By Chad Hershberger
You might know that my undergrad degree is in journalism. I’ve loved to write ever since I was a kid. When asked “what do you want to do when you grow up,” I remember in fourth grade drawing a picture of myself writing in the top of an A-frame, I guess I knew at age ten that I’d be writing about Mount Luther as an adult!
When I was a camper and counselor, we often would have a “newspaper” elective, wherein we could put together a newspaper on the events of the week. We’d include comics, sports and weather reports, news of the week, and anything else we thought was fit to print.
One year, after I became director, we tried to offer a specialty camp, Camel News Caravan. We were going to write, visit a newspaper, radio, and TV station, and learn more about media. I thought I could lean in on my experience and contacts and share that with campers. No one signed up.
That’s when I had the idea to do a weekly newsletter for camp during the summer. We’d expand Camel Tracks and have campers produce material for it. We’d have an elective and call them the “Camel News Patrol.” Sitting here now, I can’t tell you how long we’ve been doing this, but it’s been quite a while!
This week, our final week of the summer, was no different. I had seven campers join me to produce media material. The campers like to take photographs, which we post on our Facebook page, and they like to draw, write, and do interviews. You can see some of their drawings below. Here are some other things they wrote:
Paige Martin: I love camp because every year we go on an overnight. An overnight is where you stay outside of the cabin. This week it was raining out so we didn’t sleep outside, but we also didn’t sleep in our cabin. We slept in Oak Cottage. It is a house that used to be a cabin. It was a lot of fun. We played games. We also just got to talk and hangout with the friends we made at camp. I love camp and so will you. Come to camp to see how much fun it is!
Gabby Reed: I love coming to Camp Mount Luther every year because I love making new friends and enjoying the nature for a week. At CML, you are assigned to a cabin with people of your age range. I always get close with the people around me easily but even if you struggle to make friends CML always has someone for you. The cooks here work very hard and always make amazing food. The main cook, Toni, is always on top of things. She cooks, lifeguards, and mows the grass. She truly is a triple threat. If you are looking for something to do next summer, I suggest you look into coming a week to CML!
Violet Hauck and Georgia Friedenberg went around and interviewed a few people. They reported the following:
- What is your favorite part of the week so far? Brunch (Aaron Hershberger), Tuesday’s worship (Charlene Rineer), Today! (Pastor/Nurse Karla), the pool (Matt Shellenberger), the overnight (Ali Wyland), Scavenger Hunt (Taylor Spencer), when I recorded a funny video (Chad Hershberger), Electives (Stella Pirraglia), Volleyball (Paige Martin)
- What is your preferred age group to work with? Middle schoolish (Charlene Rineer), All of them (Pastor/Nurse Karla), 12-14 year olds (Ali Wyland), upper elementary (Chad Hershberger)
- How many years have you come to camp? 12 years, even though I am 11 (Aaron Hershberger) 16 years (Charlene Rineer), three years (Pastor/Nurse Karla), 9 years (Matt Shellenberger), 2 years (Ali Wyland), this is my first (Taylor Spencer), 29 on staff, 9 as a camper (Chad Hershberger), seven years (Stella Pirraglia), four years (Paige Martin)
- Who’s your favorite superhero? Batman (Aaron Hershberger), Catwoman (Charlene Rineer), Catwoman (Pastor/Nurse Karla), the Hulk (Matt Shellenberger), Captain America (Ali Wyland), Wonder Woman (Taylor Spencer), Batman (Chad Hershberger), Spiderman (Stella Pirraglia), Batman (Paige Martin)
I hope this summer you have enjoyed some of the writings and thoughts of our campers. I know I enjoy working with them each week to create content as the Camel News Patrol. I can’t wait to work with them again next summer!