Camp Trinity 2024 | Trinity Talks Podcast

Good morning everyone. Welcome to a special Trinity Talks today because today here at the church it is Camp Sunday.

So it's my pleasure to introduce some of the very integral members of Camp Trinity who are joining me for a conversation to talk about all of the weeks that were and then maybe a little bit about the weeks that are to come in 2025.

But welcome I'd like to say welcome to Brooklyn to Krista and to Rachel and thanks for taking time to join me today.

Of course. Thank you. Yes. Thanks for having us here. All right. I can tell already that your blood pressure is lower because camp has officially ended.

I know next week you have a week of tidy up and clean up but the kids have all gone off and you did it. So congratulations. Thank you.

For those of you who were with us earlier in the service, you would have seen the camp video. It was just some amazing highlights from some of the fun that was had over the six weeks at Camp Trinity.

So I really want to have a conversation with you to learn a little bit about what happened. But as per usual, I love to also start with a little game.

So let's just make it a quick conversation of some favorites.

I was just thinking about there's so many different elements of camp Trinity and I'm sure that you have experience just about all of them.

But so I'm wondering what your favorites were. So maybe I'll start over with Rachel at the far end and I'm just going to do some quick questions and I'd like to hear your answers.

Okay. All right. Since you're all wearing t-shirts, this is the simple one. What's your favorite t-shirt color that the kids wear?

I can tell you or the stuff. The bright safety green because they're very easy to identify in the water.

Yes. And on our trips. Bright safety green. All right. We'll put that on the Crayola crayons. Bright safety green. I like it. What about you, Christa?

I'd probably say that that's my favorite. Just for the same kind of reason. But I have to say purple because I'm the only one that gets to wear it.

True. All right. Brooklyn?

I'm going to agree with Rachel. The yellow. It's so helpful when we're trying to get kids out of the pool. If they're like, no, I don't need to get a pool. I'm like, yes, you do. You're in the camp Trinity shirt.

That's right. I hope you do. And we can see from a mile away. That's fantastic. All right. One of my favorite questions is what's your favorite tuck candy? You give candy every day.

Kids have the ability to get the candy. I would say white freezies. Got to be the best. Best color of freezies, I agree.

I'm going to be boring and say the gummies that we had this year because they're my personal favorite.

All right. Gummies. That is so boring.

Yeah. I'm going to say the Rice Krispie Squares. They were a favorite among the littles and juniors.

All right. As staff members, did you get a chance to enjoy some of the tuck?

No.

No.

One time a camper actually bought me something, which was super nice.

So sweet.

So do Andrew from Biggs.

Well, that's so kind. All right. Games. I know you play a lot of games. What were some of your favorite games or what was your favorite region?

My favorite game is called Medusa. And it's because the kids all get to scream and it's fun.

Okay.

Yep. Sounds like that might be my least favorite game. Sounds good.

I liked the Just Dance because I liked coming in and watching everybody do it, like the counselors and the kids and they were all having a blast.

Plus it was songs that I knew. So yeah, that's fun. That's always fun too.

I love octopus. I feel like it's such a classic and it gets all the kids like running around and having so much fun.

Fun. Fun. Okay. You start the morning off with morning worship.

Right. What's your favorite worship song?

Mine is I'm So Blessed.

Okay.

My Lighthouse.

I like Alive.

Okay. All three very different. I like that.

Okay. Maybe some of you will be biased because I know some of you are in charge of different age groups.

But what was your favorite age group?

Yeah. So I don't know if I'm allowed to ask that, but why not? There's no rules.

My job was the assistant director of the Biggs group. So I'm going to have to say the Biggs.

All right. For those of you who don't know what age are the Biggs.

So the Biggs are between the ages of seven and 10, depending on like when their birthday is in the year.

So there are kids that are going into grade three up to kids going into grade five.

Excellent. All right.

Juniors.

The juniors.

Always my favorite because they're so sweet.

Okay. Are they the youngest?

They're the youngest.

They're the youngest.

Yeah.

