Seeing Camp from the Other Side

For a lot of young people, camp begins with being a camper.

You show up, unpack your sleeping bag, meet your cabinmates, learn the songs, play the games, ask questions, laugh a lot, and eventually go home. Then, maybe a year later, you come back and do it all again.

But somewhere along the way, something can change.

You start noticing the people who make camp happen. You wonder what it would be like to lead a cabin, help lead worship, or be the person welcoming a nervous camper on their first day.

That’s part of the idea behind Community Guides, a program created to invite high school youth to experience the “other side” of camp.

The program began in 2023, giving high schoolers a chance to step into leadership, shadow summer staff, and see what it means to help create the camp experience they’ve known as campers. Over the past four years, the program has continued to grow and the impact is beginning to show up in other ways, too. In fact, two members of this past summer’s staff started their own camp journey as Community Guides.
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From camper to leader...and maybe future staff
At Green Lake Bible Camp, Program Director Samantha Johnson saw a great example of what this can look like during Grandparent & Grandchild Camp.

One family had cousins ranging in age from 5 to 17. The 17-year-old spent some of the week shadowing a cabin leader during faith formation time, helping with the younger campers. Green Lake Bible Camp Staff also intentionally included her in leading activities and participating in pieces of worship.

She got a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes and discovered that she really liked being part of it. The following week, she came back to volunteer during Camp Joy. And now, she has expressed interest in working at camp next summer.

That kind of progression is exactly what Community Guides can make possible:
camper → leader → staff.

It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen for every young person. But giving them an opportunity to try on leadership can help them begin to imagine themselves in a new role. 

“How do I become a Community Guide?”
That question is already coming up at Shores of St. Andrew.

Program Director Per has noticed a growing interest even among middle school campers beginning to see themselves as future cabin leaders.

“There’s a lot of positive internal growth happening with middle school campers wanting to be cabin leaders,” Per shared.

By Weeks 6, 7, and 8 this summer, there was a noticeable energy around the idea. Campers were asking questions about how they could become Community Guides the following summer.

That may seem like a small thing: a middle schooler asking how to get a leadership role a couple of years from now. But it’s actually a pretty big deal.

It means they’re beginning to see themselves as someone who belongs on the other side of the camp experience.

Building a pipeline of leaders
For Community Guides, it's a chance to step up, help out, try something new, and start figuring out what kind of role they might want to play at camp. Figuring this type of thing out for themselves in a safe, supportive environment is one really important step.

They get to practice leadership while still having the support of experienced staff. They get to see the work that goes into creating a safe, welcoming, faith-filled camp community. And they begin to understand that camp isn’t just for them, but something  they can help create for someone else.

For the younger campers watching them, that matters, too.

When a middle schooler sees a high schooler leading an activity, helping with worship, or working alongside the counselors, it becomes easier to imagine themselves doing the same thing someday.

That’s how a camp community grows.

A camper becomes a Community Guide. A Community Guide gets more experience as a  leader. That leader becomes a staff member. And a new generation of campers gets to experience the same sense of belonging that started it all.
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The goal isn’t simply to get more people working at camp. It’s to help young people discover that they have a place here and that someday, they might be the ones creating that place for someone else.