“I love camp because it seems like you’re doing dangerous things and pushing yourself, but you’re really safe the whole time,” says Lizzy Fahey, longtime Camp Pendola counselor who is a graduate student at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. A Pendola alumna, Lizzy reveals her deep-rooted love for summer camp and all that it offers.
“There are bugs. There is dirt. The water is cold,” she says, hinting at the attraction to nature and God’s creation, and how it captivates children and teens who brave the camp environment alone and as community. “It’s an awesome experience of freedom,” she affirms, relating how campers accept challenges, risks and opportunities not usually set before them. “It can be empowering.”
Parent Colleen Rekers agrees. “I was looking for a faith-based summer camp,” she recalls, adding that family members had gone as children. When she looked into Camp Pendola she knew it would be a fit for her five children, who have attended each summer for the past six years. “I love for my children to try new things, and Camp Pendola gave them that opportunity along with so much more,” she says of the various activities offered year after year.
“My children have grown up attending Camp Pendola,” Colleen shares, endorsing the counselors and their specialized training. “They’re always attentive, very engaged and involved,” she reports, confident that this fact contributes to why her children have thrived at camp. Her twins, a girl and boy now 13, will be confirmed at Saints Peter and Paul Church in Rocklin this year. She also has triplet boys, now 11, who are continuing through faith formation. The family also keeps in touch at Roseville’s St. Clare Parish.
At Pendola, the official youth ministry summer camp for the Diocese of Sacramento located in Camptonville, camper safety is incorporated right into the camp’s daily program. “I can’t even express enough how it is a totally different environment and we have to be on our ‘A-Game,’” Lizzy explains, referring to the responsibility to provide a safe environment on all levels, while serving as a well-functioning camp counseling team, being responsive and aware.
“I was a camper for three summers,” recalls Lizzy, a 2010 graduate of St. Francis High School in Sacramento, fondly reflecting on her middle school years in the 2000s. She mentally fast-forwards to her more recent experiences of the past seven summers as a trained camp counselor. She considers the vast shift in her perspective from then to now and the magnitude of a multifaceted definition of safety.
Camp Pendola director Jennifer Campbell knows well the breadth and depth of what it means to create a 24/7 safety sense. Every staff member must make safety a priority and secure a setting where campers are free from predatory, physical or emotional harm.
“The staff goes through the same safe environment online training that all diocesan staff completes,” she says, describing the mandatory “Safe Haven” curriculum for adults working with children. Fingerprints and background checks are also required prior to be accepted as a camp counselor. Once counselors complete these upfront steps, they prepare for a one-week immersion training at Camp Pendola, where they will learn and prepare to serve as a front-line, go-to camp counselor.
“A portion of that first week of on-site counselor training expands upon the Safe Haven content further,” Jennifer explains, acknowledging the vast scope of concerns, including physical, emotional and mental violence, neglect and maltreatment.
“We talk about the signs and signals of injury and abuse,” she adds. “We ensure counselors are comfortable recognizing issues,” indicating an emphasis on “ages and stages” to “fully understand developmental behavior, red flags and what to be watching for in the camp setting.”
“If we’re doing our job well, kids feel safe with counselors,” Lizzy says, relating how campers may share concerns or worries as if they were talking to an older sibling. “We’re spending 24 hours a day with them for six days.” She notes this concentrated time can reveal habits, worries or issues.
The intensive pre-camp counselor training program takes time to review how counselors are mandatory reporters in cases of abuse. “In training, we emphasize that making ‘the call’ can be very difficult, but it is the counselor’s responsibility,” Lizzy stresses, noting that the entire staff supports the process, lending help as needed. She recalls only two situations when calls were made during her tenure, emphasizing that training focuses on being prepared for the worst case scenario.
Summer camp offers a variety of activities and adventures which also require an eye toward physical safety: swimming, hiking, backpacking and canoeing, all in the great outdoors along with arts and crafts, campfires and games. During any given camp session, 40 to 90 campers attend ranging in age from seven to 17. All activities are integrated, but geared to age groups. Cabin housing is also grouped by age and staffing ratios adjusted accordingly with younger campers enjoying a one to six camper to counselor ratio.
“Almost half of our counselors are lifeguards trained for open water, and all counselors are required to be certified in first aid and CPR before the training week,” Jennifer explains before listing additional safety protocols for the forest.
“One of the first things we do when campers arrive is our safety talk,” she notes, conveying the necessary instruction for campers which must occur in concert with solid staff training. “We talk about what they might see in the forest, what not to touch, wild animals, and the importance of the buddy system before even heading to the restroom.”
Safety also includes emotional well-being. Jennifer says camp counselors pay attention to interactions, mindful of mutual respect among campers and staff. Increasingly, no setting is immune to the possibility of bullying, harassment or even self-directed harm, and self-abuse, all of which require measures of precaution and preparation.
As a parent, Colleen says “I have never had a concern for safety” and notes there was never a time when her children were scared or uncomfortable. “Year after year, I would hear nothing but wonderful feedback from their experiences,” she says, happy that they adored the staff and couldn’t wait to attend the following year.
The exhilaration of Camp Pendola manifests in the perfect blending of an awesome experience of freedom, and the spiritual experience of God’s creation; all possible because of thoughtfully measured safe environment protocols. The combination of being away from home but also being “at home” with God as a steward of nature in relationship with others becomes a remarkable adventure for campers.
“Our Catholic faith is worked into all the activities,” says Jennifer, noting how every morning begins with prayer and every evening concludes with prayer before campers go off to bed. Tucked away in a serene mountain setting, Jennifer feels sure that this safe environment leads to self-confidence, fun, friendship, growth and spiritual maturity.
Give your kids a summer camp experience they'll never forget! Early bird registration for Camp Pendola ends on April 15. Register now at http://www.pendola.org or call 916-733-0123.
(In photo above, Camp Pendola counselors, left to right: Michael MacKay, Lizzy Fahey and Jenna Culley at a camp session during the summer of 2017.)
Catholic Herald Issue