Do you have a favorite?

So similar to Rachel, I was the assistant director for the juniors and littles.

And I just cannot pick between them.

I love them all, but yeah, the juniors definitely are very sweet.

And so are the littles too.

Yeah. Perfect.

All right. So a camp spanned over two months, July and August.

I know that there's a little bit of a shift sometimes in the morale.

I'm not sure. Maybe there's not, but did you have a favorite the earlier months, July,

or did you prefer the later months of August for camp personally?

I preferred the earlier ones.

I just think we all had more energy and there was also more kids registered earlier.

So then it was just more people, more fun.

Yeah. All right.

It depends on what I'm thinking about in terms of, was it easier?

August.

August was easier.

For the same reason.

Because fewer kids.

A little lighter.

So it was a little bit lighter.

And the weather was a little bit better.

So we didn't have to do much shifting around on the fly.

All right.

I know that was a lot of your role, wasn't it, Grista?

Some shifting.

But that's one thing we do well here is flexibility.

So maybe we'll talk about that later.

Yeah.

I think I would say August too, just because I feel like we kind of got into like a great

routine as a staff and we just made things go so smoothly in the last few weeks because

it was kind of down to a science at that point.

Excellent.

All right.

Like a well oiled mission.

Yeah, for sure.

And field trip.

Camp Trinity does great field trips.

Do you have a favorite?

And I'm wondering why it would have been a favorite.

Yeah.

So for me, we had the, this is the first year we went to the inflatable water park at

professors Lake and Brampton.

Okay.

And that was so fun.

Also, the staff got to participate in that one.

So that was, that also made it better too.

And we also split the kids up into like more manageable sized groups.

So I think all of those factors combined to just make that a really great trip.

Okay.

Yes.

Yeah.

That would probably be because once it would got organized, it was a little bit fraught getting

it organized.

But once it was organized, it was so easy.

So that was so simple.

All right.

So that was my favorite.

Organization perspective was also a good one.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm kind of sad about it, but it's okay.

I don't know how well that would have gone for them, but we went to this indoor playground

a couple of times.

Yes.

And it was great.

It was like the kids had so much fun and we could just let them go in the place.

We weren't worried about them like where they were or anything because we were just inside

this building and it was so much fun.

And so they had fun.

Yeah.

So we had fun.

Okay.

That's awesome.

And last but not least, which one is maybe easier?

Drop off time or pickup time for the kids?

For you.

Do you have a favorite?

No, probably pickup time.

Pickup time.

We got to put a movie on and they would just sit and wait for their name to be called.

Yeah.

And then we had to go home, Nathan called them to the families.

Does everyone else agree with that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

100%.

All right.

All right.

That's wonderful.

All right.

So we talked a little bit about your favorites about the camp, but I'm just wondering what

you would say to anyone who's watching, why is Camp Trinity the best summer camp?

I can certainly.

Anyone can jump in there.

Anyone can jump.

Yeah.

I've said this in the past about Camp Trinity as well.

We just have the best community.

All the staff, the LITs, there's a lot of people that return every year.

And so that just really creates such this tight net group of people.

And then the campers as well.

We have some campers that stay the entire summer.

And so we get to know them really well.

They form connections with other campers.

They form connections with leaders, as well as some kids, they don't stay the whole summer,

but we see them every summer.

We'll see them one week.

And we just love to see all the kids that come back.

And yeah, it's just great.

I love the community here.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

100%.

I also just think that at Trinity, we have such an engaging staff team.

Like we're always so engaged with the programming and with the kids on field trips, always playing

with them, always involving ourselves.

And I think that that really helps like just create an awesome summer and help make helps

make like amazing memories for the kids.

Yeah.

I think it's just great all the staff here are just top tier.

Well when I see the videos, it really does look like a top tier, as you said.

Yeah.

Operation.

That's just the variety of stuff we offer the kids.

I think parents are always surprised by, well, wait, do I need to send extra money for that?

They're going on a field trip.

We're like, no, that's all included.

Yeah.

