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A total of 168 young people, about two percent fewer than last year, attended the four camps in June and July at the camp and conference center, located on Rough River near Leitchfield. The slight decline may be following a national trend this year, according to Linder. In talking with his counterparts in other dioceses, he said, he learned that a few had increases but the majority reported minor decreases in their campers.
“I believe gas prices are so out of line that families had to choose between camp or vacation and not both,” he said, adding that he also heard that NPR reported a decline in summer camp attendance across the nation this year. In addition, he said, school schedules in our diocese may be influencing the number of campers because schools in the western Kentucky start two to three weeks earlier than those in other areas.
The camps had no decrease in enthusiasm, however, according to Linder. “Excellent energy” is how he characterized the season. Camp programs included the usual activities such as canoeing, swimming, drama, games, and arts and crafts, but the camp staff was able to “improve upon what we had.”
This year the camp programs had use of the big lawn in front of the new inn. The lower camp, where the majority of camp activities take place, has “too much slope” for some sports and group activities, so as an alternative previous camp staff cut part of the hayfield for sports. The new lawn has not only meant “lots more flexibility” in sports activities and games, but “having real grass has made it more comfortable,” he said. “We could now play soccer, ultimate Frisbee, and large group games. It’s nice to get 60 to 70 people together to play.”
Volunteers, who assisted in planning the camp program as well as helped the camp staff on site, also contributed new energy this year, according to Linder. They included a new volunteer, Sondra Price of Hopkinsville, a nurse with a background in adolescence who helped the Middler’s Camp chaplains (the Revs. Bill Watson (MD) and the Rev. Candyce Loescher) develop the camp’s curriculum, which addressed questions about human sexuality, as well as assisted them during the weeklong camp.
Other clergy who volunteered as camp chaplains are Matt Bradley (rector, St. John’s, Murray, and Murray State chaplain), Amy Coultas (vicar, St. James’, Shelbyville, and U of L chaplain), Mark Linder (retired, Christ Church, Bowling Green), Mike Lager (rector, St. Thomas, Louisville) and Ben Maas (rector, St. Andrew’s).
Lay volunteers, with several All Saints’ camp veterans among them, included Kendall Badgett (St. Luke’s, Anchorage), Cam Norman (St. Andrew’s, Louisville), Judy Bradley (St. Paul’s, Louisville), Ticka Linder (Christ Church, Bowling Green), Barbara Merrick (St. Paul’s, Louisville), Lynn Miller (St. Matthew’s), Rick and Cathy Robbins (St. Paul’s, Louisville), and Ned and Penny Southwick (St. Paul’s, Louisville).
“It is important to involve as many people as possible,” Linder said. The clergy and lay volunteers not only help the camp staff lead and run various activities, he said, but they also return to their churches familiar with the Christian formation department’s work and advertise the camp program.
Linder has been involved with summer camps as a director and as an assistant director for seven years, but this summer’s camps may be his last, at least as a camp director in the foreseeable future. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Shanna, decided to return to their home state of Arkansas, where Shanna was able to return to her former position with her employer the Target Corp. With summer camp behind him, Ben began his search for a new job, and he wants to explore new options. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t go back and volunteer for a week or so, but not to go back and run a camp…. I think it is important for me to take a break from working in the church. Now that’s not to say I won’t change my mind in two weeks if something else comes up… It’s been a focus of my life and my ministry on kids and youth for so long that I’m getting more of those itches to go into the adult programs and see what those are about.”
Asked to reflect on camp ministry’s importance, Linder spoke about the transformations he has witnessed over the years because “kids that come to a place like All Saints’ because they’re accepted regardless of how they dress or the car they drive or the people they hang out with.”
Camp is a broadening experience for some, he said. One of this year’s junior counselors, a football player, Linder said, told him that camp was eye-opening because he learned that he had “things in common” with people whose focus wasn’t athletics.
Noting also that camp also can be a “safe” place for a lot of young people who are Christians “in a not-so-Christian world,” he recalled his own joy and excitement at “crossing that threshold of camp, knowing that I was going to a place where I got to see people from all over the state that I might not have seen for maybe two or three months… It’s about being in communion…. It’s always amazing to watch the anxiety on the first day of camp and the sheer love and joy everybody has for each other on the last day of camp.
“I think it is one of the most important pieces of a child’s development in terms of life and in terms of their relationship with Christ,” he said. Although many parents are anxious about sending a child to camp, he said he has found that “the child will be fine once at camp,” where they learn “they have independence and create friendships that may last a lifetime.”
