This summer will be my fourth year on Shrine Mont camps staff. Prior to 2016 I had only known camp through the eyes of a parent. My kids love camp but my role was mostly to get them there and home safely and with the required forms. I never attended a camp like Shrine Mont and had very little sense of what their days were like while there. I imagined that joining staff I would get to see “behind the curtain” and was curious as well as a bit anxious about what I would find.
I now realize how misguided my metaphor was; seeing “behind the curtain” implies an OZ-like operation projecting a much bigger image than the smallness of what is behind trying to look powerful. In reality, that is exactly the opposite of camp. Camp is pretty clear in what it offers: Shrine Mont food, songs and games, simple screened cabins, caring people, a beautiful natural setting. There is a sense of mystery and wonder to how it all comes together to create such powerful experiences for campers. Seeing camp from the staff perspective, this mystery and wonder is still there and I realize how the camp experience feeds those who create it just as much as the campers they serve.
Now, I now think of being on staff as seeing the other side of the curtain. I imagine a richly embroidered curtain that offers a picture of Shrine Mont Camps. It features many colors of thread and all different kinds of decorative stitches and patterns. As a parent, this is the view of the curtain I see. As staff, I get to help create the design and get to see the pattern and work that goes into creating the picture.
The curtain features parts that have been there forever; the traditions our campers know and love. Seen from the other side, I get to see how careful stitches upkeep these areas over time and form new connections to current practices at camp.
A talk with Bishop Ted Gulick over lunch one year really made this idea come alive. He spoke about being part of the racial integration of Episcopal Camps as a camper and counselor and then remembered the first summer young women joined young men in attending camp at St. George’s. One of the things I most love about conversations at camp is the combination of honoring our traditions while focusing on practices and outreach to make sure all campers feel welcome at camp.
There are patterned stitches representing the many things that are the same about camp each year, games and songs and routines we know and love. This involves many people stitching repetitive decorative stitches. To provide this consistency involves teaching of these practices and routines.
At staff week I got to see how leadership teach games and songs to staff, each time modeling how to introduce games and songs to campers as well. As a parent, hearing my kids talk about games was sometimes baffling. For example “The Cows and the Chickens.” Hawks tag chickens who turn into cows and help tag other chickens; there are rules about who can run where and who has to pivot on one foot. It’s a song AND a game so there are several parts to the teaching. Intentional teaching practices allow many people to participate, lead and have fun.
The curtain features elements representing the 9 unique camps on the mountain as well as threads that connect these camps to create Shrine Mont camps. Seen from the other side, I get to see how certain threads run through all these camps. Sometimes that is people like the many members of art camp staff who will work at other camps earlier in the summer and bring their experiences to our setting. I see how one person might serve one team early in the summer with St. Andrews Camp and then return to serve in different settings with Explorers and Art Camp. The careful one-on-one attention of St. Andrews is a part of individual and small group time with campers at Explorers and Art as well. Staff knowledge of other camps helps to enrich our practices and can also help campers to explore other experiences they might want to try in future summers.
Art Camp meets in August; when I leave staff week, I will return to the mountain several times as a parent before returning to work at camp. On these visits I get to enjoy the embroidered design from the parent side of the curtain. It’s that much more beautiful having the knowledge of all that goes into the connections on the other side.
Mid-way through staff week last year, the art camp staff met for a feeling check. We asked 3 questions about our experience at training: What surprised you? What are you excited for? What’s on your heart? I easily answered the first two questions in relation to my role on camp staff. It was the end of a long full rich day and it was my kids who were on my heart. I am so thankful they will benefit from the camp community as much as I will this summer.
- Kathryn Horn Coneway, Art Camp Director and camp parent
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