That's right.

There's activities here.

There's activities everywhere.

Field trips, activities.

That's true.

It's a very dynamic diverse camp, isn't it?

As well.

All right.

So let's talk a little bit more specifically about your own roles here at Trinity and maybe

why you wanted to work in those roles.

Maybe we'll start with Krista because yours is a little bit different.

It's a little bit different because I'm the one and only.

I'm the one behind the scenes, making sure that kids get to do what we said they were

going to get to do.

And if they don't get to do what we said they were going to do, finding an alternative for

them and booking a grace and I do that together.

Grace will usually come up with, this is where we want to send them and then I make that

happen.

They make it happen.

All right.

So when we email camp at Trinity.

StreetSold.org.

That comes to me.

That comes to you.

The person that gets to see all that.

Wonderful.

All right.

Well, you keep it moving very nicely and I know that it's well appreciated.

Now Brooklyn and Rachel, you were in what roles?

So I was the Little Zen Junior's assistant director this year.

So I was kind of flopping between the Little's group and the Junior's group all summer and

just supporting Zoe and Talia, the supervisors of those groups as best as I could.

And yeah, it was great.

I initially applied to be a supervisor, but I guess my interview went well.

I'm really happy about the position I got and it was so great and I loved it.

And I felt so supported by the supervisors and by Rachel and Zion to the other assistant

directors and by Grace and Krista.

It's nice to feel like you have that team around you.

It's nice.

Yeah, thank you.

And Rachel, what was your role?

So I was the assistant director of Biggs.

So similar to Brooklyn, but I had one age group and then, yeah, it's a lot of supporting

and also behind the scenes work to make sure that so the supervisors are more like in front

of the group of kids all the time and we're there to support as well, but also doing those

behind the scenes stuff, like making sure that our trips are getting paid for.

Like if we have to talk to the people at the venues that we're going to see, then we would

be the ones doing that, making sure we have the materials that we need for our activities,

like those kinds of things as well.

Lots of things you don't think of.

Yeah, right.

That's what we're doing.

A lot of things people probably take for granted.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, so when you arrive at a camp, what does your typical days look like?

Okay, I can go first.

So for the assistant directors and the supervisors, we have a meeting in the morning to just go

over what our day is going to look like.

So we talk about things like what we're doing for our lesson that day, where we need to

be so that we can make sure that all of our groups are in different spaces, talking about

where our trips are going that day, when we're going to get on the bus, what time we need

to do tuck with the kids to make sure that they can all get their candy at a good time,

and make sure that the maintenance guys have time to clean up after us, that kind of thing

too.

So we start with that meeting in the morning, and then after that we have worship, we have

our lesson time, so that's when we go through a Bible story with the kids and talk about

how this year our theme was Fruit of the Spirit, so we talked about a Fruit of the Spirit each

week and talked about how the Bible story would relate to that theme.

We had snack, then we would do our morning activity.

Could be a range of different things.

Choose your own activity.

Going to a park.

Something like that, usually staying around the church, and then lunch, and then we typically

go on a trip for the afternoon.

Wow, wow, that's full.

Yeah, it really is.

Yeah, that's the whole day.

Yeah, my day looks exactly like that too.

Just had different kids with me.

Yeah, different kids.

Yeah, the meeting, and then I actually set up the sanctuary every morning before worship,

and me and Hannah, the Supervisor of Biggs, were leading worship this year, and Zoe, so

yeah, we're the ones kind of getting that all set up for all the kids, and picking the

songs we're singing each day.

Good for you.

And then the rest of the day goes along just like Rachel said.

Yeah, it just chugs along.

Now, Christa, you were not going on the field trips.

No.

I didn't go on any field trips this year.

No.

I didn't go on any last year either, I think.

No.

But in the years past I have.

But they didn't need me, because they're so good at what they do.

That's right.

All right, so you...

So my day, I started at eight o'clock in the morning, and make sure that the check-in

system is working, because sometimes it doesn't.

Yes.

So we need to fiddle with little stuff like that.

