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By Erik Alsgaard

“The things that happen at camp just don’t happen anywhere else.”

That’s Chris Schlieckert, director of Camp Manidokan since 2007. He stood in the dining hall June 14 while outside 30 staffers from the Baltimore-Washington Conference — including Bishop Marcus Matthews and several district superintendents —helped prepare the camp for the influx of campers coming this summer.

This was a “service day” for staffers, as groups were painting, making picnic tables, cleaning out spiders and cobwebs and pulling weeds. This is not the first time conference staff has come out to Manidokan, located near Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

“I’m excited to see what God’s going to do at camp this summer,” said Schlieckert. “We never know exactly what that’s going to look like. We have a great staff and a lot of wonderful volunteers coming from all over the conference. We’re preparing ourselves to see where God is leading us through the fun activities, fellowship and Bible studies, and I’m excited.”

Schlieckert said that registration numbers are excellent for this summer, having met last year’s number already. He’s expecting about 400 campers for the summer, which would be the most campers Manidokan has seen in five years.

“The camps that fill up,” Schlieckert said, “are the ones that have dedicated volunteers who work throughout the course of the year, who recruit kids from their church and who raise money for camperships.”

He said that Adventure Camp, which happens in July, fills up quickly. “The Best Week Ever,” a middle school camp run by the Revs. Katie and Chris Bishop and John Wunderlich IV, is also at capacity this year.

“I think that churches send kids to camp because it can be a life-changing experience,” Schlieckert said. “That’s my experience.”

Schlieckert grew up in the Minnesota Annual Conference where he was the self-professed “kid in church who was there every Sunday.” However, he said, his faith really didn’t become his own until he went to summer camp after his freshman year of high school.

Manidokan was started in 1949. Schlieckert has the documentation of the case that was presented to the Annual Conference in 1948 as to why they should purchase the property at the time.

“The things they talk about in that document are still true today,” Schlieckert said. “One of the things that was really fascinating is that they talked about camp being a place that is set apart. Remember, this was written in 1948 … and they talk about the need for people to get away from the ‘mechanized artificiality of modern life.’ That just strikes me as fascinating, because they’re talking about 1948.

“And to think,” he continued, “today, with all the technology we have and social media, and how connected we are, but how we’re really kind of disconnected in terms of face-to-face interaction and being able to step away from our hectic daily lives to allow God to work, we have to create that space. And that’s one of the great things about camp being set apart from our everyday life.”

Bishop Matthews had spent the morning cleaning out spider webs and spiders from one of the cabins.

“We’re here to show to our membership that we care about our camps and that we’re committed to seeing that, not only do we talk about it, but we participate in making it happen,” the bishop said. “By doing some hands-on stuff today, we’re hoping that it will help to prepare the place so that when the kids come on Sunday, the camp will be up and ready. Using our man and woman power, we can make that difference.”

The bishop was also part of a team wiping down mattresses and cleaning bedrooms.

“We get to meet the workers, the young people who’ll be working here this summer,” he said, “hearing their stories about why they’re here. Many of them grew up in our churches and who have experienced camp. Because of that experience, now they are counselors. That’s kind of a joy for me.”

Three of the counselors are Elle Smiley, a student at American University from Baltimore County, whose home church is Westminster UMC; Melissa Lamborn, a nursing student at West Virginia University from Hareford County, Md.; and Stephen Bonhag, a student at Penn State from Montgomery County and Grace UMC in Gaithersburg.

“We’re here for the whole summer,” said Smiley, meaning from the middle of May to the middle of August. “Basically, we lead kids around to different activities and we do lots of hikes, lots of river stuff – kayaking, canoes, rafting – and we also do swimming stuff, games in the compound here, and our evening activities, too.”

Smiley said that the counselors have some amazing evening activities ready for the campers, having been planning for weeks. This includes making costumes and props, Lamborn said, including real swords.

“We have different nights,” Lamborn said, which include opening camp-fire night, when everyone is up on campfire hill and the counselors get introduced in different, creative ways.

“This year, we came up with the idea of a Royal Court,” she said. “This year, I’m a knight, Stephen’s a knight, Elle’s a queen. We all have our different parts.”

Bonhag said he’s looking forward to leading people on the zip lines and life-guarding at the pool.

“I just like being with the kids,” he said. “Watching them work together and accomplishing things they never thought that they could do. It’s awesome to see their faces light up.”

The Rev. Rebecca Iannicelli, superintendent of the Washington East District, was working at weeding around the herb garden. Where other people see weeds, Iannicelli sees free, nutritious food. So, that meant she was also eating some of the weeds.

“This is broadleaf plantain,” she said, holding up a leafy green plant that many people would try and kill with chemicals. “It’s full of nutrition and it’s free: no one can ever take it away from you. It’s delicious in salads; it adds a little nutty flavor.”

Iannicelli said that the plant is also excellent balm for burns and insect bites. She would like the kids who attend camp to see the same thing.

Iannicelli pointed to a patch of ground that contained numerous Lemon Balm plants that she was asked to pull out as weeds. Instead, she was thinning them out because, as she said, they were good in salads.

“This has zero food miles on it,” she said. “You don’t depend on any corporation or any fossil fuels to get this to your plate. This stuff is grown prolifically here. You can eat this into order.”

She would also like campers to learn where soil comes from.

“What weeds do is to create soil,” she said. “They are pioneer plants, especially in poor soil, that help the soil improve.”

She pointed to a patch of asphalt from where she had cleared away Lemon Balm, where rich, black soil had been created. Iannicelli had cleared away most of the soil and placed it on the herb garden, which needed some fertilizer.

“I would love for the kids to have these senses: smell, touch and taste. We do so much with hearing and sight, but when you’re out here, you smell it, you touch it, and you taste it.