Welcome Home

BY BRIANNA STEPHENS

As the bus full of campers crunched onto the gravel road to Camp Shawnee, its horn echoed through the woods in celebration. The ascension up the winding mountain road built anticipation for the week to come for the cheering campers inside. At the top, Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) employees, volunteers, and AmeriCorps members greeted the bus with cheers, smiles, and tears in their eyes. For the first summer since 2018, they welcomed home campers to Camp Shawnee.

“For some of the kids who come to Camp Shawnee, this is where they know they can have unconditional love, they are fed and taken care of, their needs are met, and they know they are safe,” said Pat Griffith, manager of CAP’s Youth Empowerment Services (YES) Program for Johnson, Floyd, and Martin Counties. “When camp is going on, nothing else is important. Everything we do is for these kids.”

Camp Shawnee was closed for overnight camping in 2019 because of needed repairs to its road, but employees and volunteers still hosted day camps in the community that summer. Then in 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person camp activities completely. After the challenges many families faced because of the pandemic over the past two years, CAP waived the camp fee for campers this summer. The camps also operated at around 50% capacity to reduce the risk of COVID to campers and staff.

Even though camp was closed for three summers, several improvements were made for the day when campers would return, thanks to the financial and hands-on support of our generous donors.

In addition to repairs to the road at Camp Shawnee, this year campers enjoyed a new swimming pool and pavilion with bathrooms, a new playground and swing set, new tables in the dining hall, a former deck that was enclosed and turned into a media room, a new boat dock, and exterior upgrades to the boy’s dorm.

Emma Krall has served as a camp counselor at Camp Shawnee since 2018. Even when camp was not in person, she traveled to Eastern Kentucky from her home in Virginia to help host day camp, prepare at-home camp activities for campers during the COVID years, and served as a one-year volunteer and AmeriCorps member through the YES Program, serving in local schools and helping to plan preparations for in-person camp. The YES Program is comprised of summer camp, in-school services, and a Teen Leadership Program for Appalachian youth.

“Camp is a magical place,” she said. “Seeing our campers come up the mountain for the first time in three years was breathtaking. We were all coming back home this summer and doing what we’ve been waiting to do for so long. You could feel the happiness and excitement in the air.”

Now 9 years old, Brooklyn looked forward to the day she would be able to come back to Camp Shawnee. She spent two summers up on the mountain before the camp was closed for three years. Her favorite things about camp this summer were the new pool and spending time with her counselors, like Krall, again.

“Camp makes me happy because I can see my friends. It was hard to see them when I couldn’t come here,” she said. “It feels awesome to be back. This is like my home. I loved doing tricks in the pool and fishing. I got to canoe for the first time, too.”

For 7-year-old Levi, it was a magical summer too. “This is my first time at camp, but I want to come back,” he said. “I am going to tell my family it was fun and I made a lot of new friends. I can’t wait for next summer.”

A Special Summer

With the first summer back at Camp AJ since 2019, the staff and campers of Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Youth Empowerment Services Program (YES) saw it as a return to some semblance of normalcy after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The campers needed and wanted that sense of belonging, and camp is a great place to share memories, make friends, and learn new things,” said Liz Phelps, manager of CAP's YES Program in Rockcastle, Jackson, and McCreary Counties. “The electricity and excitement was contagious as the new counselors got to experience it for the first time. There was such an energy and relief that camp was able to once again give back to the children in Appalachia.”

Chase Weaver, a former camper now part of the Teen Leadership Program, came back to camp this year as a junior counselor to help make a special summer for new and returning campers.

“I was excited to meet the new and returning campers, but mostly to see camp be alive again. It has been a rough two years,” he said. “I was excited to help the kids and set an example of kindness, courage, and honesty for them to look up to. My biggest goal was to find at least one camper to help feel more confident and be honest and kind to everyone.”

Like Camp Shawnee, Camp AJ made some improvements to the camp over the past two summers, thanks to the support of our gracious donors. They replaced the heated holding cabinet and ice machine, repaired the swimming pool, completed a concrete walkway in front of the main dorms, and updated video and security measures. This summer campers were also able to enjoy new canoes that were provided through the Kentucky Colonels award which the camp received in 2020.