6 cabins. 3 days. James Hardie joins Builders FirstSource and CBH Homes in helping Camp Rainbow Gold expand — and serve more kids.

Located outside Fairfield, Idaho, Camp Rainbow Gold is a nonprofit organization and medical-needs camp program dedicated to serving Idaho children who have been diagnosed with cancer and their families.

“We started as a program of the American Cancer Society and then became our own independent nonprofit,” Elizabeth Lizberg, Director of Camp Rainbow Gold, explains. “We support the entire family, because a cancer diagnosis does not just impact the child — it’s the entire family.”

Established in the 1980s as the country’s first children’s oncology summer camp, Camp Rainbow Gold has since expanded from limited one-week offerings to a year-round support community, including camps for siblings and whole families. “We try to put in all the fun activities we take for granted. Sometimes it's things as simple as going trick-or-treating or to a dance. Some have called us the Disney of camps.”

Expansion, as well as the innate challenges of hosting campers with medical needs, meant Camp Rainbow Gold faced obstacles such as capacity, medical accommodations, infrastructure, and more.

Lizberg explains, “We were leasing sites around Idaho, but because they weren’t medical camps, they didn’t have ADA entryways, they didn’t have proper showers that support kids who need seats, their pathways were barked so wheelchairs would turn over.” Due to these safety and capacity limitations, they had to turn away kids and families they couldn’t adequately support.

The team made the decision to purchase a 172-acre golf course in 2019, onto which they needed to build a medical building, 12 cabins, an amphitheater, a sports court, and an all-accessible playground. Funding and COVID-19 presented more limitations, but the camp had builder support.

Three companies, one goal

“We’ve been around Camp Rainbow Gold for the last 20 years,” says Corey Barton, President and Owner of CBH Homes, a home building company headquartered in Caldwell, Idaho. Previously, CBH Homes has been involved in smaller projects for the camp, but this time, they were asked to do six of the cabins in three days. They rose to the challenge.

Barton reached out to James Hardie and Builder’s FirstSource because, “we needed the horsepower, the good product,” he says. “And, of course, the best part: we work with them every day, and I’m proud of that. We want to take our A-players and the best we have.”

Builder’s FirstSource, a national building material supplier, has worked with CBH Homes for over 30 years and is a long-time supplier of Hardie® siding products. Knowing it would be a substantial undertaking, Josh Nett, Operations Manager for Builder’s FirstSource, says they jumped at the opportunity. “It’s something we truly wanted to be apart of, it’s something big.”

Karie Bailey, Regional Account Manager for James Hardie, says she’s incredibly proud of the collaboration between James Hardie, CBH Homes, and Builder’s FirstSource. “When they called and said, ‘We’re kind of under the gun, but is James Hardie interested in donating the siding?’ I said, ‘Yes, of course!’ I knew James Hardie would step up and get this done for the community.”

With only three days to build six cabins, hundreds of workers volunteered to pull off this massive undertaking. “There were 3 to 400 people working on site, everything from making food to delivering things to the tradespeople, to putting the houses together,” Barton says. “Everyone got so excited and so into it, we had a hard time getting them to want to leave! Which is how you know you’re doing something right.”

The durability of Hardie® siding gives peace of mind

One of the uncontrollable challenges the Camp faces is the weather. On the first day of the build, a shock summer storm tore through the area, with heavy rain and strong winds.

“Our camp is in the middle of a prairie,” Lizberg explains. “We get all four seasons, and we get them heavy. The snowfall is big, the sun is strong, and the fire season is long.” With a volunteer fire department pretty far away, worsening weather events due to climate change, and the simple acknowledgement of how much had already been invested in the camp, the choice to use Hardie® siding was simple.

Barton says, “Siding is the surface of the exterior, so it’s getting wind, direct rain, and freezing temperatures. We love the confidence that Hardie® siding gives us. We have not experienced any of the failures with James Hardie that we have in the past with other products. It’s a superior product. It just is.”

Hardie® fiber cement siding products are Engineered for Climate®, meaning they can withstand strong winds and extreme heat and will resist cracking and warping due to freeze/thaw cycles.

Most importantly for the camp’s wildfire-prone area, Hardie® products are noncombustible with a Class A fire rating when tested in accordance with ASTM E84, with a flame spread index of 0.* In addition to noncombustible Hardie® siding, the camp also implemented important fire prevention and safety guidance, ensuring none of the buildings were close to trees or vegetation that could fuel a wildfire. In the event of a wildfire, fire preparedness measures such as brush clearing and using non-combustible siding can help harden buildings against wildfire and potentially offer precious extra moments to get to safety before an emergency response arrives.

“I stay up a lot during the summer, watching fires and worrying,” Lizberg says. “Knowing James Hardie was providing us with a product that could help if a fire happens, it’s a relief, because that’s a real possibility for us. It adds a level of safety for our facility that we didn’t have before, and that’s why we so appreciate their products.”

Needing to complete the cabins in three days meant the teams had to optimize anywhere they could. Bailey explains, “Because we were time constrained, we decided to go with ColorPlus® Technology, which is awesome it'll reduce their overall maintenance costs as the project runs and as the camp continues to run.”

Hardie’s ColorPlus® Technology is a pre-painted product with finishes baked-on at the factory, creating a stronger bond which resists paint chipping, peeling, and cacking and also resists fading from UV-rays. Nett says, “It made it really easy to install and nobody had to go back and paint.”

For a non-profit, low-maintenance upkeep means less time and money spent on cleaning and repairs that can instead go towards providing campers and their families with a wonderful get-away. “There’s cost and there’s value,” Barton says. “And the value is exceptional with James Hardie. Our callbacks, our warranties, our paintjobs, those have all improved since we’ve been doing business with James Hardie. We really value their team.”

Coming together for a cause

Despite a day-one torrential downpour, last-minute product sourcing and delivery, and the practicalities of wrangling hundreds of volunteers across multiple companies, they pulled it off.

“It was awesome,” Nett says. “Six cabins in three days is phenomenal. Doing that in two weeks is incredible, so to do that in three days, I think, was more than what they expected. We were so excited to join this project because it’s helping families and kids that are going through a hard time. As a father, I can only imagine being in that situation, and helping those families was huge.”

An unexpected result of the media coverage has been hearing from other nonprofits who also serve children with medical challenges. “They’re telling us they have the same issues with leasing camps around Idaho as we did,” Lizberg says. “Now, when Camp Rainbow Gold is not using the facility, we lease it out to eight other medical non-profits, and it’s become Idaho’s only accessible medical camp.”

Almost every building on the Camp Rainbow Gold property is clad with Hardie® siding, with plans to do more in the future. “Ultimately, I’d love to see Hardie® siding on every building,” Bailey says. “When we say we’re Building a Better Future for All™, it’s not just something we talk about. It’s something we live and act on.”

*Hardie^® siding complies with ASTM E136 as a noncombustible cladding and is recognized by fire departments across the U.S. including Marietta, GA, Flagstaff, AZ and Orange County, CA. Fiber cement fire resistance does not extend to applied paints or coatings, which may be damaged or char when exposed to flames. Hardie® siding is noncombustible, will not ignite when exposed to a direct flame, will not contribute fuel to a fire and has a Class A fire rating. Fire mitigation measures, in combination with using noncombustible siding, can help harden homes and buildings against external fire.