That's also Mary Tveris' huge help with that.

I love the idea that there's such a team involved here.

There's like this background.

There's other background people that come along and help.

So it's just making sure that that gets set up.

Being there, in case parents have any questions, selling extra tuck tickets is always something

that I do until right until like 10 o'clock in the morning, because I'm like, oh wait,

I forgot to get my tuck ticket.

That's right, all the necessities of life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So stuff like that.

And then double checking and making sure what time the buses are supposed to get there.

Dealing with any issues, like when it rained and poured, and we had to switch, let's...

We can't go outside and go to Jack Darling Park all day, because it's raining 50 millimeters

of rain, so let's go somewhere else instead.

Yes.

It was a lovely rainy year, or some summer.

It was a very rainy summer this summer.

All right, but it's nice to hear that you were able to pivot and get creative.

Yes.

And just looking for different bus companies and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the kids can have a great experience.

And of course it's all about the kids.

Yeah.

And there were a lot of kids here.

So some stories.

I'm sure everyone wants to hear some stories about what it was like for the kids.

I'm wondering, do you have any great stories or memories or successes or funny stories?

That happened this year.

We don't even have to use names.

Just love to hear a couple stories from the camp this summer.

See, I don't get to interact with the kids a lot, except when they come up to the desk.

Yeah.

But the bigs are the one I interact with the most.

Okay.

Because I'm right across the hall from them, basically.

And they see me and they come up, who are you?

I'm Kristen.

I get to make arrangements for you guys to go on fun trips and sell you check tickets

and all that kind of stuff.

And when kid came up and said, how old are you?

And I was like, well, how old do you think I am?

And he's like, 70.

No.

No.

And then he went, hmm, 95?

No.

Wrong direction.

Sorry.

I can't say that.

I thought that was absolutely hilarious.

That is so funny.

He was so funny.

All right.

Yeah.

And then the little kid in the background, no, not 95.

No.

Maybe you're 75.

No.

Still the wrong direction.

Down.

Down.

I love it.

I thought it was hilarious because to everybody, to them, like if you're over 16, you're old.

You're old.

And it could be really any other.

Yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely.

I'm like, grandma age.

Well, my grandma's 70.

So you must be.

Exactly.

You just fit in that range.

That's a good story.

Yeah.

I guess one of the successes that we had at camp, we had some kids come in one week and

they weren't.

Like we're not participating in the worst of they're just sitting down.

Most of the other kids were like jumping up around, but they just did not seem to want

to participate.

But then the last day of camp, I saw them standing up singing, doing the actions like

the last day of the week.

And I was just so happy.

I was like, oh, there they are.

And I feel like that was just a big success because that meant that we made them feel

comfortable and we made them have like such a fun week that they wanted to participate

and sing the songs with us.

And yeah, just have a good time.

So that really warmed my heart when I saw that.

That is so true to do that level of comfort could just warm them up into feeling safe.

Yeah.

And then excited.

Yeah.

Of course.

Love that.

I think for me, one of the most fun activities that we did that I did not expect it to go

this well.

Okay.

Was that we did a paper airplane contest.

Oh, yeah.

With the bigs.

So every kid spent some time making their airplane.

They like made it, they designed it themselves and then they like colored on it.

So then we had a contest of who had the like the best looking airplane.

So we did that first.

And then we got them to go into their cabin groups with their leader and they all took

turns racing in front of the whole group.

We all, we were all watching as each of these races took place.

And then after that, the winner of each cabin group went and competed for their cabin to

see like which cabin would win.

And so all the kids were just so into it.

They were screaming and chanting for their team.

Every time a new cabin would go up, they'd be like, go Tabitha's cabin, go Petra's cabin.

Like they'd all be like cheering for each other.

They were just so into it.

And I really didn't expect it to go that well with like 65 kids making paper airplanes.

But it was just one of the best mornings.

It was just so fun.

Oh, that's so nice.

Something simple, but again, it just speaks to the community.

I think.

Yeah.

