Years at HAC: 2011-2013

Favourite Camp Food: Pizza Rolls

Favourite Camp Song(s): Father of Lights, Swimming All Day, Toast

Favourite memory/what camp means to me/how HAC still influences my life: On my first day of O-Week, I was waiting in the check-in line watching former staff swarm together, greeting each other with excitement. I stood quietly observing, feeling a bit out of place, when someone walked up to me and introduced herself, declaring, "We're going to be friends!" At camp, I felt like I belonged to a community of fun and thoughtful people who collectively wanted to spend their summers serving children and youth. I credit my time at Hidden Acres with so many beautiful things that persist in my daily life, including lifelong friendships, knowing when to bring fun and silliness or stillness and calm, public speaking and leadership, and on and on! 

Years at HAC: 1999-2002, 2004 and currently serves as our Program Director

Favourite camp food: Campout Cookies

Favourite camp song: Somebody Told Me (So much fun to play on the guitar!)

Favourite memory/what camp means to me/how HAC still influences my life: Hidden Acres has been an incredibly influential place for me in various ways. It was as a camper and CIT that God's love was put on display: in creation, in the staff and in the songs we sang together. HAC was a place that allowed staff to be wildly weird and wonky while simultaneously exemplifying passionate and committed love to the campers and to one another. It is a place where Christ's presence is clear and palpable. HAC was where I first met my wife, where we got married, and now where we are delighted to send our children as campers. In many ways HAC really did change the trajectory of my life and I am excited to see the ways in which it may continue to do so as the Program Director.

Years at HAC: Many summers between 1994 and 2009

Favourite camp food: Three-way tie between campout cookies, McDonalds In A Blender, and hamburgers with a side of carrots-and-celery-in-a-cup-of-juice (when you know, you know)

Favourite Camp Song: No such thing as a bad camp song, really

Favourite memory/what camp means to me/how HAC still influences my life:  There are so many memories that live as little snapshots in my mind: staying up too late with friends on nights off, driving around on the Steiner, pondings, epic campouts...the biggest standout, though, is the incredible feeling of being part of children's faith journeys and experiencing God's creation with some of the best people I've ever known, many of whom are still important friends in my life now decades later. Spending early mornings wrapped in blankets on a picnic table with my journal working through the hard questions in a way that life never quite made space for again, and learning to listen for His call to me, which was always clearest in that place. It's a privilege to be part of this committee, and I look forward to building opportunities for those of us whose lives have been impacted by Hidden Acres to keep connecting and growing here.