Bishop Ted Gulick, unable to visit all of the camps this summer because of the Lambeth Conference, is a big believer in summer camp programs and, during a telephone interview, cited without hesitation three major reasons why diocese’s should continue to support camps like All Saints. “The primary reason we have summer camp is to give a true, in-depth experience of Christian formation that can be more significant in some ways than what can happen on an average Sunday morning in the parish. We immerse young Christians in Christian community and give them as mentors young adults who are passionate about their faith and passionate about the Episcopal Church. That deepens their identity as Christians and Episcopalians.
“The second reason is that, particularly in this diocese, this Christian formation is done in a setting that is much more racially and ethnically diverse than the typical Episcopal parish. In any given session, in addition to a mix of Caucasian and African American kids, there are Pilipino Americans, Sudanese Americans, and Hispanic Americans. On average, 25 to 30 percent of our campers represent a much broader ethnicity.
“The third thing that is exceptionally important is that it is an excuse to hire college-age staff. … A major piece of Christian formation that appears around camp is the formation of young adults serving on staff,” he said. Specifically, he noted, “from this community of college-age young people stream younger vocations in this diocese. I can name five priests serving in our diocese under the age of 40 for whom their camp experience was the primary arena for the emerging sense of their call to ordination.” In addition, he said, for the last two years camp counselors have formed mission teams for service projects in other dioceses. Last year they went to New Orleans to help with the rebuilding work there, and this summer they helped at a special needs camp in Arkansas.
When asked about the diocese’s commitment to All Saints’ as some other dioceses’ are selling their camps, Gulick said unequivocally: “The camp and conference program is perhaps the highest financial priority of our diocese, and as bishop I find that it is the easiest fundraising challenge to put before the diocese.”
Noting that he feels “tremendous loyalty” to the camp where he spent his summers, the bishop said that “it has been my experience that next to their parish churches most Episcopal alums of camps consider them sacred turf. To lose those sacred spaces probably costs the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church.”
08/25/2008
Camp 2008: a place of high energy, sacred turf
by Mary Jane Cherry, Communications Director
Although the number of campers was down slightly, the energy level was high at All Saints’ this summer, thanks in part to the contributions of volunteers and a new play space, according to camp director Ben Linder.
A total of 168 young people, about two percent fewer than last year, attended the four camps in June and July at the camp and conference center, located on Rough River near Leitchfield. The slight decline may be following a national trend this year, according to Linder. In talking with his counterparts in other dioceses, he said, he learned that a few had increases but the majority reported minor decreases in their campers. “I believe gas prices are so out of line that families had to choose between camp or vacation and not both,” he said, adding that he also heard that NPR reported a decline in summer camp attendance across the nation this year. In addition, he said, school schedules in our diocese may be influencing the number of campers because schools in the western Kentucky start two to three weeks earlier than those in other areas.
The camps had no decrease in enthusiasm, however, according to Linder. “Excellent energy” is how he characterized the season. Camp programs included the usual activities such as canoeing, swimming, drama, games, and arts and crafts, but the camp staff was able to “improve upon what we had.”
This year the camp programs had use of the big lawn in front of the new inn. The lower camp, where the majority of camp activities take place, has “too much slope” for some sports and group activities, so as an alternative previous camp staff cut part of the hayfield for sports. The new lawn has not only meant “lots more flexibility” in sports activities and games, but “having real grass has made it more comfortable,” he said. “We could now play soccer, ultimate Frisbee, and large group games. It’s nice to get 60 to 70 people together to play.”
Volunteers, who assisted in planning the camp program as well as helped the camp staff on site, also contributed new energy this year, according to Linder. They included a new volunteer, Sondra Price of Hopkinsville, a nurse with a background in adolescence who helped the Middler’s Camp chaplains (the Revs. Bill Watson (MD) and the Rev. Candyce Loescher) develop the camp’s curriculum, which addressed questions about human sexuality, as well as assisted them during the weeklong camp.
Other clergy who volunteered as camp chaplains are Matt Bradley (rector, St. John’s, Murray, and Murray State chaplain), Amy Coultas (vicar, St. James’, Shelbyville, and U of L chaplain), Mark Linder (retired, Christ Church, Bowling Green), Mike Lager (rector, St. Thomas, Louisville) and Ben Maas (rector, St. Andrew’s).
