Port St. Joe, Florida

WindMark Beach
Sunday, July 13 - Thursday, July 17, 2025

Welcome to part of Florida’s beautiful forgotten coast… Port St. Joe, Florida!

Join us at Blue Skies in the charming coast community of Windmark Beach in Port St. Joe, Florida. It’s known for its pristine bay, sugar-white beaches, rich sea life, and beautiful dunes! Port St. Joe is steeped in history, natural beauty, and outdoor adventure! Windmark Beach opened its doors to Blue Skies as we launched the ministry and held our first camp in 2010, and it continues to serve as home base for our spring and many of the summer camps. Port St. Joe is so dear to Blue Skies because of the countless memories we’ve made, the fun we’ve had, the family-friendly community it provides, and the incredible locals who have become family to us! Port St. Joe is known as a small beach town with a big heart, a place where visitors instantly feel like locals. We love it and know you will too!

snorkeling

One of our favorite activities at camp is snorkeling! Volunteers and our guest families enjoy a day on the bay together hunting for the treasures in the sea. We find starfish, hermit crabs, sand dollars and have fun looking for dolphins as we cross the bay on our adventure! The most fun is spending time together and getting to know one another.

WHAT TO KNOW

where

WindMark Beach, Port St. Joe, Florida (in the Florida panhandle)

Address: 101 Good Morning Street, Port St. Joe, FL 32456

ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE

Volunteer arrival time: Between 1pm - 2pm EST. Port St. Joe is only a couple of miles from CST, so be sure to set your phones to stay on EST!

Volunteers arrive the Same day as our guest families. We will have volunteer training, prepare for camp, and have an opportunity to get to know one another during the pre-camp gathering/Zoom and at team training when you arrive!

Volunteer departure time: 9:30am EST

COST

Adult volunteers: TBD

(There is a non-refundable application fee of $50/application to cover the cost of the background check.)

Students: TBD

Support is due one week before camp.

Your support helps make it possible for our guest families to come to camp at no cost. Our goal is to bring down the cost of camp for volunteers. Costs continue to rise, but we are doing all we can to hold and hopefully decrease the volunteer expense. If you need help with funding, don't hesitate to contact us. We also have a limited number of partial scholarships available.

We ask volunteers to use the Blue Skies online personalized giving campaign (Givebutter). Our staff will send you super quick and easy instructions for you to create your personal page. When volunteers self-fund their trip, we ask that they reach out to their friends and family through social media, calls, letters, etc. allowing others to know about their trip to Blue Skies so they can pray, learn about Blue Skies, and have the opportunity to give directly to send a child with cancer and their family to camp. So many people are unable to serve at camp yet want to help and are glad to support others who can serve in their place!

schedule

Here’s what a day at camp looks like! You’ll get the full schedule along with theme nights for your week at camp about one month before your camp begins. We have theme nights like Luau, Red/White & Blue Skies, Western Hoedown & more!

your role

Each volunteer will serve on a Family Host Team. You/your family will be paired with a guest family to help them feel welcome and host them throughout camp, befriend them. Volunteers will also be assigned to a service team: Program (setting up Good Morning Blue Skies and Evening Activities); Beach (setting up beach/pool); Hospitality (setting up the welcome table, lullaby cart); or Food (picking up food orders, running buffet line).

guidelines

Please review our guidelines for volunteering at camp by clicking HERE. We ask all volunteers to abide by these guidelines to ensure we all have an incredible week together!

meals

In the past, we have shopped, cooked, served, and cleaned up meals for our guests and volunteers. To help minimize germs, we are no longer preparing the meals.

Our hope is to have every lunch and dinner taken care of so that you don’t have to worry about groceries or cooking! Plus, it’s more fun when we share meals together! However, until we can make that possible, guests and volunteers may be responsible for a few of their own meals - a couple of lunches and a couple of dinners (and breakfast if you need something more than a donut, bar, or yogurt).

Each rental home has fully equipped kitchens for preparing meals. There are a few fast food restaurants along with full-service restaurants in town for those who prefer not to cook. Volunteers and guests can bring groceries from home or shop locally once at camp. About 2 weeks before camp, we will provide detailed information about meals at camp.

Snacks and bottled water, sodas, and juice boxes are available at the beach and most camp activities.

housing

At WindMark, volunteers share houses with other volunteer families. Each volunteer family has their own bedroom and bath. Guest families share houses with other guest families.

Just a friendly reminder, each volunteer family will share a bedroom and one bathroom. (That means mom, dad, and all the kiddos are sharing a room together - that might be the greatest challenge and sacrifice at camp but also one of the greatest rewards and fondest memories you'll make as a family). There is great peace and blessing when we sacrifice for the good and benefit of others for His namesake.

travel

The closest airport to Windmark Beach in Florida is the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City, Florida. The airport is located in the Central Time Zone (camp is on Eastern Time). It takes about an hour to get to the airport. At camp, you will need a car to drive to Rish Park on Cape San Blas, to the Marina for snorkeling, and to the grocery/restaurant for any meals we aren’t able to arrange.

WHAT TO PACK

You won’t need much! Pack casual clothes, bathing suits, flip flops and your toiletries, beach towels, and a beach chair/umbrella if you like. We have some extra chairs and umbrellas, sand toys, games, etc. but if you want to be sure you have one, you may want to bring one with you. Some evenings, we have theme parties that you may want an outfit from home or accessories to add fun to the evening.

Specific theme nights and ideas for accessories will be provided closer to camp dates!

Remember to bring all of your family's routine medications like Advil, Tylenol, bandaids, etc. along with any prescription medications, sunscreen and swim diapers if you have little ones.

The community is ideal for biking and skating. Feel free to bring bikes, scooters, or skates if you like!

We will provide:

  • Bed and bath linens (You may want to bring extra towels and pillows. The resort provides 1/pp.) Bedding for your children.

  • The house has your initial toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and dishwashing pods. We also will provide a hospital cart with extra.

  • Snacks and bottled water, canned soda at the beach and pool

podcast

Click here to hear Melinda’s heart behind the ministry and the hope Blue Skies brought to the Dryden family as they join Christy Nockels on her podcast!

2025 volunteer manual

Click here to view our volunteer manual with lots of helpful information!

Guest family welcome letter

Click here to read a welcome from Melinda to our guest families to learn more about Blue Skies!

additional info

Windmark Beach is the ideal place for biking, skating, walking, running, etc.  There are boardwalks throughout the community and a path that runs along the water!

Cancellation Policy

If for some reason you are unable to attend once your application has been accepted, you are required to raise/give the full amount of volunteer support due to find another volunteer/volunteer family (approved) to take your spot.