Staff Alumni Profile - Hayden Blalock

2024 Summer staff - (Isabel, Sawyer, Hayden and Bailey)

The first in our Staff Alumni Profile Series! We hear from Hayden Blalock - Camper, LIT/JC, and Summer Staffer - All-Around Camp Fan!

I began coming to Camp Fellowship when I was 5, starting in 2010. I automatically fell in love with camp. With all of the fun activities and counselors that still inspire the way I am as a leader. I  got the opportunity to be a kid and make connections, relate, and embrace the experience while away from home. As a camper, I went through all the stages of developing myself as a leader through our LIT and Junior Counselor programs. These programs shaped me in many ways outside of learning to be a summer camp counselor. I gained confidence in myself to make the right choices, learned to understand how taking accountability isn’t bad, learned how to work well with others even through conflict and to give yourself grace when you fail because everyone does. 

Hayden - Summer of 2014

My biggest lesson while being a camper was finally realizing that camp was something more significant for me. I found my purpose and the direction in which I wanted to go in my life.
I started on staff in the summer of 2021; being on staff for multiple years has made me see the ups and downs of being a director and solidified my decision of wanting to be one myself. I am going into my Junior year at Presbyterian College as a Psychology major with a minor in Art.

My goal is to be a camp director and make an impact like the one made on me. I full heartedly believe that without Camp Fellowship, I would be another statistic of what happens when a child doesn’t have connections of support and unconditional love. I have been pushed to better myself for myself but also the children and families that I hope to serve  in the same way very soon.

To Everything....

By Kevin Cartee, Executive Director

“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NRSVUE) 

It’s almost that time again - time for another “migratory season” of summer staff to move from their colleges and universities into the Retreat House, their new humble-abode that will be a place of rest and laughter, prayer and study, tears and growth for the summer season at Camp Fellowship. With footlockers and plastic tubs packed with clothing and other camp counselor essentials tossed in from recently vacated dorm rooms, Summer Staff will be greeted by camp leadership and ushered into their summer quarters. 

Once inside, they’ll each find their name emblazoned on door tags and name tags leading them to their assigned bunk.  Laying neatly folded on the bed -  the illustrious “staff polo,” required weekly wear distinguishing them as summer staff and camp and retreat ministry leaders!  And with all the authority that can be contained in a three-ring notebook, each person will find their copy of the summer staff manual - second only to the Bible in importance as they embark on this journey as a part of the summer staff team!  From there, extra-ordinary college-aged students will be shaped and molded into an elite team of recreation experts, camping care-givers, and faith-formation guides ready to share their knowledge and experience of God’s love in ways that encourage positive, life-transforming experiences for every summer camper.

Some version of this annual migratory-scene has occurred at Camp Fellowship for 75 seasons before, making this 76th occasion at Camp Fellowship familiar, but nonetheless exciting and pivotal for the arrival of campers that will follow in only a few weeks.  “Camp is for the Campers,” as we say.  But summer staff are essential for this season of program and ministry.  And while the gathering of staff is the moment of reflection and attention here, the purpose of camp is clear – to provide exceptional experiences in the camp setting for children and youth that will help them grow in their love of God, gain life-giving experiences of community, and learn knowledge and skills that will strengthen their resiliency for living in a world full of challenges and opportunities for sharing good news and demonstrating better ways of caring for all of God’s people and God’s creation.

Ginny Cartee on the Swimming Dock - Summer of 1980
(I’m walking behind her - ready to Jump In!)

I’ve had the privilege of not only witnessing but being intricately involved in this scene at Camp Fellowship for 17+ seasons as camp leadership and several in addition to that as summer staff in high school and college.  Even before that, I experienced the powerful outcomes of the seasonal-arrival of summer staff as a camper at Fellowship.  

In fact, some of my earliest memories of Camp Fellowship are as a child of a summer staffer.  My mom worked at Fellowship for several years during and after college.  As a school teacher married to a store manager, she managed a few more summers even after I was born.   One of those summers in my very early formative years, I remember standing just outside of the Retreat House on the pathway leading up to what was at the time the open-air pavilion we call Fraser today.  I remember hearing a lyrical melody written by Pete Seger and sung by the Byrds floating on the warm summer breeze from an open window of the retreat house

To everything [turn, turn, turn]
There is a season [turn, turn, turn]

And a time to every purpose under Heaven 

In that moment, I experienced an incredible sense of the importance of the people, place and season in which I was standing.  And though the song came from the Byrds, the lyrics, borrowed almost verbatim from Scripture, connected my story (even this story) back to the story of God’s people throughout the generations – and the story for all the generations to come. 

The faces and names may change.  There may be new holy-lyrics that echo across the lawn.  But from year to year, the holy-ness of the scene does not change.  We eagerly greet this season at camp as a season of hope, a season of joy, a season of love, and a season of peace.  And in all our preparation for this season, we recognize that “Camp is for Camper,” but it’s also for all of us – because the future of our churches, communities and our world all need more hope, more joy, more love, and more peace.

Will you join me in ushering in this summer season at Camp Fellowship by making a gift of $50 or more?  Your contribution helps us share the story of faith through camp and retreat ministry and insures that summer staff experiences can continue to have the impact on the lives of young adults and the campers they encounter.  Every donation is appreciated and received with a promise to maximize your gift’s impact through our camp and retreat ministry.