Outdoor Ministries Association presents Staff Member/Camp Director of the Year Award and a rare Four Horsemen Award

By Frank Ramirez

Erica Leeds, director of Camp Carmel in North Carolina, received the Staff Member/Camp Director of the Year Award from the Outdoor Ministries Association (OMA) at an annual breakfast event Friday morning at Annual Conference.

Ben Bear, who presented the award and who presided over the event, commended her for “the amount of heart and passion that Erica puts into her camp ministry.” He added that, ironically, she was the one who arranged with the artisan for the manufacture of the plaques, without knowing she was getting one of the awards.

Bear noted that there had been no nominations for the Volunteer of the Year award. Instead, OMA would be presenting a special “Four Horsemen” award to Doug and Sally Ruby. The award is named after four Brethren of “the old guard” who decades earlier had traveled from church to church promoting camp ministries when those ministries were in their infancies.

Doug and Sally Ruby’s is a love story that began when both were on staff at Camp Swatara in their teens, he as a naturalist, she as a camper promoted to cook staff when one of the cooks had to suddenly become a counselor. They continued to meet at camp for several years, eventually tying the knot and continuing to serve not only Camp Swatara but several other camps across the denomination.

Both Doug and Sally Ruby knew in advance they’d be speaking at the breakfast, but neither knew they’d be getting this rarely-given award. His voice cracking with emotion as he rose to speak, Doug Ruby said, “We’re doing more than surviving. We’re thriving. We have an opportunity at camp to provide a unique quality of care. Boy, this is really different than church. You develop faith in a different way in a setting that’s different from school or church.

“Camp now serves city kids for whom this is a different way of life,” he added. “We support that newness, the rich experience.” He remembers one girl saying, “This is the first time I’ve ever been surrounded by trees.”

Sally Ruby smiled as she recalled how she started as a camper at nine years of age. She gives great credit to the writers of camping curriculum. Her favorite was a curriculum based on the Fruits of the Spirit. “The Fruits of the Spirit are so amazing. If you think how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are a part of everything you do, teaching that to kids at camp becomes such a joy….

“Camp is our opportunity to build a child’s faith. We hope that later they are still feeling what they felt at camp.”

— Frank Ramirez is a retired pastor and a volunteer on the Annual Conference Press Team.