October 2ndSummer 2025 reflection
An Overview
We experienced growth this year, having the highest number of campers since 2019. We had 90 staff coming from 27 MCM churches and beyond, 533 kids and ADV campers, and 68 volunteers that committed to the fullness of camp for one week of their summer.
Programs
Our youngest program is our Teen Volunteer program, of which we had 15 teens this year. These staff, led by Kara LeBlanc, participated in Staff Training week and then worked one of the two Day Camp weeks at Camp Assiniboia. Beyond Day Camp, Teen Volunteers had the choice to work additional weeks helping with childcare, chopping and preparing in the kitchen, or lending a hand on the maintenance crew.
Our SLT (Servant Leader in Training) program, was led by co-directors Caleb Friesen Epp and Cheyenne Keeper. This program is for any staff who have finished grade 10 or are first time staff under the age of 18. We had 22 eager SLT’s this year who participated in Staff Training week and then a 5-day canoe and hiking trip on the lakes of Turtle Mountain Provincial Park. After working two supervised weeks, they “graduated” into Junior Counsellors.
We had around 40 additional staff, who worked at each site, lending their hands to the fast-paced days of camp life. Some worked just a week or two, and others worked 11 or 12. These staff included lifeguards, ropes instructors, canoe instructors, archery instructors and counsellors. Beyond these roles, all staff put in extra effort to plan and participate in special events like night game, theme meal and choose-a-challenge activities.
The leadership team remains the backbone of summer camp and is made up of 14 young folks who commit to a longer camp season, beginning with Leadership Training at the beginning of May and ending with a debrief at the end of August. Their positions include directing, training and mentoring in the TV and SLT programs, farm coordinating, nature instructing, bible instructing and inclusion coordinating. Our inclusion program ensures that both ADV campers and kid campers’ needs are met, and that we prioritize programming that includes everyone in a way that works for them. This year, we also had a new position that was focused on supporting volunteers as well as staff in their activity leading roles.
This year, we were unable to hire Summer Program Directors at Koinonia, so the leadership team was only 12 people. In lieu of this consistent presence, we had past camp staff filling in week-to-week in this capacity. These people were Alayna Smith, Nicholas Pauls-Harder, Ava Campbell-Enns, Miriam Huebner, Carrie Schulz, Grace Siemens, Claudia Dueck and me (Nadya Langelotz).
Camp programming in general included Spring and Summer ADV (Adults with Disabilities Venture) Weeks, and kids programming from grades 1-12, with the options of day camp, half weeks for the youngest kids, farm camp, out trip at Koinonia, and a little extra excitement at our end of summer youth week. Activities at each camp continue to rotate between nature, farm (Assiniboia), swimming, kayaking (Assiniboia), canoeing (Koinonia), archery, high ropes (Assiniboia), climbing wall (Koinonia), zip line, and camp skills. Depending on the week, campers could also “choose their own adventure” and try some new activities that are not in our regular rotation.
The bible curriculum for this summer was written by Marnie Klassen, with input from a group of pastors, teachers and MCM members. The theme was Knowing God and Growing in Faith and followed a traditional liturgy to explore how we know God and grow in our faith through prayer and praise, confession and grace, passing the peace, communion and sending/blessing. The theme verse for the curriculum was Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”