Junior Deans
Greetings! from Joel Gensler and Jennifer Hinkle, Junior Program Deans for the 2010 Camp Luther
This year’s Junior Program will have a staff of 20 with about 250 years of Camp Luther experience! If you are a parent of a first-year camper, and you are trying to decide if this is the right place for your child, it is important for you to know that the experienced and loving staff will be there to guild your child as he or she begins the Camp Luther journey.
Junior Camp is where “IT” all begins!
If we were to write a mission statement just for the Junior Camp, it would certainly include the word “FUN” – in large print – with the word “serious” in smaller print. The mission statement would also have to contain the words “all inclusive” as no camper is ever left alone. Campers participate in group spiritual, physical, and artistic (music as well as crafts) classes and events. Next included would be the words “active growth in Christ”. Campers actively grow in spiritual thought as well as social interactive skills as they begin the ten-year journey of maturing, overcoming shyness, and sometimes even homesickness as well as dealing with all kinds of new experiences and feelings. Finally, we would have to include “God’s love” as it abounds at Camp Luther, and the junior camper is certainly a recipient!
A typical week of camp begins on Sunday with Junior registration beginning at 2:00 PM sharp. The camper chooses daily classes, deposits money in the “bank”, and receives a cabin assignment and counselor. The counselor is an adult, experienced camper who will assist your child in moving into his/her cabin, picking the bunk, making the bed, and stowing camp gear properly. The counselor remains a steady guiding force throughout the week. The first afternoon is spent exploring the beautiful Camp Caesar – renamed Camp Luther for the week!—playing a Camp Luther favorite game, Four Square, meeting cabin mates, and getting acquainted with other campers are several options. Dinner is served at 5:00 which is followed by an all-camp worship and assembly which includes the Junior, Intermediate, and Senior campers where all are introduced to the entire adult staff. Afterward, the three camps break into separate assemblies for further staff introductions, rules and regulations review, and evening ice-breaker activities. Finally, it is cabin time for the junior campers, and most are ready for a good night’s rest!
The typical Monday through Friday schedule includes
| 7:00 | Rise and Shine – dress for the day | |
| 7:30 | Morning Worship | |
| 8:00 | Breakfast | |
| 8:30 | Cabin cleaning for inspection | |
| 9:00-12:00 | Morning Classes | |
| 12:15 | Lunch | |
| 1:00 | Junior Assembly | |
| 1:45 | Optional activities including swimming, archery, boating, fishing, basketball, 4 square, shuffleboard, “parachuting” (not the jumping out of airplanes kind!), “Big Red”, craft making, hiking, creek stomps, and other organized sporting activities | |
| 5:00 | “The Five O’clock News” all-camp assembly for a recap of the day’s activities as well as entertainment | |
| 5:30 | Dinner | |
| 6:30 | Evening Vesper Service | |
| 7:00 | Evening activity and/or entertainment | |
| 9:00 | Return to cabin, prepare for bed, cabin devotions | |
| 10:00 | Lights Out! |
Parents and interested campers, you can see that each day is filled with spirit-filled fun and learning activities!
Twenty-six years ago, when I was first a Junior boys’ counselor, on Saturday morning after the bags were packed and loaded onto the busses, numerous goodbyes and tears shed, exchanges of notes in the directory, I would hear, “Please don’t forget to write me!” Today it is, “Don’t forget to text!” Technology has changed the way we communicate, but God’s love is the constant force that binds all of the Camp Luther years together.
Please review the Camp Luther web site, and if you have been exceptionally blessed in life, please consider a donation to the Camp Luther Scholarship fund so that children from less fortunate families are able to experience the wonder of “IT”!