Camp Deerpark Will Always Be My Safe Place

In all honesty, it has been a true challenge reflecting on what story I want to share about Camp Deerpark. Not because I am unable to think of a memory, but because I have had so many important, valuable and life-changing memories here.

How can I sum up in a few words just how amazing and transformative Camp Deerpark has been to me? How do I share, in short, how I would absolutely not be the woman I am today without all of the love and confidence that Camp Deerpark has poured into my life?

Do I share the story of how I first experienced and encountered God’s healing presence at the gazebo at the age of 15, or do I share how teaching drama during summer camp sparked a creative passion in me that brought so much clarity to my calling in theater and the arts?

I definitely should share my experience as a camper, and how even after camp was over, I still sang EVERY Camp Deerpark song for the whole year, EVERY DAY (sorry, mommy), until it was time to return the following summer and do it all again. I would sing at the top of my little lungs, “We are blessed in the ciiiity, we are blessed in the fiiiields, we are blessed when we cooome and when we goooo . . .

”How about the blessing of home-cooked meals at camp and waking up in the morning to that beautiful smell of Camp Deerpark’s famous baked oatmeal, and knowing that you will only be able to eat it at camp because if you ever went home to attempt the recipe on your own, you may fail and be traumatized to ever eat baked oatmeal again?

Maybe I should speak on the connections and bonds made and formed at camp. More than half of my friends I have today, I either was privileged to work with during summer camp, or people I shared cabins with as a camper. These are lifelong relationships that were planted and nurtured while at Camp Deerpark. Relationships that started as strangers, progressed to friendships and blossomed to “family.”

I have an annual memory of always being so excited to see all of the beautiful Bontrager children and family, and always experiencing the same level of awe at how much they had grown up each year. (Like I was the only one allowed to grow up in a year.) I remember loving the Bontrager family so much because THEY were camp to me.

OK, I got it now. It may be more powerful for me to share about how influential Camp Deerpark has been to me in my adult years. I never really realized during my time working at camp how many professional qualities and skills and how much work experience I was acquiring. It was only after I began applying to jobs that I realized Camp Deerpark became my point of reference for mostly every position I applied for. You know when you have a job interview and the interviewer asks you to share an example of a specific situation and how you handled it? My response usually, if not always, began with, “I once worked at a camp . . .”

Honestly, there are not enough words, and I, along with countless others, could share all of the stories in the world and I still would not be able to thank God enough for blessing my life with Camp Deerpark. If I had to conclude with anything or sum up in one word what camp is to me, it would simply be HOME. Camp is and will forever be a place where I feel restored, recharged and rejuvenated. It is a place God used to mold me, to empower me and to let loose all of my creative and leadership gifts without being judged or fearful of not being enough. No matter how many countries or continents I will be blessed and called to travel to, Camp Deerpark will always be my safe place and my compass home. “Home is where love resides, memories are created, friends and family belong, and laughter never ends. Home is not a place, it’s a feeling.”

—Written by Veronica Dingwall, camper, counselor, summer camp director 2009, board member 2016-2018, attends King of Glory Tabernacle in the Bronx.

Talibah Aquil, camper 1994–1997, staff 2002–2007, 2011, 2014, 2018.

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• 50 Years of Camp Deerpark Buildings
• 50 Years of Camp Deerpark Directors
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• A Conscious Decision
• A Place on the Hill