It was just, I'm sure, a few of the many stories that you had as well.

One thing that we did offer this year at Camp Trinity that was new was a program called the

hand in hand program.

And I was wondering if any of you had any experience in seeing that hand in hand program

in action or if you sort of know a little bit about what that was all about.

Yeah.

So a bunch of the campers who were in hand in hand were in juniors and littles.

So it was so much fun.

We got to interact with them lots.

So basically the hand in hand program is just an extension of the programs at camp.

The kids like pretty much do exactly what the other kids do.

They just have extra support with that one on one there to guide them and help them.

And we do have a room for them if they were feeling overwhelmed or they just wanted a

quiet space.

So that was really great.

And that was just off of the littles room.

So for the campers who were in littles and a part of the hand in hand program, it was

great if they were getting overstimulated by all the noise.

They could just go into the hand in hand room, but they were always free to come back in

and integrate themselves with the program.

Sophia was the assistant director of it and she did just such a great job at making the

kids feel welcome and integrating them into the groups, but also not pushing them past

their comfort zone.

And yeah, I think it was quite a success.

And I can't wait to see how the program grows next year.

I think that's great.

I know that that was one of the goals this year was to make camp Trinity even more inclusive.

So what a great way to involve all of our campers and to create a safe and inclusive

environment for them.

So yeah, thank you to Sophia too, who was running that.

Another program that we do is the LIT program.

And I know that you mentioned LIT before.

LIT stands for leaders in training, who would be able to speak to what that's all about?

Yeah, I can talk about that.

So the leader in training program is for people typically between when just when they're too

old to come to camp, but too young to be a leader.

So that's around like 14 years old.

And so what we do in that program is that we have training for them as well.

And then they are able to get paired up with a leader.

So we had a bunch of LITs in the bigs and they would each go with like a cabin leader.

And what they would do is help with the program, but also because they're paired with a leader,

they'd be able to like kind of watch that leader see what it means to be a leader at

camp and learn by both participating, like getting that hands on experience, but also

by watching.

And then the leader also has extra support for their campers.

So that's great too, because they could be like, oh, can you take this kid to the bathroom

because I'm running this program right now.

Or like those kind of like, sometimes smaller, smaller things just to have that extra pair

of eyes that are helping with the kids.

Yeah.

And so we had a lot of LITs this year.

I want to say like, at least 15.

Wow.

And they come for different weeks.

So they don't have to be there for all the weeks of camp.

They get volunteer hours for it.

And then they also get that experience and hopefully those connections so that they can

come back as a leader.

We've had, I think, almost half of our leaders that we currently have have been in the LIT

program.

Yeah.

So that was an LIT.

Yeah, so it's a great experience.

All right.

Yeah.

So it's a great way to like sort of scaffold your engagement within the camp so kids can

come from when they're four years old and there's always a place for them all the way

up until they're, I guess, going off to university or even in university, right?

Exactly.

And we always have campers who are aging out of youth.

They're like, well, how can I become an LIT because they want to come back to camp as

well.

Right.

Yeah.

So it's also a great transition for that too to kind of be like, well, you're not a camper

anymore.

So this is how you learn to become a leader.

Because sometimes if you go straight from being a camper to being a leader, you just

want to play.

But you have to like learn.

That's right.

It's a bridge.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It bridges between both.

Exactly.

That's so smart.

I can see so much wisdom in that and it sounds so, just so lovely.

And we always get so many applicants, but there's not enough spaces for them all.

Okay.

So it's an application process.

There's an application process.

There's a resume.

Yes.

So they're interviewing and there's an interview process as well.

Which are...

So it's also getting them ready not only to be working at camp, but just working in general.

Right.

So real life skills.

Yeah.

Exactly.

That's so nice.

All right.

So today I mentioned earlier is Camp Sunday.

So the final Sunday right after camp has ended.

Why do we love Camp Sunday?

The energy.

Yeah.

The energy.

Oh, it's going to be amazing when we go in there.

People are not going to expect it.

