.

Habitat Restoration Photo 1
Habitat Restoration

In the Fall and Winter, we shift our attention towards ecosystem restoration work, hide collection for our buckskin camp, some plant material and medicine collection, and administrative needs. During the late Winter/early Spring, we hold an annual five-day Buckskin Making Camp during which indigenous participants learn to work a deer hide into buckskin in a traditional method from beginning to end, leaving with their finished product. In the Spring and Summer, we focus on a series of Cultural Immersion Camps, through which the practice of monitoring, gathering, processing, preparing, and preserving a plethora of first foods, medicines and materials is carried out.

We end each Summer with a three-day Camas Bake and cultural skill-share event at Ascension School where many families bring their summer diggings together to be baked in the traditional method. The Earth Oven is like the heart of our people and many foods are cooked in this manner.

 

The Camas Bake project was funded in 2021 by Oregon Humanities and was recently nominated for the 2022 Helen and Martin Schwartz Prize. They just recently received news that the Oregon Community Foundation awarded $35,000 to support 2023 operations. 

Community Partners

Naknuwithlama Tiiachamna – Caretakers of the Land

Ascension School partners, contracts and consults with Caretakers of the Land in an effort to restore indigenous lifeways and native habitats in the Blue Mountain Bio-Region. For more information visit here.

Cherry Fair

The annual Cove Cherry Fair has been a highly successful local tourism event for more than 20 years. Originating in 1911, celebrated through 1917, and then revived in 2000, the Cove Cherry Fair is proudly hosted at and sponsored by Ascension School Camp & Conference Center each year. For more information about the Cove Cherry Fair, visit here.

Cove Community Association

Ascension School partners with the Cove Community Association on a variety of events and programs including board meetings, self-defense classes and game nights. For details click here.

Senior Exercise

Senior exercise meets in Co-Kerr on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 8:30am! Call our office for details!

Senior Meals

The Cove Senior Citizens Luncheons are twice-monthly luncheons for seniors during the cooler months of the year, from September through May, and an annual meeting in June. Many of the seniors are on a fixed income and find it difficult to get out and attend functions in the neighboring community of La Grande, 15 miles away, or Union, 8 miles away. These luncheons provide a valuable opportunity for socialization, a resource that can be limited in Cove. On average, forty seniors gather to greet one another, socialize, and enjoy wholesome food prepared by the Ascension School culinary staff. For more information click here.

Cove School

We enjoy supporting Cove High School in a variety of ways!  Through the Drone Program, Cross Country Team practice, hosting teams for local games & tournaments, having the Senior Class Fundraiser on-site, and allowing the science classes to participate in their studies at the creeks.

Cove Preschool

The Cove Preschool is a non-profit organization established for the education of Cove’s 3-5 year olds. The Cove Preschool is located on the Ascension grounds just behind Morris Hall at 1101 1/2 Church Street. The Cove Preschool provides an opportunity for co-operative play, social interaction, experiential activities, and literacy development while engaging in all learning modalities in a safe environment. For more information click here.

Work With Us

We currently don't have any permanent positions open.

Contact Us

phone

(541) 568-4514

map

1104 Church Street
Cove, OR 97824

map
Ascension School
PO Box 278
Cove OR 97824
email

megan@coveascensionschool.com

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.