I was at the local pizza shop talking with a long-time camper earlier this week (he is a pizza chef now). He started working in our kitchen part time during the summer to pick up some extra hours. As we were talking, he inquired about the auction. He remembered it was coming up, and he wanted to know if we were ready. He wished us well. It struck me that a young man who just turned 20, was asking about a benefit auction where maple syrup sells for the price of a trip to the dentist. And then I remembered that when he was young, his mom was single and life was pretty hard at times for them. Regardless, he came to camp. He started attending camp in 2009 and attended for 10 consecutive years.
His mother paid $115 that first year for his week of camp. And that may be part of why this 20-year-old man is curious about the benefit auction. He knows Bethany Birches to be a place filled with love, and compassion, and somehow was able to make it so that even a young, hard working single mother could send her two boys sometimes more than once each year. The 21st annual auction was a lovely time, filled with friends, food, and giving. More than $70,000 was raised that morning so that kiddos from all walks of life can have a meaningful, faith-filled summer and winter camp experience.
~ Brandon “Tuna” Bergey, Executive Director
This summer, I had the great privilege to serve for two weeks as the Camp Shepherd at Bethany Birches. The first week when I was with the older teens, they kept asking me to go to basically every event they had. Which I was honestly surprised by. But, of course, I had to say yes! After doing a few, long camp days, exhaustion finally hit me about Wednesday when I had to crash and take a nice long nap! Not only did I want the campers and counselors to know that I cared about the experiences they were having, I was excited to be embraced and included by them into those experiences too! Experiences like trying and failing on the blob, hiking through the riverbed, playing countless games, and going to dance parties and talent shows. Everything we did was anchored in caring, genuine relationships. Because that’s what camp is really all about. Developing Christ-centered relationships so that each participant can grow in faith. This, to me, is the anchor of the BBC experience; real, genuine relationships and experiences that renew people.
Hanging in the camp office is a beautiful painting of the old pavilion. When I see that building, I sometimes feel nostalgia for the simplicity of that era: a small, semi beaten-down pavilion, minimal technology, CDs at the end of a camp week. Fifteen years after coming to camp for the first time, there seems to be more of everything: more buildings, more campers, more technology. There are times that I struggle to let go of the camp I remember from my childhood. But spending time with the community here reminds me of the impact camp has had in my life and in so many others. I used to believe that the joy and fulfillment I felt at camp was due to some kind of “magic bubble” around the property. I’ve heard so many campers and former staff refer to Bethany Birches as one of their few “safe spaces”. As a counselor, there was a camper in one of my cabin groups who said they felt like they could only be themselves while at camp. When they were picked up at the end of the week I watched their face fall at the reality of returning to the rest of the world. But at Bethany Birches we get to tell campers the good news: God’s Love is with them wherever they are! As I continue to witness this camp as a vessel for that Love, it becomes easier to embrace the changes to camp’s property and programming. More buildings allow more campers to have the experiences I’ve had. More technology allows us to worship in new ways and receive funding for the camp’s growth. These changes have supported the constancy of BBC’s core mission: to help young people develop their relationship with God by providing them with a Christ-centered camping experience in a natural and nurturing setting. This mission is alive and fed by the relationship-building that has always been at the heart of it. In my many years at camp, the greatest constant and blessing has been the Bergey family. The devotion that Tuna and Cheeks have poured into camp permeates every corner, drawing equally devoted staffers and maintaining its central values. Yet in their humility, they have illustrated that without God, we can do nothing. They consistently point to the true center of camp: Jesus Christ, who has worked through them to provide and grow this “safe space” for the community. All of us who have loved Bethany Birches have been given the gift of knowing Christ through belonging somewhere. And, because there is no “magic bubble” over camp, we can carry what we’ve received off Lynds Hill and into the next place we’re called.
Ask those who were on staff or came to camp as campers in the 1960s and 70s about their Bethany 
me great joy. It’s always good to know that whatever you are doing, it can ultimately have an impact on someone — and that’s what I think I enjoyed the most about working at camp. Being a camper was constant fun, every single day, but being a counselor still contained many of the great joys of camp. From the pig trough to hikes to the treehouses, many of my camp experiences remained the same, but being able to lead others made them far more rewarding.
It is encouraging to have data to inform our decisions and confirm what we are doing is consistent with our mission. We were able to see that staff was improving in areas of spiritual growth, leadership, and resiliency similar to other camps and pinpoint what we could improve the next year. We feel both affirmed by the research and able to identify potential areas for improvement next year. We will continue pursuing these research opportunities because they have been and will continue to be part of making Bethany Birches Camp better at achieving our mission to help young people develop their relationship with God.
