#17 - BREATHE IN

Trampled grass and crystal skies at Camp Crossroads, 2017.

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It was ’17 - I was 21 - and I had avoided Camp (although unintentionally) for three previous summers. I had grown up attending Camp Crossroads periodically with church groups, then annually as a Camper from ages 10-16, culminating in a 6-week L.I.T. program that felt like a defacto “Graduation” for many Camp Alums. After graduating high school and heading into the real-life workforce in 2014, I had been caught up in my full time job with minimal vacation time, and by 2017 I hadn’t returned to Camp much since my L.I.T. summer.

I had begun my freelance business and had a newly-minted website, reel, and business cards to back up my sole proprietorship of “me”. In the spring, I was invited by my good friend Ben to come alongside him to work on some Camp special event videos. This was an opportunity that I had dreamed about since I was a Camper, which only in that moment presented itself as possible.

I ended up spending most of that summer at Camp, co-creating two full length camp series and four weekly highlight videos, as well as making a ton of Muskokan memories along the way, and spending a good amount of time in the good old celebration of creation. The videos Camp and I created that summer remain some of my most favourite projects I’ve ever worked on, in a summer where I was finally able to make some of my own dreams come true.

It’s hard to find a creative arena as vast and enriching as Camp’s is. If you allow yourself to buy in, you have an opportunity to offer kids some unforgettable experiences in some incredible arenas, away from the pressures they might constantly be facing in their own lives back at home. For the kids, and for me that summer - a week at camp can be the vacation of a lifetime. 

My first rite of passage when I return to Camp is to take a big, deep gulp of cool, Muskokan air and take a look at all the little sights and sounds that Camp offers . How many can you name in this photograph?

“CALM YOURSELF AND BREATHE!”

• Pay No Mind - Madeon