REEDSBURG — “Summer has been amazing. It’s our biggest summer ever.”

Tim Chaptman, executive director of Camp Gray, a Catholic summer camp in Reedsburg, is happy to see the camp thriving.

The session from August 2 to 7 had 173 campers, and over the course of the summer, nearly 1,500 kids will be at Camp Gray.

Fun and full days

Camp Gray provides a place for kids to encounter a lived Faith that is a source of great joy.

“One of the joys of being out here is that we get to live a really deep and authentic life in the Catholic Church and be able to show kids what awesome Christian community looks like. Have them grow in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church, but also get to go canoeing, and they get to go hit the rock wall, and just go sit around a campfire, sing songs. I think those are things that will form core memories for them that are going to last the rest of their life,” said Chaptman.

The days at Camp Gray are indeed fun and full.

After breakfast is “morning praise and prayer,” which is the first of two times during the day that are expressly dedicated to talking about the Faith.

Kids then participate in traditional camp activities like canoeing, fishing, fire and fort building, stream hikes, archery, mountain biking, or climbing the rock wall.

Then there’s free time before lunch. The afternoon includes time to rest, time at the pool, and “choice time,” which gives kids a variety of options such as tie-dye or dodgeball.

Kids hang out with their cabin mates, then have free time before dinner. Mass is offered during that space of free time, making it a choice for the kids if they want to go.

“We’ve found there’s a lot of power in the ability for a kid to choose that,” said Chaptman.

“And usually on Monday, there’s a few kids that choose it, but by Thursday it’s probably the largest daily Mass in the Diocese of Madison.”

Adoration and Confession are also offered during the week; Fr. Luke Powers is the camp chaplain.

Evenings are what many kids consider the most exciting part of the day.

The Cassidy Games, which culminate in a “quintessential camp” relay race on Thursday night, are an iconic Camp Gray tradition.

Another evening is “super crazy adventure time,” or “SCAT night.” That night, the camp counselors are free to arrange an activity.

“One of the counselors noticed that his boys really loved Lord of the Rings, and they also love baseball,” said Chaptman.

“So he just combined the two into this night where he’s like, ‘Oh my, the Rivendell Rangers and the Lothlorien Legends are playing a baseball game tonight.’ And so it was, they had to go dress up as elves, and they played baseball as Lord of the Rings characters. It was just goofy, fun stuff like that . . . The counselors have a lot of freedom to do different things.”

Joyful witness

The fun isn’t just a nice bonus — it’s an essential part of the Christian witness of Camp Gray.

Maya Pulvermacher, who is now on staff at Camp, was profoundly impacted by the camp’s joy back when she was a camper.

“I was going into my freshman year of high school. I didn’t want to come at first. I didn’t really identify with the Catholic Faith at all; I had been born and raised Catholic, but just kind of had let the Faith go at that point in my life . . . so I went, was a little bit apprehensive at first, but it was here that I ended up having my reversion to the Faith, throughout the course of the week at camp, just interacting with the joy that the counselors had, and just seeing how much joy living out the Faith can truly bring you.”

Now as a staff member, she sees the fun as a wonderful gift.

“That’s one of my favorite parts of being here is just being able to enter into that childlike dependency on Christ through the means of joy and play and silliness,” said Pulvermacher.

That combination of fun and Faith is very intentional on the part of Camp Gray.

For many kids, summer camp is a week of more independence than they usually have.

Camp Gray embraces that sense of freedom and provides avenues for kids to know their identity as children of God and choose for themselves to embrace authentic joy.

“Some of my highlights on camp are just getting to see how many different lives Jesus is encountering here,” said Pulvermacher.

“I also love that kids just get to have a week to come here to disconnect from the world around them, and to just be here and be present, connect with nature, connect with Our Lord in a very, very real way . . . I love that we get to bring kids out of maybe their like typical day-to-day experience and into this reality that, ‘Oh, I’m seen, known, and loved, truly, fully, and deeply, by Our Lord and by our counselors.’”

Devotion and enthusiasm

The day closes out with evening devotions, where the counselors share the Faith with their kids however the Holy Spirit inspires them to.

“The counselor can either share a little bit of their testimony; they can talk about what it means to be a son or a daughter of God; or perhaps they’re really passionate about a particular saint, maybe they love St. Maximilian Kolbe, and they can share his story. But that’s when the kids can maybe ask a bit more questions,” said Chaptman.

With so much in the hands of the summer staff, Camp Gray makes sure to hire, train, and support them well, so every camper finds Camp Gray a safe, Faith-filled, and exciting experience.

“We spend a lot of time in the hiring process, making sure that we’re getting people that are passionate about working with kids, who have that active, lived Faith life,” said Chaptman.

“They don’t have to have like a super deep theological understanding to work here, but they have to have the basics of a love of Jesus and His Church, to be able to pass that on. You can’t give what you don’t have . . . We also spend a lot of time in training, just making sure that they have a lot of the basics down. And then we do give them a lot of autonomy, a lot of ability to live their passion into it.”

The approach has borne tremendous fruit for Camp Gray, and importantly, it leaves room for God’s grace to work.

“It’s like, that counselor that’s super passionate about St. Maximilian Kolbe, maybe that story is meant for one of those boys in his cabin to hear, that particular week,” said Chaptman.

“So you allow the Holy Spirit to breathe through some of those things too.”

Unique programs and year-round events

That Camp attitude of empowering people to joyfully step into their Faith and lead extends beyond the staff.

As campers get older, they get the opportunity to participate in two unique camp programs: Explorers and Leaders in Training.

High schoolers in Explorers live apart from the main camp with designated counselors, cook some of their own meals, and have more freedom of choice in activities.

It’s an opportunity to build community and ask deeper questions.

Leaders in Training — a program for high school seniors — allows campers a chance to gain leadership experience, work with younger kids, and get a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at camp.

Teens come for three sessions over the summer —training during the first session, and then assisting with younger kids’ groups during the second two sessions.

The fact that older kids continue to come back, not only to enjoy their time at camp, but also to give to others, makes it no surprise that that is a motivation for many staff as well.

After Pulvermacher’s experiences as a camper, she “wanted to come back and just give back to that mission that’s truly given so much to me, because I wouldn’t be where I am today without my Faith.”

Pulvermacher is a full-time staff member.

One thing she does is run the camp’s social media; Camp Gray also posts photos for parents daily on a password-protected page.

In the summer, she’s in charge of the Pathfinders program for younger high schoolers, making sure counselors have the support they need.

Outside summer, her work is focused on running retreats.

The camp has greatly expanded its year-round programming in recent years.

Aiming to make full use of the beautiful 225-acre property, Camp Gray hosts several weekend retreats for middle schoolers and high schoolers throughout the year.

They also partner with Catholic schools in the diocese to provide retreats for their students.

At this point, even more people come to Camp Gray during the year-round programming than come during the summer.

The experience of joy and prayer at this place is a fond memory for many.

Chaptman himself has a long history with the camp, having been a camper there, met his wife while on summer staff, and now served nine years in leadership.

He plans on retiring from Camp Gray after this summer, and he looks back with gratitude.

“Just being able to grow in a relationship with a place, and see it grow and help be a part of that growth over the course of that time, it’s been a real honor. I feel like I’ve gotten to live a dream for the last nine years . . . It’s all in, but it was worth every moment.”