CYO camp counselor alumni keep coming back
Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published July 14, 2006
Port Sanilac The Catholic summer camp experience doesn't stop when you hit 18.
That's when you can take the next step and become a camp counselor and that's when it really gets interesting, say several former camp counselors of the Catholic Youth Organizations summer camps.
"It's a part of your life, all of your life," said Greg Ruvolo, who was a camp counselor more than a decade ago and now serves on the CYO camps board of directors. "It may sound corny because that's the CYO motto but it really is."
Campers listen as Fr. Brian Cokonougher gives the homily at a Mass at the CYO camps near Port Sanilac. | Each year, CYO camping staff alumni volunteer their time throughout the summer whether it's a day, a couple weekends or a full week to help current campers and staff have a fun and fruitful camping experience. This year on July 6, the camp alumni gathered with staffs from both the CYO boys' and girls' camps to put on a traditional Council Fire, a secretive ceremony that introduces campers to Native American customs.
"We're all here for one purpose," says Ruvolo, "and that's to put on a good camping experience for everyone who is here."
Involved in the day were several alumni, whether they served at camp a dozen years ago or only last year. The alumni attest, there's something special about the CYO camps that impels them to stay involved.
Fr. Brian Cokonougher, a camp counselor before he became a priest in 1999, serves as a spiritual director for the camps. The pastor of St. Joseph, St. Stephen and Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, all in Port Huron, celebrated an evening Mass outdoors July 6 among the birch trees at the boy's camp.
Campers from both CYO boys' and girls' camps stand atattention as the American flag is lowered before sunset on July 6. |
"One of the reasons we're together for the Council Fire is to say thanks," Fr. Cokonougher said during his homily, "thanks for what God has done, and thanks for everything God will do in our lives."
For alumni, there was plenty to be thankful for. Some had had their lives, their relationships with Christ and even their careers impacted by being a counselor at CYO camps.
"This place is what got me back to my religion," said former counselor Terry Swisz, who worked at the camp for six years and as recently as last summer. "When I started working here in camp, I had gotten rid of the idea of God. Even when I first got here, I just went through the motions. I wasn't getting it at first.
"Finally it started dawning on me just how much God is connected to this place."
Eventually, Swisz added, his camp counseling experience led him to seek a career as a teacher a career for which the Brownstown resident is now training.
Greg Ruvolo, dressed as an American Indian, walks among CYO campers in a ceremony preceding the traditional Council Fire on July 6. | Jessica Nowak of Auburn Hills is another CYO alumna who has a penchant for working with kids. A former counselor then administrative staff member at the CYO girls camp, she's a residential care provider for children in a psychiatric hospital.
Her camp experience fit in perfectly with her vocation, she says.
"It's helped me to be more independent," Nowak says. "It helped me to not be afraid to share my faith with people. It's made me everything I am I don't know how to explain it."
Nowak is spending two days a week this summer to help out at the camp and help give the campers and herself a positive experience.
Franciscan Bro. Dennis Moses plays chess with camper Jeremy Putze, 15, during free time at the CYO boys' camp. | "Something just grabs ahold of your heart," she says, "and keeps you coming back."
Casey "Scooter" Coburn, recalled his experience as a camp counselor helping him to mature as a young adult. He says that, once campers start looking up to you, it helps you realize that you're destined to become a responsible adult and role model in life.
"They're coming to you for advice, and that puts you in a spot where you feel now you're an adult, now you're matured," Coburn says. "You'll become more mature working here with kids than you will being a CEO at DaimlerChrysler as far as I'm concerned. Those guys can tell you how to sign a paper, but how many of them can tell you how to take 16 kids and make them do exactly what you want them to do?"
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