|
Back to Table of Contents
Companion 2000: ‘Cool guys’ and kids
It doesn’t take long to see that the Companion 2000 summer camp is not your
ordinary camp. As one enters A-200, the camp’s main gathering room in Conception
Seminary College’s St. Maur Hall, a handwritten sign reads: “Camp Devotion – quiet
please.”
Joaquin Garcia of Drexel,
Mo.,
Todd Mattson (right, looking into
holds a songbook for his
fellow
camera) and Jeremy Sand, both of
campers during
Mass.
Maryville, Mo., construct a tower
out of spaghetti and gumdrops.
The fourth annual camp for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade boys, which was
held June 16-17 on Conception’s campus, offered three days packed with fishing,
soccer and swimming. The boys braved a homemade waterslide, competed in the “Wacky
Olympics,” watched a firework display, competed in a scavenger hunt and learned hoops
from Northwest Missouri State University assistant men’s basketball coach and CSC
Wellness Program director Skip Shear.
A camper tries out the
homemade Another camper shows
off his big
waterslide.
catch of the day.
But at the end of each day, 116 worn out kids quietly made their way to A-200 – for
prayer.
“This camp is mainly about fun, but since it is on the campus of a monastery and
seminary we plug them into the prayer lives of monks and seminarians,” said Camp
Director Keith Jiron, who also happens to be director of admissions and recruitment
for the seminary. “It’s so much fun that we can throw in a few religious themes and
they really become engaged in it.”
Jiron, 31, who slips easily into the lingo of teenagers, says it doesn’t hurt that
the seminarians who lead the camp are “cool guys.”
“These kids start to think maybe they can be just like them,” he says.
Amid all the fun and games, campers are afforded the opportunity to spend some time
talking one-on-one with a seminarian, or shadowing a monk, experiencing life in a
monastery first-hand.
Stephen Bergman, 13, a returning camper from St. Benedict, Kan., said he loved the
dribbling and free-throw competitions, but admitted he also enjoyed seeing the vestments
priests wear for Mass and touring the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
Bergman’s hometown friend Jeff Hauge praised the fishing in the abbey’s Lake Placid,
and acknowledged that St. Michael Hall has a “pretty nice basketball court,” but he also
got a kick out of the monks and seminarians he met.
“This lets you meet these guys and learn that monks and priests are cool guys who have
fun and stuff,” Hauge said. “Being a priest ain’t just about praying all the time.”
Most campers say Companion 2000 is friendlier and less intimidating than most camps
they’ve attended.
“It’s so easy to meet people here,” said Ben Bonanno, 16, of Des Moines, who after his
one year as a camper returned the past two years as a staff member. “There aren’t any
kids who try to drag you down or cause trouble. It’s good to find a place where they
stress good morals and help you expand your faith.”
Bonanno said it’s often difficult to nurture his faith amid the stress and peer pressure
of high school. “But here you have a nice church that is open 24 hours a day. You can go
in and just sit there, and you meet other people who feel the same way.”
While he doesn’t intend to become a priest, Bonanno said the camp reminds him to
“keep my ears open and my eyes peeled to whatever calling I receive.”
While most junior-high age boys aren’t making serious decisions about their future,
Conception Seminary College President-Rector Father Benedict Neenan says the seeds
are being planted.
“We are getting young people on to campus to experience what monastery and seminary
life are like at a time when they are first making decisions about their futures,” he
said. “So, hopefully, when they do consider the priesthood, they won’t think of the
seminary as an obstacle or an unpleasant necessity, but as a positive place.”
But for young Stephen Bergman – sitting on a bench under a row of pine trees near the
homemade water slide – thoughts of his future take a back seat to figuring out a way
to shed the pesky adult interviewing him and return to his friends. He admits with a
shrug, yes, he’s considered being a priest “a couple of times.”
“But I’m more interested in basketball.”
For more information on vocations, contact:
Fr. Albert Bruecken
Vocation Director
Conception Abbey
660-944-2857 phone
660-944-2800 fax
monks@conception.edu
Director of Admissions & Recruitment
Conception Seminary College
660-944-2886 phone
660-944-2829 fax
vocations@conception.edu
Back to Table of Contents
|
