WHEN CAMP BECOMES HOME

Frequent camper turns staff member at The Salvation Army’s Lawrence M. Daley Camp and Conference Center

BY HILLARY JACKSON

Nestled in Malibu Canyon northwest of Los Angeles, The Salvation Army’s Lawrence M. Daley Camp and Conference Center with Camp Daley, Camp Gilmore and Wilderness welcomes some 2,000 campers during an average summer. For Brittanye Joseph, the camp is “literally my favorite place on earth.”

Joseph, a self-proclaimed Gilmore kid, said going away to camp at age 7 marked her first time away from family. She remembers the anxiety she felt initially and said it sometimes resulted in her acting out. In time, she found she loved camp, and the experiences and mentors she had there. She kept coming back.

Joseph, now 18, is someone Camp Director Marty Brown wants on the team—last summer she was one of the staffers directly responsible for creating Jesus Theater, one of what Brown considers to be camp’s most powerful evangelistic programs. “Brittanye is full of life,” Brown said. “She is outgoing and eager to get involved. To watch Brittanye go from a somewhat difficult camper to a must-hire staff member has been a pleasure to watch and speaks to her growth and how hard she has worked.”

That growth is a large part of the camp experience, said Divisional Camp Program Manager David Schwarm, a mentor of Joseph’s. “Camp provides a safe space for young people to get away from the craziness of their daily lives and to learn there is a God who loves them no matter what…by being surrounded by staff that love them and God’s creation that they may have never experienced,” Schwarm said.

Joseph has her sights set on college out of state, applying for schools in Arizona, Texas and Virginia, but this summer, she’ll be at camp—her first as a cabin leader. Here, Joseph shares more about the impact of camp.