Yesterday I wrote about how summer has come to represent Cape Cod for me. But when I was growing up, summer meant one thing: CAMP.

A little backstory before I share the photos… or just scroll down to see pretty images of camp!

From 4th grade through 12th grade, I spent one week each summer at Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, Connecticut. It’s affiliated with the UCC church and growing up I met so many friends with whom I am still in touch today, nearly 20 years later. True story: I met my very first camp friend in 1994 (hi Melissa!) and we became pen pals for years, even exchanging our favorite books regularly via mail. Our own little book club! Someday I’ll tell my future children about this and they’ll think I’m such a dinosaur.

Let me quickly explain the camp lingo so that this next bit makes sense — Silver Lake offers five conferences every week during the summer, all featuring a different theme — sports, drama, nature, etc. — offered to various age groups from 4th grade through high school. The conferences are lead by deans and the kids who sign up are called conferees.

For the first three years of college, I volunteered one week each summer as a camp counselor for my favorite conference, God Show. About 40 high schoolers write a full-length original, Biblical musical in five days. It’s pretty astonishing how much talent emerges from the kids, whether it be in the form of song writing, instrument playing, singing, acting, set design, prop making, etc. And I can still hum along to songs from our shows, going all the way back to 1996 when we did the story of Joseph and his technicolor dream coat. (I played one of the brothers.)

Then I took a break from Silver Lake. It wasn’t planned — I’d spend every summer there if I could — but life got in the way. I worked at a Girl Scout camp in Utah for an entire summer (I’ll have to write about that in another post because I have lots of photos and it’s GORGEOUS there). Then I moved to Los Angeles and started working full time, and before I knew it I’d spent nearly six years away from Silver Lake.

One cold December day in 2010, camp co-director Tim reached out to me on Facebook. Would I like to lead a conference? Specifically, would I co-dean one about video making called “Silver Lake’s Funniest Videos,” which I happened to attend as a conferee back in 1999?

I nearly fell out of my chair. First, any invitation to return to Silver Lake would be welcome with open arms, but to dean? Some of the people I most admire in this world — Don, Ledell, Val, Whendi — were my deans growing up. And to think I might be in a similar position to impact a group of young people… what an honor! I pushed away thoughts of self-doubt (“Am I ready for this?”) and I said yes right away.

What sealed the deal was the chance to co-dean with Gordon, a minister in Connecticut and long-time dean at Silver Lake. He began leading this video conference TWENTY years ago (which means he started when he was 15… right, Gordon?) and I had fond memories of him from 1999 when I was in the conference. Even though he’d been deaning on his own for decades, Gordon very generously took me under his wing and shared the process with me during the summer of 2011. It was the perfect introduction and gave me the confidence to do it AGAIN the following summer, when Gordon planned to take a break from videos to focus on a different conference. This time I co-deaned with Julie, one of our trusty counselors from the first summer, who I first met around ten years ago during God Show back when I was a counselor… it all comes full circle.

I thoroughly loved my return to camp and the opportunity to dean. My favorite thing about Silver Lake is building a community based on acceptance and respect — giving kids a space to express themselves, communicate, and create in a safe environment. A lot of good happens in each week at camp and I am so proud to help facilitate it.

Obviously, I am taking this year off to travel. But I look forward to serving Silver Lake in the future and in the mean time I’ll reminisce with photos from the past two summers at camp. I specifically selected images that do not feature kids’ faces; these are mostly wide shots to give you an idea of how wonderful camp is without compromising the identity of the conferees.

On to the photos! Let’s start with the waterfront, shall we?

As I snap this reflection shot in my uber cool sun glasses, a bumble bee photobombs the picture:

This is the music and drama interest group — I think they are doing a percussion workshop:

Here’s the social hall where we enjoy our meals by the fabulous camp chef:

And each afternoon we all line up to buy ice cream at the camp store:

This is me with counselor Sara and counselor-turned-dean Julie:

Back in 2011 our conference happened to fall the same week as Sing Praise (which is the middle school conference equivalent to God Show — they also write an original Biblical musical). Lucky us! Watching either Sing Praise or God Show perform is always a highlight of the week.

Here’s camp co-director Anne:

Funny story — below left is Amber, who I first met when we were in the same cabin in Sing Praise 1996. And below right is Matt, who I met a year or two later in Sing Praise. And Matt lives in Los Angeles now! What a small world.

A highlight of the Funniest Videos conference is always “The Cabin Mate Game,” which is our spin on The Newlywed Game. We hype it all week and get the kids to know each other really well so they can answer questions like, “What color is your cabin mate’s toothbrush?” The kids get really into it, even preplanning certain answers so that they’ll match even if the answer doesn’t make sense (like the time one cabin settled on “Batman” as the common answer for particular round that had nothing to do with the caped crusader).

By the way, this experience unearthed my deep-seeded desire to be a game show host. I LOVE holding the “mic” (whatever prop we scrounge up that closely resembles a microphone) and bantering with the conferees / contestants in a deep, booming voice. I found my next calling.

Here’s a shot from one of our campfires… which include s’mores, of course.

Last year on July 4th, we had a special cycling group perform music for the entire camp. It was a fun way to celebrate the holiday.

Here’s Cabin Circle, our assigned cabins for summer 2011. (In 2012 we were upgraded to the Cedars, a large winterized building on the other end of camp.)

A few more shots around camp, in daytime and nighttime:

And finally, here is our staff from summer 2011 — Gordon, Mark, Sara, Erik, Julie, and me.

And from summer 2012 — Julie, Erik, Emily, Sara, Will, and me.

These guys are ROCKSTARS and we are so lucky to have such stellar counselors. This conference could not operate without such high-quality and creative individuals who generously donate a week of their time.

I’ll end with a photo of a hat I decorated in 2011. Silver Lake forever!!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my walk down memory lane. Did you attend camp during your childhood? Was it similarly meaningful? I’d love to hear your favorite camp memories.