From the Director’s Desk- The Golden Hours of Summer Camp 

The Camp Ondessonk Board of Directors meets every other month. Most of our meetings are at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Fairview Heights. Our July meeting is always at Camp. This year, many of our current directors planned their volunteer week to coincide with the meeting. Others drove in for the day, while a handful of remaining board members attended on video. Dennis Dusek, a director since 2021, stayed in a nearby cabin the night before the meeting. 

A retired orthopedic surgeon, Dennis was an Ondessonk camper, then he was a counselor in the late 1960s. He was typically assigned to the Nature crew. He volunteered in the 1990s and visited Ondessonk on numerous weekends over the years, including many with his son’s parish Boy Scout troop, but he hadn’t experienced Summer Camp in a long time. I invited him and several others to join me on a visit to overnight campouts. Our first stop was Durbin’s Barn, where boys from the unit of Daniel were enjoying the cool air and relaxing light of the day’s transition from sunlight to darkness. Unit Leader Josh Daly and several boys walked over to say hello as we pulled in. Jennifer (Gerst) Crow, one of the volunteers in our group, hid from her son. She didn’t want his campout to be adulterated by her presence. The boys quickly returned to their touch football game while several small groups of campers who weren’t interested in the game milled about in conversation – some spirited, some stoic. Everyone appeared to be genuinely content, with not even one electronic device in sight. A time-traveler would have no way of knowing it is the summer of 2026. 

After saying goodbye, we quietly rode to nearby Kane Lake on a 25-year-old six-seat Club Car that was donated to Camp by Mike Jansen, one of Dennis’ friends from their Camp counseling days. We stopped for a moment to reminisce about Kane Lake, the ridgetop impoundment named in honor of Dr. J.J. Kane, a former St. Clair County, Ill., Coroner who was heavily involved in the progress of Camp Ondessonk’s earliest years. Everyone in the group is too old to have fond summertime memories of Kane Lake. The entire area was once covered with tall grass that was heavy with the weight of waiting ticks. Over 20 years ago, former Camp Ranger Mike Jennings successfully led an effort to transform the southwest side of Kane Lake into its current park-like condition. Not once did I choose it for an overnight campout when I was an Ondessonk unit leader. It is now one of the most coveted Wednesday night destinations at Camp Ondessonk. We found out why as we pulled up close to the picnic shelter.   

Like at Durbin’s Barn, several campers converged on the golf cart as we arrived. Hammocks hung from several ideal trees. Small pods of sleeping bags were laid out on a freshly mowed carpet of grass. Molly Braskich, the unit leader of Lalemant, told us she likes it when her unit gets Kane Lake when numbers are drawn. Several campers asked if we were staying for their talent show. We all sort of shrugged, then watched as the first of several acts stepped onto their makeshift stage, framed by the sunset’s last hurrah. We were all smiles as the girls giggled their way through the evening’s genuinely entertaining lineup of songs, short skits, and demonstrations of bodily contortion. Again, there was a noticeable absence of technological devices. God’s presence, however, was as clear as the starry sky. Nobody had to say so. We just knew. 

I’m writing this on Saturday, August 1, 2026. The last session of Summer Camp ended earlier today. Three hundred and ninety campers are currently on their way home. Many are sleeping soundly in the back of a parent’s car, but some are likely talking about their favorite counselor, their new friend, or how hot it was on Monday and Tuesday, then how cool it became on Wednesday. Some are repeatedly singing a Camp song or cheer that will soon be imprinted in an innocent parent’s brain. In the meantime, each driver listens intently, keeping a window cracked to keep from being overcome by the odor of a week in the Shawnee Forest. Washers and dryers will hum this evening. All will sleep well tonight. 

Many thanks to this summer’s 3,270 campers, their parents, our volunteers and staff, and the many, many Camp Friends who believe in the Campers of Ondessonk. Our kids are alright. 

Please keep Camp Ondessonk and its campers in your life for the rest of your life.  

Sincerely,