It’s always unfortunate when children have to pay for mistakes their parents committed. This was one of those situations: Two campers sat on the porch. Their bags were packed and heads hung low. They were being sent home early. No, not because of a fight. Not because they were sick or ill-behaved. Unfortunately their mom…

From when camp was purchased until the present time, many people have dreamed of new camping facilities. The vision included new cabins and a separate dining hall for children’s camps and converting existing buildings, such as Spruce Lodge, into an area solely for congregational retreats and family vacations. When the Brandt Road property was purchased,…

Jim Baer was 18 years old and working at Agway, a vegetable seed packaging company in Pennsylvania, when he was briefly laid off. At the urging of his former high school shop teacher, Wes Newswanger, Jim went to Camp Deerpark for three weeks in June of 1977 to help build the new pool. “After my…

We joined the Camp Deerpark staff as co-assistant directors in late April 1975. Perhaps the most memorable staff times were living with Lowell Jantzi, Isaac Grable, Frank Freeman and Maynard Shirk. Those were years of growth for camp, with 10-day summer camps, often with up to 80 campers, punctuated by weekend church retreats. We remember…

Walter and Jacqueline Mehr showed gracious and generous hospitality to Orv and me. I came to Camp Deerpark in 1990, and Orv came in 1993. It was wonderful to have welcoming neighbors when moving to a new home. And they introduced us to their friends as they were happy to know us. One friend became…

“My first impression of camp was that it seemed huge and like a lot of work,” said Doris Stoltzfus, who was the head cook for the first two years of camp. “Just to look at it seemed a bit overwhelming.” “We cleaned and cleaned to get the facilities ready to open for the first event…

I am a nature-lover. Better yet, a wildlife enthusiast. One summer, outside of my window in the room I stayed in at Camp Deerpark, I watched a bird begin to build her nest, twig by twig. Then a few days later, I watched her lay her eggs in that very same nest. Later I witnessed…

Immanuel Community Church has enjoyed its annual retreat on Labor Day weekend through all its phases of existence (Redeemer Church, Elim-Redeemer and Immanuel Community Church) for 25 years. For a few years it was a two-night, two-day retreat till we realized that we had no labor to go to on Monday. Camp was available and…

Camp Deerpark sits on 277 acres in the Catskill mountains in Westbrookville, New York. The farm that would eventually become the site of Camp Deerpark was settled in the early 1800s. Around 1935 the owners began taking in guests, mostly city folks wanting to experience country life. Such “farm resorts” were common in the area,…

As Anabaptists, we take seriously Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. One of our stated core values at Camp Deerpark is to express the love of Jesus by having integrity in all dealings with our vendors, our neighbors on Brandt…