Shrine Mont Camp Cast

At Shrine Mont, camps close a little differently from other camps out there. We don't just pat the kids on the back and send them home, we hold an entire service dedicated to the session that just occurred as campers mix with families before we send them into the valley of the world. Today on the Camp Cast we talk about why we close camps the way we do and what camp staffs do as soon as the campers leave.

Art Camp is a unique camp that offers campers from ages 8-15 to come together for one week and hone their artistic skills. Often one of the last camps of the summer, Art Camp gives campers a safe place to find their creative voice while providing a chance to participate in classic camp activities. This week we take a look at folks offering artistic guidance to our campers and learn just how Art Camp tackles having a camp so huge.

One of the longest running camps at Shrine Mont is open to campers of all ages. What started as "Family Conference" is now a full-blown Family Camp and it's perfect for just about everyone. It provides parents a chance to enjoy a relaxing camp vacation whether their kids are too young or too old to attend any of Shrine Mont's other camps. But that's not all Family Camp has to offer...

In the summer of 2016 I shadowed Olivia Bambara, the Explorer's Camp Program Director for a day. I had worked as a Program Director in the past, but half the fun of this podcast is that it was one of the few I've made where I don't have to hear my own voice. So I sought out Olivia who had been working on the Mountain for years and had now grown into the roll of Program Director at they very same camp where she grew up. For some campers that's the dream. Not all get that far, but for the few that do it's a very rewarding adventure. So I want to give a special thanks to Olivia who was kind enough to let me follow her for a day and skilled enough to handle being interviewed while hiking North Mountain. Enjoy!

This summer I was placed in a new role with Senior High Youth Conference, for the duration of their time on the mountain I would serve as Storyteller in Residence. Together we examined how we would tell the story of SHYC and spread the word about the folks we had marked both on and off the mountain.

It's the start of a whole new summer of the Shrine Mont Camp Cast! Summer may be over, but the fun has just begun. This week we learn just what goes into putting a staff together and find out what camp directors look for when hiring counselors.

This summer a fair percentage of our staff hailed from South Africa, specifically The Diocese of Christ The King. Every year, this diocese hosts Camp CTK, and while a group of its staffers had the chance to come work at Shrine Mont this summer, Paris Ball and Ashley Isenhower visited Camp CTK while they were in session to learn about how Camp CTK function and just how similar they are to Shrine Mont Camps. 

In depictions of camp on the big screen there is often an element of pranking going on, whether it's pranks against the camp director or the rival rich-kid camp across the lake. In this episode of the Camp Cast we learn about why such events no longer happen at Shrine Mont Camps as we chronicle the events of the prank war to literally end all prank wars (on this mountain).   If you have a story to share for the Shrine Mont Camp Cast send an mp3 to ShrineMontPodcast@Gmail.com  

Hello folks, welcome to Summer 2 of the Shrine Mont Camp Cast!  Right off the bat, you'll notice one key difference with the show this summer and that's our release schedule which will now be biweekly. This show is a lot of work for one man to take on, and in the interest of self-preservation we've decided to space out the episodes time around.  A few week ago, I attended the Shrine Mont Alumni Work Weekend, a new event that takes place a week before training begins for those who will be on the mountain this summer. During that time I spoke to Paris Ball, Mike Wade and a few of the alumni attending the event to find out what it takes to get camp ready for staff that will be living on the mountain.  If you have a story for the Shrine Mont Camp Cast, send an MP3 to ShrineMontPodcast@Gmail.com

2012 was my first year on Shrine Mont Staff, one that marked a shift in my life. For an entire summer I felt at home, surrounded by a family of which I had no blood relatives. I left a temp job in Chicago where I mindlessly scheduled deliveries and over the course of the summer realized that I didn't need to be in the big city to be happy. That summer changed my life and taught me that your passions are best when shared with others and that there's limitless ways to pursue them.    In the season one finale of the Shrine Mont Camp Cast I spoke to a group of five first timers about their experience on the mountain. Some of them were former campers, some of them had never been to Shrine Mont before, but they were all preparing to leave with a bit of joy in their hearts just from having been there. Hopefully they'll be back next summer, and so will the Shrine Mont Camp Cast. 

