Hello! My name is Jennie, and this is my second summer as Program Coordinator and fourth summer working at Alta Mons. I’m getting ready for my senior of college as an Elementary Education Major and have been blessed with my many summers spent at camp over the past few years.
Sometimes people ask me,
“Why do you work at camp every summer?”,
“Aren’t the late nights and crazy days exhausting?”,
“Why would you want to work so hard during your time off while being a college student?”
I think the only way to answer these questions is with honesty and explaining my favorite thing about camp. Yes, working at camp is exhausting, but it is worth the late nights creating weekly schedules and plunging the elementary bath house with Emily and Meredith and making sure everything about night ropes goes perfectly because all of that work creates my favorite thing about camp. Which, it may not be a physical thing, but it is the most important thing—memories.
The memories made at camp (any camp) are my favorite thing. My fond memories of laughing around a campfire, backpacking through the woods, canoeing down the New River, and rappelling for the first time are what led me to become a camp counselor. Even though Alta Mons isn’t the camp I grew up going to, the same type of camp memories can be made anywhere the camp spirit lives. And the camp spirit thrives at Alta Mons.
Singing songs in the Dining Hall, Home in the Woods, all-camp-swim, Night Owl and Tri-Challenge units, big games, worship, skit night, and so many other activities are full of energy, fun, and love that allows camp to grow and thrive. Just as a plant needs sun, water, and support, the camp spirit needs the energy, fun, and love that Alta Mons so graciously provides.
The camp spirit allows for memories to be formed, so to further explain how the memories created (no matter where) are the best thing about camp, I think I should share my favorite memory from the past three years of my time at Alta Mons.
It is hard to pick a favorite because I love everything about camp, but my second summer at Alta Mons created some of my most prized memories. In a funny way, my favorite memory doesn’t actually take place on camp property.
It’s Week Two of Summer Camp 2018 and I am co-counselors with Drew for the Tri-Challenge Unit. It’s a small unit, so we were able to grow close during our week of camp. What some people may not know, is that I had just spent the previous week helping lead the camp I grew up going to—Trec Camp. This is a week of camp that my youth pastor created for our youth group, and this is where my love of camp began.
Anyways, one of the “challenges” for the Tri-Challenge unit is camping out and then canoeing down the New River. Ironically, I had just spent the previous week canoeing and white-water rafting on another section of the New River. So, as we pull up to our camp site in Jolene, I recognize where we are. We are literally camping out where I, for the past six years, had started my canoeing journeys with my youth group. It may not seem that important, but my two camps, that hold such special places in my heart, have now come together.
To add to the importance of this memory at the camp site, it just so happened to be the 4th of July, and I was surrounded by an amazing unit of campers and staff members. To this day, that unit photo hangs on the walls of my college dorm room because it reminds me of the memories made at camp.
In adventurous Summer Camp Love,
Jennie Battaglia
Sometimes people ask me,
“Why do you work at camp every summer?”,
“Aren’t the late nights and crazy days exhausting?”,
“Why would you want to work so hard during your time off while being a college student?”
I think the only way to answer these questions is with honesty and explaining my favorite thing about camp. Yes, working at camp is exhausting, but it is worth the late nights creating weekly schedules and plunging the elementary bath house with Emily and Meredith and making sure everything about night ropes goes perfectly because all of that work creates my favorite thing about camp. Which, it may not be a physical thing, but it is the most important thing—memories.
The memories made at camp (any camp) are my favorite thing. My fond memories of laughing around a campfire, backpacking through the woods, canoeing down the New River, and rappelling for the first time are what led me to become a camp counselor. Even though Alta Mons isn’t the camp I grew up going to, the same type of camp memories can be made anywhere the camp spirit lives. And the camp spirit thrives at Alta Mons.
Singing songs in the Dining Hall, Home in the Woods, all-camp-swim, Night Owl and Tri-Challenge units, big games, worship, skit night, and so many other activities are full of energy, fun, and love that allows camp to grow and thrive. Just as a plant needs sun, water, and support, the camp spirit needs the energy, fun, and love that Alta Mons so graciously provides.
The camp spirit allows for memories to be formed, so to further explain how the memories created (no matter where) are the best thing about camp, I think I should share my favorite memory from the past three years of my time at Alta Mons.
It is hard to pick a favorite because I love everything about camp, but my second summer at Alta Mons created some of my most prized memories. In a funny way, my favorite memory doesn’t actually take place on camp property.
It’s Week Two of Summer Camp 2018 and I am co-counselors with Drew for the Tri-Challenge Unit. It’s a small unit, so we were able to grow close during our week of camp. What some people may not know, is that I had just spent the previous week helping lead the camp I grew up going to—Trec Camp. This is a week of camp that my youth pastor created for our youth group, and this is where my love of camp began.
Anyways, one of the “challenges” for the Tri-Challenge unit is camping out and then canoeing down the New River. Ironically, I had just spent the previous week canoeing and white-water rafting on another section of the New River. So, as we pull up to our camp site in Jolene, I recognize where we are. We are literally camping out where I, for the past six years, had started my canoeing journeys with my youth group. It may not seem that important, but my two camps, that hold such special places in my heart, have now come together.
To add to the importance of this memory at the camp site, it just so happened to be the 4th of July, and I was surrounded by an amazing unit of campers and staff members. To this day, that unit photo hangs on the walls of my college dorm room because it reminds me of the memories made at camp.
In adventurous Summer Camp Love,
Jennie Battaglia
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