Ondessonk Staff Visit Catholic Schools and PSR Programs
For the next two months program staff, Amanda Bailey, Jessie Dickerson, Ryan Kiefer, and Mary Regan along with some of the full-time faculty, Program Coordinator, Nolan Hurst and Program Director, Greg Santen, hit the road to visit Catholic schools and PSR programs. Staff will talk with students about the great summer opportunities we offer at Camp Ondessonk. The program staff visit students (ages 8-15) and explain all of the different summer camp programs that we provide; from mini-camp to traditional camp to our teen programs including teen leadership camp, adventure camps, counselor in training program, and scholarship programs.
This year we will visit over 175 Catholic schools and PSR programs and speak to nearly 9,000 students. Principals are very welcoming and willing to take time out of the busy school calendar for us to visit and we are so thankful for that because many of our campers find out about Camp Ondessonk for the first time through these school visits.
The staff will travel to large cities with schools that have over 400 students and small towns with schools that have as little as 15 students in a classroom. A few of our staff will even have the pleasure of returning to their grade school alma mater and were able to stand in their old gym, the place where they found out about Camp for the first time too, and tell students about Camp Ondessonk. The best part of our summer camp campaign is visiting the schools that have lots of Camp Ondessonk spirit. These are the schools with students that sport their favorite Camp O shirt and wear their lodge sash the day of our visit; they yell “Heepwah” when you walk in the school and raise their hand at the end of the talk to say that Camp Ondessonk is their favorite place on earth.
If you are interested in having Camp Ondessonk staff speak to your school or Parish’s PSR program about Camp Ondessonk, please contact our Program Coordinator, Nolan Hurst, at [email protected] or 618.695.2489 ext. 116.