Lay volunteers, with several All Saints’ camp veterans among them, included Kendall Badgett (St. Luke’s, Anchorage), Cam Norman (St. Andrew’s, Louisville), Judy Bradley (St. Paul’s, Louisville), Ticka Linder (Christ Church, Bowling Green), Barbara Merrick (St. Paul’s, Louisville), Lynn Miller (St. Matthew’s), Rick and Cathy Robbins (St. Paul’s, Louisville), and Ned and Penny Southwick (St. Paul’s, Louisville).
“It is important to involve as many people as possible,” Linder said. The clergy and lay volunteers not only help the camp staff lead and run various activities, he said, but they also return to their churches familiar with the Christian formation department’s work and advertise the camp program.
Linder has been involved with summer camps as a director and as an assistant director for seven years, but this summer’s camps may be his last, at least as a camp director in the foreseeable future. Earlier this year, he and his wife, Shanna, decided to return to their home state of Arkansas, where Shanna was able to return to her former position with her employer the Target Corp. With summer camp behind him, Ben began his search for a new job, and he wants to explore new options. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t go back and volunteer for a week or so, but not to go back and run a camp…. I think it is important for me to take a break from working in the church. Now that’s not to say I won’t change my mind in two weeks if something else comes up… It’s been a focus of my life and my ministry on kids and youth for so long that I’m getting more of those itches to go into the adult programs and see what those are about.”
Asked to reflect on camp ministry’s importance, Linder spoke about the transformations he has witnessed over the years because “kids that come to a place like All Saints’ because they’re accepted regardless of how they dress or the car they drive or the people they hang out with.”
Camp is a broadening experience for some, he said. One of this year’s junior counselors, a football player, Linder said, told him that camp was eye-opening because he learned that he had “things in common” with people whose focus wasn’t athletics.
Noting also that camp also can be a “safe” place for a lot of young people who are Christians “in a not-so-Christian world,” he recalled his own joy and excitement at “crossing that threshold of camp, knowing that I was going to a place where I got to see people from all over the state that I might not have seen for maybe two or three months… It’s about being in communion…. It’s always amazing to watch the anxiety on the first day of camp and the sheer love and joy everybody has for each other on the last day of camp.
“I think it is one of the most important pieces of a child’s development in terms of life and in terms of their relationship with Christ,” he said. Although many parents are anxious about sending a child to camp, he said he has found that “the child will be fine once at camp,” where they learn “they have independence and create friendships that may last a lifetime.”
Bishop Ted Gulick, unable to visit all of the camps this summer because of the Lambeth Conference, is a big believer in summer camp programs and, during a telephone interview, cited without hesitation three major reasons why diocese’s should continue to support camps like All Saints. “The primary reason we have summer camp is to give a true, in-depth experience of Christian formation that can be more significant in some ways than what can happen on an average Sunday morning in the parish. We immerse young Christians in Christian community and give them as mentors young adults who are passionate about their faith and passionate about the Episcopal Church. That deepens their identity as Christians and Episcopalians.
“The second reason is that, particularly in this diocese, this Christian formation is done in a setting that is much more racially and ethnically diverse than the typical Episcopal parish. In any given session, in addition to a mix of Caucasian and African American kids, there are Pilipino Americans, Sudanese Americans, and Hispanic Americans. On average, 25 to 30 percent of our campers represent a much broader ethnicity.
“The third thing that is exceptionally important is that it is an excuse to hire college-age staff. … A major piece of Christian formation that appears around camp is the formation of young adults serving on staff,” he said. Specifically, he noted, “from this community of college-age young people stream younger vocations in this diocese. I can name five priests serving in our diocese under the age of 40 for whom their camp experience was the primary arena for the emerging sense of their call to ordination.” In addition, he said, for the last two years camp counselors have formed mission teams for service projects in other dioceses. Last year they went to New Orleans to help with the rebuilding work there, and this summer they helped at a special needs camp in Arkansas.
When asked about the diocese’s commitment to All Saints’ as some other dioceses’ are selling their camps, Gulick said unequivocally: “The camp and conference program is perhaps the highest financial priority of our diocese, and as bishop I find that it is the easiest fundraising challenge to put before the diocese.”
Noting that he feels “tremendous loyalty” to the camp where he spent his summers, the bishop said that “it has been my experience that next to their parish churches most Episcopal alums of camps consider them sacred turf. To lose those sacred spaces probably costs the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church.”