Summer Roundup With Laity Lodge Youth Camp

Jacqueline, Echo Valley Assistant Director
It won’t make sense to people that weren’t there, but it’s from a song. Whenever a problem at camp would arise, [Echo Valley Counselor] Ashley Kennedy would just sing the phrase, “Ride that wave.” It became my mantra with everyone.

Dayton, Singing Hills Director
The community and the vibe that makes Singing Hills so special was alive and well. Our people cared for each other and a real thriving community happened.

Tom, Echo Valley Director
More than ever, we were able to meet needs that people have asked us to meet over the last couple years. We were able to give parents a little more feedback on how their kids’ experience was from counselors. Both camps spent some time adjusting the schedules to get kids into healthier rhythms, even in the chaos of camp.

Jacqueline, Echo Valley Assistant Director
Ditto. Sleep and rest are such a massive part of mental health. Anything we can do to help, including getting campers more rest and sleep, is a win.

Ben, Echo Valley Associate
Staffing post-pandemic was super tricky. We’re battling with summer internships. Camp provides a lot of experience that’s as good as that, but marketing that is challenging.

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
Our staff experienced more feelings of anxiousness. I don’t know if it was because of COVID and the shift of large groups of people being overwhelming. A general lack of confidence, almost, even when they’re totally capable, competent, and excelling. It seems like there’s some trouble with self-talk and belief. We’ve talked about that.

Amy, LLYC Associate
I feel like campers, especially at Echo Valley, are a little more open to change just because they’ve experienced so much of it over the past two or three years. There wasn’t much pushback on schedule changes.

Tom, Echo Valley Director
Yeah, I think that’s a good point.

Jacqueline, Echo Valley Assistant Director
At Say-So, a theme I saw a lot was gratitude for the space of the Canyon. With a lot of people being away for so long, it feels more rare to get to places with nature, to unplug. People were saying they experienced God the most through nature and being in the Canyon.

Dayton, Singing Hills Director
If you go work at some giant corporation, it looks good on a resumé, but maybe you’re really just making copies. There’s no chance for you to really figure out who you are through your work. Working at LLYC is a time for you to really dig into who you are, how you work, and how you work with other people. You don’t get that in a corporate internship gig.

Audrey, Echo Valley Associate
What other job would you have where you live in such a small community with your coworkers? It can lead to some challenges that are really important to explore, especially at a young age and when you have mentors like Jac and Tom or Molly and Dayton. And working with kids is so humbling and important. Camp is such a great place!

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
Camp is a place where our people are able to fail safely. You can try something, or throw an idea out there, or take complete leadership of an event or a Bible study or a game, and if it doesn’t work, you have a support group around you that’s gonna do their best to find a solution that does work. Your bosses are gonna communicate kindly and empathetically. It’s great to learn how to communicate effectively like that before entering other workspaces. You learn so many soft skills. You problem-solve. You meet new people. You learn how to confidently talk to strangers. All those things that are hard to teach in a workplace, you do learn at camp.

Amy, LLYC Associate
Going off that, a popular saying in the corporate world is, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Camp offers those relational skills you need to network and meet new people. I’ve learned more about how to have relationships with people at camp than I have at any nine-to-five than I’ve had before.

Tom, Echo Valley Director
I think that translates to leadership. I don’t think you learn leadership in a lot of those entry-level roles. And consistently, every summer, people that come out to camp say, “Wow, I didn’t realize so much was gonna be put on me, and I would step up and take as much responsibility as I have this summer.” So often, people that have technical skills don’t have people skills. Camp offers real opportunities and valuable skills that are translatable to any industry, like leadership, managing people, having hard conversations, and things like that.

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
You forget the feeling of “I wanna be back in the Canyon.” And I think a lot of people took it really hard when we didn’t have camp, so they didn’t want to feel like they were setting themselves up for disappointment again.

Jacqueline, Echo Valley Assistant Director
This might sound cheesy, but so much scripture talks about remembering. Molly just touched on this, but we have to actively work to remember the Lord’s goodness in our lives. I think that’s intertwined with camp. I’ve never in my life met someone who regretted working at camp, but I have met people who regretted not working at camp. I think you get back out into the grind of school and everything, and you just kinda forget what camp means to you. And people get surrounded by voices telling them they need to do something more “important,” or “real-life experience.” That’s just happening more and more—more voices telling people they need to be doing other stuff.

Amy, LLYC Associate
I think it’s almost easier to do the internship at home or remotely.

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
We’ve also had people who wanted to come, or did end up coming, whose mental health made them say, “I don’t think I can stay out there for a summer or even a half.” They have struggles that inhibit them from working the summer. It feels like we’ve had more people who’ve had intentions of working, but their mental health made them change their minds.

Tom, Echo Valley Director
John [from Camp HOPE America], who was there, gave a statistic that one week at camp is the equivalent to about six months of therapy. I hadn’t heard that specific statistic to point out how therapeutic camp can be to someone. We’ve known these things intuitively, but it’s good to hear that coming from mental health experts.

Dayton, Singing Hills Director
It has to be greatly influenced by the history of the Foundation and the Butt family and what they cared about for such a long time. It’s become something we care about. Speaking for myself, I come from a place where this wasn’t on my radar at all, and it’s been important [to the Foundation] for so long. I’m not sure my exposure to these conversations would be half of what it is without the organization as a whole.

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
I think—if I can toot our own horn—we as a Foundation and we as a program are doing so well because it’s not just addressing mental health. We’re actively in it with our people. We’re understanding and empathetic. It’s one thing to talk about mental health; it’s another to sit with a person, hear their story, accept it, and embrace them in that. I don’t think our culture—or the world—does that well. We’re really oversaturated with language like “I’m anxious!” or “Your mental health matters!” But what do we actually do to care for those things day-in-day-out? Camp does a really good job of sitting with people  and coming up with solutions like frequent check-ins, meetings with a mental health expert, getting rest like Jacqueline said. We’re physically in it with campers and staff.

Amy, LLYC Associate
One of the first sessions we have during staff week is about mental health, and it’s not like a “We have to do this training” thing. It’s more like, “If you’re struggling with any of this, please come let us know. We’ll be here all summer to help you.” Even during the year, I know I could go back to things I learned at camp or people I met at camp if I was struggling.

Holland, Singing Hills Associate
I think we do a good job of understanding our boundaries and not trying to do so much that it ends up being more harmful than helpful for campers and staff. We care for a whole person, not just part of a person.

Audrey, Echo Valley Associate
We just immediately eliminate stuff like, “God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers,” or “God knows the plans for you.” We know it’s not helpful to say that, and we say why, and we actually give our counselors tools to talk to campers instead of telling them to go figure it out. We say, “Here’s X, Y, and Z that you can say to them in this space,” or “Here’s how you can calm a camper down.” I just think those tools are really important. They’re well-researched and backed by science and the licensed clinical social worker we have.

Tom, Echo Valley Director
The thing I love about this organization is the passion we have for trying to be a place where all people belong.

Molly, Singing Hills Assistant Director
The community. The connection. Being in touch with nature. Being in touch with your true self. You’re the most optimized version of yourself at camp, if that makes sense. You’re growing, you’re being challenged, you’re laughing, you’re playing, you’re working hard, you’re sweating. I think we’re meant to live and work that way. You get a rush from being so in touch with the world, with the Lord, with each other, and with yourself. It genuinely changes your life with uncommon belonging that you find yourself in.

Ben, Echo Valley Associate
Community runs really deep with LLYC. It’s like, man, you can come and make some lifelong relationships.