By Jim Vitale
It is not uncommon for former summer staff to become board members. There are at least four such people serving on the Camp Mount Luther Board of Directors right now. What is unusual, however, is for someone to start their Camp Mount Luther career as a board member and then become a summer staff member. In fact, it’s never happened. Well, until now.
Meet Gabe Schaeffer, the youngest person ever to serve on the camp board and our youngest summer staff member. A few years ago, Gabe joined the Upper Susquehanna Synod Council as a youth representative. Camp Mount Luther reserves one board seat for a synod council member and so it was decided that Gabe should serve as the synod representative for camp. Gabe joined the board last year and spent some time with us last summer helping out where he could. Finding the experience to be fun and fulfilling, Gabe took on more responsibility this summer as a cabin leader.
If you know Gabe, then you are not the least bit surprised that he is serving simultaneously as a cabin leader and a board member. Gabe is a high achiever, a brilliant student and athlete with a broad range of interests. When he’s not breaking records in competitive running, he’s singing in choirs, heading up the Synod youth team, playing piano (he’s self-taught), or reading up on politics. Gabe aspires to medical school where he plans to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
While Gabe is relatively new to the Camp Mount Luther staff, this is not his first experience of camp. The son of two pastors, Gabe spent two years living on the grounds of a camp called Koinonia in the Metro New York Synod (coincidentally this is where he first met CarolAnn Miller, another summer staff member whom you will read about in a couple weeks). Living in the camp director’s parsonage, Gabe loved having such a big backyard. While Koinonia is geared more toward adults than kids, Gabe still enjoyed his time there. “I enjoyed getting to meet the regulars who would come each Sunday for worship. Some of them brought kids.” Gabe says, “And I enjoyed the ‘revolving door’ aspect of it, getting to see new and familiar faces coming and going throughout the year.”
There are several different things about camp that seem to draw Gabe in. The first is the variety of it. “There’s something for everyone here.” He says, “One activity might not connect with one kid but it will with another, and that first kid will find some other activity to connect with. So often church feels always ‘one way’ and if you don’t like that way then you’re not going to connect. But at camp there are so many different ways to connect that almost everyone finds a place to belong.”
The second is the peacefulness it can bring. One of Gabe’s favorite memories of camp happened a few years ago. Folk singer KJ Reimensynder-Wagner came to family camp to sing and lead music. Gabe remembers the powerful experience of singing “The Sound of Silence” at a campfire, followed up by KJ’s own beautiful and reflective music. “I love that,” Gabe says. “I enjoy reflective campfires. I’ve always liked quiet worship services full of prayer and music. It helps you slow down. I don’t want to say a prayer or sing a verse and not have time to think about what it means.”
The third reason Gabe is drawn to camp is service. Camp gives Gabe an opportunity to give back to a community that has given so much to him. That was one reason he became a cabin leader. As a board member he saw that camp was in need of more summer staff and so he stepped up and applied. Gabe has a heart for service, it’s part of the reason he wants to go to medical school. Having suffered a near-career-ending track injury, Gabe was in awe of the physicians who helped him to recover and heal. Watching the physicians and physical therapists showed him that’s what he wants to do, too. “I want to help people get better. I want to work with athletes and help them get better. I want to do for others what someone first did for me.” Although medical school is still a long way off, Gabe devotes himself to service here at camp, helping campers to experience the things that have made camp so special to him.