Since 1922, Camp Arcadia has been a place of gathering and fellowship, filled with countless memories and moments. Those stories can be heard in the echo of waves lapping on the sandy shores, chatter from the patio, laughter in the Trading Post, or the gentle creak of a swing that accompanies silent reflection. But those stories should have the opportunity to be heard by the entire Camp Arcadia community, so this summer, we are inviting YOU to share your special Arcadia moments, podcast-style, at the RKD Story Booth! If you are interested in sharing a short memory, moment, or realization made at Camp, visit us this summer and be sure to check out the booth!
Camp Arcadia’s mission is renewal of the mind, body and spirit. For families with young children, Camp is an oasis of rest and rejuvenation because parents can be assured that their family will not only be taken care of, but also inspired and entertained. Listen and read below to hear what some campers have to say about what Camp has done for their families!
STEPHANIE BANTE:
“I am a mother of three boys, I’m a teacher and my husband works for the government. So pretty much every moment of our lives, there’s something we have to be doing. If I’m sitting down at home, I’m neglecting something I’m supposed to be doing. So the first couple of days at Camp, it’s almost like I have to completely do a paradigm shift and switch my line of thinking. If I’m sitting, that’s not me being lazy, that’s me being filled. It’s not me being bored when I’m sitting and looking at the beautiful lake and hearing the waves and feeling the breeze, that’s me being at peace. This is the only place in maybe my entire world where I get to have that acceptance of peace as opposed to that nagging feeling of ‘I should be doing this and this.’ Here, I can’t do the laundry and I can’t do the dishes and I can’t organize my closet. All I can do when I have nothing else to do is sit. There’s a shift in the first couple days of ‘wait no, this isn’t bored, this isn’t lazy, this is being still.’ That’s what God tells us to do and I get to do so here.”
VALERIE MATHIAS:
Listen to Valerie here: [su_audio url=”https://camp-arcadia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Valierie-Mathias-EDIT.mp3″]
“I’ve been bringing my family here for ten years. The first year we came,
I had a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a three-month-old, so my hands were very full. But I loved it because it fundamentally answered the question every day ‘What are we going to eat and what are we going to do?’ And when you’re a new mom, a young mom, that’s the question that consumes you every single day – what are we going to do today and what am I supposed to be feeding these people every day? So I love Arcadia for that reason and we’ve been coming back every year. Every year is a new adventure because the kids get that much older and now we’re a family of six. It’s been a joy and honor to be a part of Arcadia history and to watch Arcadia celebrate 100 years has been really awesome.”
MATT NELSEN:
“In 2002, my wife and I had our second daughter. We were supposed to come to Camp during a week in July and somehow she was born on July 17. So we weren’t able to go the week we normally would go, but we still wanted to come to Arcadia. We ended up going Labor Day weekend and it was just an amazing, relaxing time, even though we had our daughter with us and she was only about 6 weeks old. It’s a lot of work with young kids and we were only here for two or three days but I just remember thinking how relaxing and refreshing that time was. We were glad we did it.”
JASON NAYLOR:
“I’d never been to camp before, but my wife had come as a child with her family and always spoke so highly of it, the great times she had. So when we finally came, I had no idea what to expect. When we rolled up, we stayed in a cottage, but I dropped my kids off at the turnaround and expected them to jump out and then we’d all go check in. Well, they all jumped out and no one came back because they all immediately ran to the playground and minute one they were enjoying themselves, having such a great time that I proceeded to unpack our car by myself. I’ll tell you what, I didn’t regret it at all, even though I was unloading pretty much six peoples’ belongings by myself . . . It’s timeless here. The rest of the world pauses for the week that you’re here and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything else in the world.”
