There is no Day Camp for 2022

ARE YOU WILLING TO PRAY IN A GROUP?

Each day at day camp there was a morning snack and an afternoon snack in addition to lunch. Grace was said before each, usually by one of the college age counselors. But, they would ask if anyone wanted to say the prayer. On one occasion a high school volunteer Jr. Counselor offered the prayer.

On Wednesday at lunch a little girl just going into third grade asked if she could say the prayer. She planned to do this as she had written it in crayon, unrolled the sheet and read it. It was very sweet. On Friday at the afternoon snack a boy going into fifth grade asked to say the prayer. His was “off the cuff” and was a sermonette. His prayer rivaled any prayer I have heard from a session member. These young people were offering a prayer in front of more than 40 people.

DAY CAMP FACTS

There were a lot of conflicts with Day Camp this year. The Sun Foundation had a camp at the same time, there was a Boy Scout Camp as well and River Valley Players was holding practices for the summer kid’s production. And, there was a conflict with sports practices as well. The latter two affected a few children and just led to delayed attendance. There were 31 campers registered.

From Stronghold we had Jennifer Pierce as the leader and four college aged counselors. German had finished four years of civil engineering in college and planned to return to attend grad school in the fall, specializing in transportation. He is from Bogota, Columbia. Daniel is from Mexico and had finished his first year of college, majoring in electrical engineering. Hannah was from Hampshire, England and had not yet started college. The little girls just loved to listen to her English accent and pronunciation. Alex was from Palatine, IL and had completed her freshman year at Augustana, majoring in journalism and environmental studies.

We had the most amazing group of high school volunteers. They were eager, energetic, engaging participants in all the activities of the week. In the kitchen we were ably assisted by several younger students and they eagerly did all that was asked of them. Anita made sure the building was in working order for the next day and Randie worked her magic on the computer, allowing for online registrations.

Marge Hunt and Diana Williamson offered their expertise from their years as day camp coordinators. They lined up the wonderful high school volunteers for the week and arranged for the snacks. A huge thank you to those who provided the snacks. The cookies were extremely popular! We are also indebted to those who hosted meals for the Staff during the week. The Staff enjoyed meeting our members and made the comment that they wished they could stay in Henry all summer! The Meeting Place provided the kid-friendly lunches and it was a huge relief to have someone else take care of the lunches.

DAY CAMP MEMORIES

A mother relating that her child had said “this is the best week ever”

Six little girls sitting around a craft table working on bracelets and spontaneously breaking into the song “Sanctuary”. This was the sweetest sound and it was not led or encouraged by the leaders.

A girl entering third grade and a boy entering fifth grade asking if they could say grace.

Getting wet on water fun day is great, but soaking the counselors is the best!

Pancakes are the best lunch.

The campers were so good, the high schoolers so much help and those who hosted the counselors for dinner each evening so kind that the counselors asked if they could just stay in Henry all summer.

Some of the high school volunteers gathered Friday evening at one of their homes to practice day camp songs so they could sing them at the 4 PM mass on Saturday at St. John’s church.

FINAL DAY CAMP OBSERVATION

Stronghold Day Camp is a truly worthwhile and effective Mission and Outreach activity of our church. Every effort should be made to continue it.

Another successful Stronghold Day Camp!! 

Our church hosted the Stronghold Day Camp from June 25-29, 2018. Our church teams up with Stronghold Retreat and Conference Center to facilitate the event. This year Stronghold sent three counselors and a camp coordinator to our church to lead the campers in games, singing, crafting, fellowship, and Bible study.

This marked the completion of the fifth year of the camp at our church. Again, it was a very successful event with 47 campers from grades second – sixth attending the daily event from 9 am – 4 pm.

In addition to our campers and the Stronghold staff, six high school junior counselors, and two college students worked with the campers during the week. We also had four students from the community help with preparing snacks and helping with kitchen duties. Ladies from our congregation staffed the kitchen to prepare the noon meal and bake cookies and muffins for the week’s snack hour. Various men of the church came in to empty trash, vacuum and perform other needed tasks. 

When most of us think of the day camp, we focus on the benefits for the young students, but the camp benefits many of all ages and are far reaching. To recap some of these benefits, think about the following:

1) Stronghold Retreat Center recruits their counselors from all over the world. This year we had three counselors from foreign countries – two from Southern Brazil and one from Ireland. Our local campers are exposed to some cultural ideas that they would not receive locally. One of the counselors works for the human resource department for Caterpillar in Brazil. She is on unpaid leave to work this summer as a counselor in the United States – close to the home of Caterpillar. The other counselor from Brazil was challenging our Spanish students to learn a little Portuguese as it is close to the Spanish language that our students have in school here.

2) We have high school students learning to be leaders of young children. These students request to come back in future years as they have good experiences at this camp. It is a joy to see them develop leadership skills as they mature. One young camper that aged out of the camp this year, requested that he be considered as a jr. counselor as soon as he was old enough.

3) As I checked students in each morning, I witnessed a community working together to provide our students the opportunity to come to camp. With so many parents working, it takes an army to make sure the children get to camp and home again safely. 

4) We had a couple of benefactors in our congregation provide camp scholarships so that no child was turned away from attending due to finances. We had seven children come on scholarship money provided by members of the congregation.

These are just a small sample of the benefits of this camp. Hopefully, we will be able to continue to host this camp again next year. A big thanks to everyone who helped make this a very successful week and a joy to coordinate.