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Email a FriendWe attend a Family camp every year. Just got back home yesterday, actually. It is not Catholic though, it’s Presbyterian. My husband was presbyterian before he converted 4 years ago and he has been going to this camp for all of his life (31 years now!).
It is a very faith filled environment and we enjoy going very much and seeing everyone who has also been going there for years. The only problem is that the camp may not be there for much longer. It is in Saugatuck Michigan, and is owned by the Presbytery of Chicago. It is currently up for sale to pay off some debt that the presbytery has accumulated. We are all praying that an entity will buy it and keep it as a summer camp, but we also have to be realistic about a developer buying it too. Here are the links to camp that I have:
http://prescamps4ever.org/
http://www.prescamps.org/about.shtml
Family Camp
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Family on Tuesday, July 26, 2011 10:00 AM
Over at CatholicMom.com, I recently shared a wonderful article from a mom who told us all about her family’s recent experience at Catholic Familyland’s Holy Family Fest. While my family has never been lucky enough to attend this weeklong camp in Ohio, we did enjoy several years of going to Family Camp with our Catholic Cub Scout group.
I’ll admit to you that my guys are not big campers. I grew up camping, but married a man who considers camping to be anything but relaxing. His sons vastly prefer a hotel stay in an urban environment to time spent “roughing it”.
But we all loved family camp. There was something about being out by a gorgeous lake with tons of families from our Church and Catholic school that was so memorable. At camp, we did things we never experienced in daily life like going to a rifle range or shooting archery targets. We also saw snakes, ate bad camp food, and survived less than comfy sleeping conditions. In the end, we didn’t remember the discomforts, but we’ll always remember the bonding experiences we had with one another and with our friends.
Have you attended a Family Camp? What type of camp would you recommend for young families just getting started with camping? Do you prefer an organized camp, or are you a family that loves camping on your own outside a “camp” situation? Finally, if you have a Catholic camp to share, I’d love to hear about it and if possible, please include links.
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We have been campers for years (actually dh grew up camping) but we do not tent camp. We own a camper ‘cuz I need my own toity!! This summer was the first year we ever attended family camp and thought it was great!! It was only a weekend, but they had perpetual adoration, lots of prayer times and lots of activities for all ages of kids—which was good, because we’ve got all ages! You have to provide your own food, which makes it nice since you know what your kids will eat and it kept the cost down—only $45 for the weekend for the family. There were no showers or electricity (for our camper) but they had several porto potties for the tent campers. We will definitely go back next year. We actually couldn’t find our 14 yo ds for awhile. He and his cousin and friend were in the Adoration chapel!!!! Great place to ‘lose’ your kids. The camp counselors were so great with all the kids too. If you live in Wisconsin, check them out at http://www.cyeexpeditions.org/
When we camp other times during the summer, we prefer our state parks. Wisconsin has beautiful state parks. And the prices are great!
sorry—guess that link was http://www.cyexpeditions.org
This is not a whole family camp since I don’t go but my husband takes my sons to Camp Sancta Maria near Gaylord, Michigan every year. It is a Catholic boys camp that has been around for generations. They have Father-Son weekends and now Mother-Daughter weekends as well as the regular boys-only summer camp. Maybe at some point they will open it to whole families at the same time.
We just attended a family camp on Camp Ondessonk in Ozark, Illinois over the July 4 weekend. Camp Ondessonk is a Catholic youth camp in southern IL run by the diocese of Belleville. We had an awesome time. Slept in bunks in open cabins, ate camp food and had a lot of fun doing activities with our kids. There were tons of staff to help out with whatever we needed and they were great with the kids. They even had babysitting in the afternoons if you wanted to drop off any kids while you went to do something else. We dropped off our 15 mos. old and the 2 1/2 yr. old and took our older kids hiking and the next day we did the same thing and went horseback riding and did archery with the older kids. Everything was included in the price of the camp and children under 5 are free 
I thought it was especially neat they started off the week with mass. Here is their website: http://www.ondessonk.com I highly recommended it!
That camp name caught my eye! Ondessonk was the name given to St. Isaac Jogues (one of the North American Martyrs) by the Huron Indians whom he served as a missionary priest, & eventually as a martyr for the Faith. St. Isaac Jogues is the patron of one of our sons. :o)
Camp Ondessonk!!! I went there two years as a 5th & 6th grader and LOVED it. Haven’t thought about it in recent years, but it was such an awesome place. My first year there, my mom let me bring home a kitten. Sonky, named after camp, lived with me for almost 20 years.
This isn’t a camp…but our family does camp on the grounds of Mount St. Macrina Monastery every year for the Annual Pilgrimage in Honor of Our Lady or Perpetual Help, which has been going on since the mid-1930s:
http://www.sistersofstbasil.org/pilgrimage.jsp
It is a WONDERFUL & PEACEFUL weekend! Our entire family loves to go.
We attended Catholic Familyland last year that was featured by your guest author. It was absolutely wonderful! We had wanted to attend for years, but finally found the time to attend. Unfortunately we were unable to return this year, but are hoping to return next year. It was such an awesome experience experiencing Mass and various devotions together every day. I would hardly call it roughing it as we stayed in an air-conditioned cabin with a microwave and refrigerator, but some campers did stay in tents. The experience was so remarkable because everything that we did revolved around our faith. There was almost 1000 people there and you felt like they were all family.
We are three year veterans of Catholic Familyland, and would love to return as soon as we can, however friends of ours here in Eastern CT have invented a Catholic Camporee, where 30 Catholic families all reserve campgrounds in our local state park on the same weekend in June (usually the first after school ends; what a way to celebrate!).
Our campground is safe, prayerful and full of fun as we pray the rosary and sing folk songs around a communal campfire. Its a wonderful family event we look forward to each year.
We have attended Family Camp at Camp Guggenheim in the Adirondack Mountains in NY for 18 years. For the past 7 years we have been on the staff and now my husband and I are the directors of Family Guggenheim. Guggenheim runs 7 weeks of teen camp in the summer and then two long weekends of a family camping retreat. We have Mass daily, workshops, a variety show, many water activities during afternoon free time, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a bonfire, and Family Rosary. We have been every year since our son was one, he is now 19 and is now a counselor at the teen camp for the summer. It is heaven on earth! Check it out
http://www.dioogdensburg.org/family-life/index.html. And if you are free for second session, come to the beautiful Family Camp Guggenheim Aug. 18-21!
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