Camp Mack celebrates its centennial

By Frank Ramirez

“Camp Mack is 100 years old!” said Gene Hollenberg, executive director of Camp Alexander Mack in Milford, Ind., greeting hundreds who braved hot weather to attend an evening worship service on Sunday, Aug. 10, in the camp’s Quinter-Miller Auditorium. “We are so glad you came to join us for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration!”

Referencing Hebrews 11:8-10, Hollenberg compared Abram and Sarai’s journey of faith into an unknown future to the bold beginnings of Camp Mack 100 years ago. The camping forebears couldn’t possibly have had any idea of what camp would look like a century in the future.

The Camp Mack Centennial Worship Service was the capstone to a day that included games, music, food, and reunions, celebrating both the camp’s rich history and future. Some of the camp’s history was told in a 2005 video interview with the late Bill Eberly, and some through a skit, “The Cornfield that Grows People,” based on the children’s book written a quarter century ago by the late Phyllis Leininger and presented by Columbia City Church of the Brethren.

The memories of Galen Jay, facility manager who will retire in September and who has served the camp in some capacity for most of his life, were read aloud by Tim Morphew. “One hundred years,” Morphew read. “I find it hard to put my mind around that.” Jay celebrated the fact that Camp Mack is “still a sanctuary where people connected with God.” He wondered what the original pioneers would have thought if they could see camp now.

A Facebook post from Camp Mack thanks the hundreds of people who attended the 100th anniversary celebration from around the country. Find the camp’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CampMack

Jay first came to Camp Mack when he was five years old, and he remembered playing in the sand. For him, camp was “sanctuary time when God tried to teach my heart.” His aim as a camper, volunteer, and facility manager for over a quarter century was to “keep the sanctuary alive and moving forward. We are so privileged to have this place and the world needs it so much.”

Becky Ball-Miller, who served as executive director from 1994-2001, recalled when her father, Arden Ball, accepted the call to direct the camp in 1975. “For us it was a family calling,” she remembered. She was 15 at the time and began to serve camp in several capacities. “It’s a great day to celebrate not just a place but the impact it’s had on so many lives,” Ball-Miller noted, highlighting “the gift we give of providing experiential learning.” She recalled how, for many young people, it was their first real experience of both Jesus and nonviolence, citing the experience of Andrew Young in particular. “Camp Mack calls us to relationship,” she said. “The act of living in community and sharing life skills, this is what makes this a sacred space.”

Jessica Kreider, who has been on staff at Camp Mack since 2003, recalled her first experiences at camp as a child, “making ice candles and lanyards…getting to try new crafts every afternoon.” For her, it has been important “seeing generations grow up in camp and returning to camp.” Changing demographics has led to Camp Mack “reaching out to a new community.” Noting that “camping is an intentional community,” she celebrated after-school campers, some of whom “get a break from the chaos of the outside world.” Her favorite words from campers is to hear them talk excitedly about what will happen next year.

Steve Mattison of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith celebrated the strong relationship between camp and the Church of God, a partnership that has continued uninterrupted since 1957. Kimberly Gray, a former director of the Episcopal Youth Camp and chair of the Indiana Camp Board, closed the service by asking the body to breathe together and remember together. Father Nolan McBride, pastor at St. James Episcopal Church, represented another interfaith partnership and led worshipers in a benedictory rendition of the Camp Mack song.

— Frank Ramirez is retired from a career in pastoral ministry in the Church of the Brethren and is a writer and frequent contributor to Church of the Brethren communications.

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