Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Spring 2013 Issue | Page 28

A Laboratory of Leadership at Shrine Mont Camps
emily cherry
In a May 29, 2012 article for The New York Times, father and writer Dan Fleshler
discussed the difference between camp counselors and interns, and what that
difference meant for his daughter. While her parents encouraged her to gain
some “real world experience” in a summer internship, she insisted on returning
as a counselor to a sleep-away camp in the Adirondacks. Her reasoning? “What I
do there matters!”
It’s a sentiment that has held
true for generations of counselors
at the diocesan Shrine Mont Camps.
In his January 2013 report to Annual
Council, the Rt. Rev. Ted Gulick –
himself a product of Shrine Mont
Camps – categorized the camp
counselor experience as a laboratory
for leadership. “At Shrine Mont
Camps, we sow seeds of faith, and
our experience over the last 50 years
is of a harvest of a hundred fold,” said
Gulick. He also admitted that his favorite
“congregation” is the one that gathers
at Shrine Mont every summer, and is run
entirely by the young adult counselors
and chaplains who are serving the
campers on the mountain.

So what is it that sets a Shrine
Mont counselor apart? Paris Ball,
director of Shrine Mont Camps, looks
for counselors who have “emotional
maturity, the ability to handle a certain
level of chaos and think of their feet.”

“I look for people who are kind
and loving, and responsible,” said Ball.
They must be comfortable in a faith
environment, and open to the movement
of God in their lives. But perhaps most
importantly, said Ball, “It’s all about the
kids. They have to love kids.”

Many former counselors have
transferred that love for kids to “the real
world,” too. Shrine Mont “connected
me with a deep, deep passion for
working with young people,” said Sarah
Smith, a counselor at St. George’s Camp
in the late 1980s. “I’ve now spent 20-plus
years in education, with a primary focus
on lower-income minorities and access
to education.”
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Some of the same principles used
in camp counseling have been equally
helpful in on-the-job experience for
Smith, who draws parallels between
the “mission-driven” focus of camp
counselors and the staff of her
organization, Rainier Scholars, a group
that provides education resources for
students of color. Shrine Mont “was an
incredible training ground for anyone
who was going to be in education or
social work,” said Smith.
Erica Westcott, who works in the
education department of Carnegie
Hall, agrees. “Everything I know
about child development really came
from Shrine Mont,” said Westcott,

Virginia Episcopalian / Spring 2013

who served on the Music and Drama
(MAD) staff from 2003-2009. “You
are constantly thinking on your feet.
You are constantly problem solving,
coming up with a Plan B, redirecting.”

Ryan Hopkins was a counselor at St.
George’s Camp in the 1990s and director
at Sports Camp in 2009 and 2010, and
now teaches history at a boys’ school
in Baltimore, Md. “My time at Shrine
Mont was incredibly valuable to me in
that first job,” teaching at Christ Church
School in the Tidewater area, said
Hopkins. “The only thing I knew was
working at Shrine Mont. I drew on that
very heavily.”

For the Rev. Gideon Pollach, his
current ministry is an extension of his
experience