Melissa Lemire made her way through the gate, past Antenna, and took a sharp turn to drive through the Frio River for the first time in 24 years. The last time Lemire made this drive, she was heading toward Echo Valley as a staffer in the Summer of 1991. Before that, she was an LLYC camper at both Singing Hills and Echo Valley. And in 2016, Family Camp called her home to the Canyon once again.
“After my summer on staff, I thought I’d never have the chance to come back,” said Lemire. “Then, years later, I heard the Foundation had started a camp for families, and I thought, ‘This is my chance.'”
Lemire had no idea what to expect from camp this time around. Two decades is a long time, but Lemire said she “came in and found the Canyon felt exactly the same as it did before. There were updates and now Headwaters exists, but the Foundation had been so respectful of the land. It hadn’t been taken advantage of or overdeveloped. It even smelled the same way it always had.”
Of course, the major difference for Lemire was having her kids, Zach and Sophie, at camp with her. Unfortunately, her husband, Bo Lemire, was unable to join them due to summertime being the busy season in his career managing sales for a learning software company. So Lemire turned Family Camp into a special mom-and-kids tradition for the next several summers. “We were disappointed we wouldn’t all be together, but then my kids had my absolute, undivided attention. It made me feel closer to them, and it made them closer to each other,” Lemire said.
“Family Camp creates this space where all you have to do is show up.”
She once happened upon Zach and Sophie sitting around the big firepit where they had moved chairs together to face Circle Bluff. “They were sitting so close that their hands were touching,” Lemire recalled with tears in her voice. “I wanted to go over there, but it was clear they were having such a deep conversation that I couldn’t interrupt the moment.”
Lemire knows better than most to not take those sweet Family Camp moments for granted. In May of 2019, what started out as bothersome abdominal pain that Lemire shrugged off as kidney stones, an ultrasound revealed to be a massive blood clot. A blood clot that was cutting off circulation to her liver, spleen, and intestines. Over the next month, Lemire would start blood thinners, have the clot broken down and vacuumed out, and then do it all over again when the clot came back in a matter of days.
This unexpected health crisis meant Lemire’s family almost didn’t make it to the Canyon that summer. However, she took a chance on coming down to Headwaters amidst all the uncertainty and has no regrets.
“My kids had been so spooked by everything that happened, and camp was really healing for us… my son wasn’t even afraid to flip my kayak over,” she laughed. “We were playing together again, after a period where things had gotten so serious.”
Play is a huge part of Family Camp. More than one dad can be seen enjoying the basketball court or water slide as much as their kiddos do—if not more. Lemire believes this playful spirit that provides such healing comes from the peace and comfort people experience in a place with no judgements or expectations.
“This playful spirit that provides such healing comes from the peace and comfort people experience in a place with no judgements or expectations.”
“Family Camp creates this space where all you have to do is show up,” Lemire said. “There are kids crawling on stage during Roundup, and some people choose not to participate in all the activities… You don’t have to be the perfect family.”
“This playful spirit that provides such healing comes from the peace and comfort people experience in a place with no judgements or expectations.” After working in trauma-based mental health care for nearly 20 years, Lemire followed a new calling in 2018 as a lactation and mother-care consultant, where she brought this aspect of her camp experience into the work she does with new moms.
“I tried to create a space for these moms to come in and grapple with whatever they were experiencing and feeling, where all they need to do is just show up,” said Lemire. “They don’t need to worry about if their baby is fussy, if they are struggling with depression, or if they are out of shape… I want them to feel loved and accepted by me and by each other.”
Lemire passed on her soft spot for Family Camp to her children. Zach Lemire served as a counselor at Headwaters in 2022, and Sofie Lemire joined work Crew for summer 2023.
Now for many summers to come, the Canyon will continue to say, “Welcome home, Lemire family.”
