Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Fall 2013 Issue | Page 13

Scholarships enable camp experience
at Shrine Mont
For over 50 years, Shrine Mont Camps have been changing lives, shaping
youth and raising up leaders. Through prayer and fellowship, games
and songs, campers gain new perspective, grow in faith – and just have
fun. And for many of the kids who come to the mountain each year, that
wouldn’t happen without help from the Shrine Mont Camps Scholarship
Fund. In 2013, Shrine Mont Camps awarded 80 scholarships.
As the Diocese looks toward the possibility of a capital campaign
for our Shrine Mont Camps, we thought that it was time to take a
closer look at the power of the camp experience – particularly those
made possible by a gift from the scholarship fund. Here, two parents
share their families’ stories.

Photo: Thomas Connor

Campers gather for all-camp worship –
a song-filled celebration – at the Shrine.

Part of the Family

In the summer of 2005, my daughter Sophie, age 10, was headed to St.
George’s Camp for her third summer. My friend, the Rev. Lynne Washington,
called me to ask if there was any room in our car to take a scholarship kid to
camp with us. Every summer, Lynne was on the lookout for disadvantaged kids
from the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond who would benefit from
camp. She had obtained full scholarships from the Diocese for a number of
them, including a boy named LaRoy. Since he was the same age as Sophie, he
would be in her session. I said sure, we would love to give him a ride. We picked
up a shy, lanky 10-year-old with a big smile, and headed for the mountains.

LaRoy loved camp, and when we dropped him off back in Richmond we
said we would keep in touch, but we did not. A year went by. As camp was
approaching again, I began thinking about LaRoy, and called Lynne to see if he
needed another ride. She had bad news: “I’ve lost him,” she said. He had been
moved from the foster home near Peter Paul, and although Lynne had tried to
keep up with him, after the second or third move that year she had lost touch.
It broke