An Alumnus’ Perspective on Camp

Posted by anthologycreative

Camp changes.  I don’t know if you’ve been around camp long enough to notice yet, but camp does change.  The faces change—Matt Verlander, Doug Swartz, Kelly Simpson, and Dave Berry might not even be names you recognize, but they were people that made camp the place I loved, the place where I grew and where I met Jesus.  The buildings change—when I started at camp the Infirmary was that creepy building in the woods near Arap Hill, there was no Chapel, Swoll Shack or Crafts Cave and all the roofs were black, not green tin!  The activities change—there wasn’t a SALT program when I was a camper, nor was there Guerilla Warfare or paintball or a slide.  But we did go spelunking, have a second Council Ring at the Closing Ceremonies, and went to the movies with Crestridge if we registered early.

Camp changes, and change is hard for the Alumni because we loved the Camp Ridgecrest where we grew up, sung “Oh, You Can’t Get To Heaven,” learned how to build a fire, ate our first packet meal, met lifelong friends and encountered God.  I haven’t even been gone from camp that long; my last summer was 2008!  Imagine what it’s like for the guys who were campers in the 1970s—not to mention the 50s or 30s!  The neat thing is, though, that while some things at camp do change, you’re still doing much of what we used to do.  You still meet Jesus after campfire, you still puke after Ironman, Blazers still sing the Overture when returning from the AT, Apache are still the great big—uh!—hairy chested men, and the best OA is still MudFest.

Sure, some things at Camp do change, but that’s okay—even for us Alumni.  Because the kinds of relationships you’re forming with people, with God and with God’s nature haven’t changed a bit.


Posted in Boys, News | Tagged , | Leave a reply