I think some people are a little bit surprised.

Okay.

That it is so energetic, but it is because they do such a good job.

Brooklyn and her team do such a good job at pumping the kids up.

Yeah.

That's right.

So for those of you, maybe if you've just logged in or you're just tuning in now, we

are going to be moving into our 1115 service, I guess in just 20 minutes or so.

And we're going to be kicking off the real Camp Sunday event during our 1115 service.

Yeah.

Does anyone else have any loves for Camp Sunday?

They want to share.

Yeah.

I just love like seeing all of the campers that we had throughout the summer.

Yeah.

Because the last day of camp can be pretty sad.

Say goodbye to especially the kids who have been there all the weeks.

And I was saying goodbye to a kid and I was like, oh no, like I'll see you next year,

right?

And they're like, no, you'll see me on Sunday.

I was like, oh, perfect.

Okay.

Now I'm not sad anymore.

I'll see you on like weekend.

So it's just like a great way to kind of reconnect with the campers after camp.

And I also just love that they can show their parents like the fun that they have at camp.

They're always so excited to like show them the songs and yeah, it's just such a great

day and it's so fun to see all of the campers come back and show their love for camp.

I totally agree with that.

And also like there's some those campers we really miss are the ones that are like, they

were there all summer and we're like, you know, we don't want to say goodbye.

But then also the campers that were there for one week and maybe they're only there

at the very beginning of the summer and we're like, whoa, it's so awesome to see you again.

We haven't seen you in so long.

What have you been up to?

And just like, yeah, just that community aspect again of just seeing everyone again.

What a great way to reconnect and then share experience.

Okay.

So camp Trinity's been going on.

I believe I heard and I could be wrong that this was the 14th year of camp Trinity.

I think so.

I think so.

So camp Trinity is already getting some ideas for next year.

I know that and I know that the website and, you know, we've been thinking about some things

to do on that.

I'm wondering what your hopes are maybe for next summer when we do it all again in 2025

any special hopes for next summer?

I think we already talked about this a little bit, but I'd love to see an expanded hand

in hand program.

I think that was such a good addition and yeah, it makes camp way more inclusive as

well and open to just everyone.

And so I'd love to see more of those spots being able to be given to kids that need it.

Yeah.

And I'd also, I'm also really excited.

I always love seeing leaders come back and then be able to step up into new roles.

Like Brooklyn this year, she stepped up in a big way from being like a leader to being

an assistant director.

Yes, that's right.

It was a big boost.

And then same with like the supervisors and just seeing all the staff rise to the occasion

of their new roles.

Yeah.

I'm also really excited to see some of the youth who are graduating out of like the youth

program to become an LIT because those kids who are graduating youth, I was their leader

when they were in bigs.

So it kind of seems crazy that now they're becoming LITs, but I just like, I just know

that they're all going to do such a great job and I can't wait to see which of them

are going to like step up and want to lead.

And hopefully we've been kind of an inspiration to them, I guess, if they want to do that.

Absolutely.

Yes, that'll just be great to see and I'm excited to see which ones want to come back

in the LITs.

For sure.

Yeah.

Well, thank you guys for joining me today for this conversation.

I feel like I learned a lot.

I feel the energy already and I'm really excited to sort of jump into the service in just a

few minutes and sort of feel the energy even more.

But just on behalf of all of the families and the church community, I just like to say

thank you to you and then of course all the staff and volunteers for creating such a beautiful,

welcoming, inclusive and loving environment for our camp and their families and the children.

Thank you.

And we want to thank you guys for supporting us and for letting us use this space.

Yes.

All right.

And you kept it fairly tidy.

It's a big ask.

But here we're going to open up your church building to 150 kids every week and they're

going to get messy.

They are.

They are.

But it's all done in a good name and it's done well.

So thank you very much.

Yeah.

All right.

So those are some of the staff at Camp Trinity sharing their insights and their wisdom and

their experiences from the summer 2024 Camp Trinity.

We're going to pass it off to the slides now and I'll see everyone in just a little while.