Last year I had the pleasure of attending the Saint Elizabeth's talent show, during which a camper got up to sing a song, it was probably a top 40 radio hit at the time, but I can't remember. What I do remember is a group of counselors freaking out around me. As it turns out, the camper was largely non-verbal, and had said very little in the years that he attended camp, for those who knew him, this was huge. Saint Elizabeth's has that kind of power and unfortunately it's one that I have yet to really experience first hand, I wasn't able to be on the mountain to capture audio for this episode of the camp cast, that was done graciously by Saint Elizabeth's Program Director, Scott Waters. Here are some of Scott's thoughts on working for Saint Elizabeth's camp and guest producing a portion of the penultimate episode of The Shrine Mont Camp Cast's first season (PS: Scott, when you read this, "Scott's Thoughts" would be a good name for a blog): I started working at St. Elizabeth’s as a counselor buddy 2010. Last year I was the sports director and this year I was honored to be the Program Director. The Holy Spirit joins us every year at St. Elizabeth’s and changes the lives of all the people who are blessed to be a part of camp. Campers with special needs have the opportunity participate in traditional camp activities and we counselors get to be part of this experience and get to meet and form relationships with these awesome kids. Over the course of a week together barriers are broken, stereotypes are disproven and God’s love is seen in action. I was so honored when Kevin asked me to help bring St. Elizabeth’s to a greater community through this podcast. I hope you enjoy listening to staff from St. Elizabeth’s share their heart-felt experiences.

Throughout this run of the Shrine Mont Camp Cast I've worked diligently to cover my bias for Music And Drama Camp. I was a camper there from 2002-2008, it was the first camp I ever worked on, and has been a second home to me for many summers. MAD Camp is unbelievably near to my heart and largely responsible for who I am today, so for this episode I dropped the veil and let my bias shine through. Among the coolest thing that MAD Camp does is take their Session 3 campers on tour. This year they did things a little differently, putting on an original show and taking the tour as far out as Richmond to add a focus on service to the tour. In this episode you’ll hear about how the original show came to be, you hear clips from the show and you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to go on tour.

At camp we like to instill values in our campers that will follow them off the mountain. Shrine Mont has always had the power to let campers head home feeling like they're a part of larger community and with any luck they'll carry the values of acceptance and love with them in their everyday life. But one camp focuses specifically on taking taking those values off the mountain as a core component of camp: that's the Senior High Youth Conference (SHYC for short). Each day they devote time to a different service project at Shrine Mont and in the Shenandoah Valley. This week, we’ll be spending some time with SHYC to learn about what it means to take camp off the mountain.

The Shrine Mont Camp Cast is no stranger to the topics of God, church, and worship. Shrine Mont Camps are run under The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, so it makes perfect sense that worship should play a big roll in camp. This week, we're diving into how we worship at camp, a process which is largely lead by the campers.  To make this episode a reality, I shadowed Jacko Post, this summer's Chaplain for St. George's Camp Session 1. I attended chaplain's time, worship planning and the camp's worship that night and what I found was a camp full of children who were nothing less than enthusiastic to learn about God and loves love, and then to share that with their fellow campers.

The Fourth of July is a notoriously big day for Shrine Mont Camps, it's a day known as The Bishop's Jubilee. Past staffers and campers return to the mountain for a day of good food, a 5K race, bands and a chance to reconnect with a place that many of us have called home. The fourth of the July also plays host to Shrine Mont's largest sporting event of the year: The Staff Vs. World Ultimate Frisbee game. A full hour of nonstop athletics as current Shrine Mont Camp staff faces off against any challenging opponents, former staffers, and frisbee legends (aka The World Team).  This day is Shrine Mont's chance to live into the classic camp trope of challenging the rival camp to an intesive sporting event, you've seen Meatballs and... other camp movies. But the great thing about this rival team is that regardless of how hard they play, they still feel like a part of the Shrine Mont family, because they are. In this episode we talk to players from both teams to learn why and how they compete, and find out why it's good for the world to return to the mountain, even for just a weekend.

In the world outside of camp, weather rarely breaks the barriers of small talk, you grab an umbrella and you're fine. However, "Some weather we're having" is the start of a much more important conversation where the vast majority of your day is spent outside. I've witnessed sessions of camp where it's been completely dry, I've spent time at camp when it's rained for over half a session. Some weeks are kind enough to allow program directors to plan for the best outdoor activities, but even the most confident PD is aware of the massive power shift presented by rain.  In this episode of the Shrine Mont Camp Cast, I spent the day with Music And Drama Camp as they prepared to spend their evening under the stars and around a campfire. But will the threat of rain on the mountain lead to an improvised evening program? We also share some past experiences with rough weather and learn what you can do in the event of rain at camp.

Kicking off the Shrine Mont Camp Cast, we begin in the same place camp does: Training Week. We take some much needed time to learn what camps are on the mountain this summer as well as what it takes to train the staff for a summer of campers.