Cassidy Games at Camp Gray in Reedsburg in late July. (Catholic Herald photo/Graham Mueller)
With only one more weekend of camp, Camp Gray in Reedsburg is wrapping up another successful summer of faith and fun.
“Once again, it’s our biggest summer ever, two summers in a row,” said Tim Chaptman, executive director of the diocesan summer camp.
Almost 1,500 campers attended this year’s sessions, which began in June, and that number is up from last year’s total.
This coming weekend, August 15 to 17, Camp Gray finishes another season with Family Camp, an offering for entire families to visit camp and experience the summer fun together.
Updates from last year
Speaking of an initiative that began last year, Chaptman gave an update on the expanded retreat offerings at Camp, which take place during the academic year.
“This past year, we had an expansion for facilitated Catholic school retreats.
“We worked with about 20 of our Catholic schools last year,” he said, which is more than half of all Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison.
“We’re working with a couple more this year, so we’re excited to continue those into year two of that program,” Chaptman continued.
“Then, we offered open retreats for both middle schoolers and high schoolers. They were great,” Chaptman remembered.
“We had [more than] 100 high schoolers last fall come, and the middle school retreats hovered around 50 to 60 [attendees], both in the fall and the spring.
“The spring high school retreat was again around 80, so those were excellent experiences,” Chaptman said.
Part of what made the retreat experiences so good, Chaptman explained, was because “we were able to duplicate a lot of that ‘summer camp feel’ that we have here, that kids love a lot.”
On the retreats, Camp Gray wants to give attendees “a little turbo boost in the faith and just experience that Christian community again,” he continued.
Chaptman looks forward to welcoming anyone returning and new to Camp Gray during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Chaptman shared expected building projects that will soon take place.
Two original Camp Gray cabins, St. William and St. Patrick, will be retired at the end of the summer season.
The cabins were named after the first bishop of the Diocese of Madison, William Patrick O’Connor.
“This will be their last summer, their swan song,” Chaptman said, also noting that “just by looking at them, you can tell they’re a little tired”.
At the end of the summer, St. Patrick and St. William will come down, to be replaced by three new cabins.
“We’re excited to add a little bit of capacity,” Chaptman highlighted, adding that “there’s been 60 years of good memories in these cabins.
“Hopefully, the three cabins that will replace them can do the same thing and get us another 60 years down the road,” he said.
‘Something here for everyone’
For new camp counselors Laura Drake and Phil Swietlik, this summer has been full of joy.
Drake, who is a UW-Madison student and attends Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center nearby, shared that she grew up coming to Camp Gray, camping each summer she was able to: Second grade through senior year of high school.
For her, serving the camp as a counselor is “a cool way to give back because I grew a lot in my faith and felt a lot of love over the years coming here,” she said.
Drake said that it was the witness of her camp counselors that helped her grow so much.
She said that her camp counselors “led by example and they were on fire for the Faith”.
At Camp Gray “you can be a normal person who enjoys doing fun, normal activities and still have a strong faith life, instead of the stereotype that Christians are people who just sit around and pray all the time, don’t really live in the world,” Drake said.
“You get to serve as that witness,” she said.
For Swietlik, this summer was his first time at Camp Gray ever.
Swietlik recently graduated from UW-Madison and in the fall will be working as an intern at Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center in Madison.
Over the summer, “I really wanted to do missionary work,” he said, and explained that counseling at Camp Gray was strongly recommended by a close friend.
Now that he’s there, Swietlik has been encouraged by “the sheer faith” of the high school campers, who he counseled that week.
Each week, Camp Gray offers Confession in the high school program, and a large majority chose to participate in the sacrament that week.
“They don’t have to go, but they’re encouraged,” he said, and the fact that so many do go to Confession has really impressed Swietlik, especially because there’s no parental pressure at camp.
Swietlik’s faith has grown as a counselor.
“I’ve had campers where it’s been a very long time since they went to Confession. I have campers who were Baptized months ago.
“There are ways that you can grow by being more outgoing and encouraging,” Swietlik said about his role as a counselor.
For the campers, “there’s always something here for everyone,” he said.
Middle and high school retreats are open for registration now and cost $35 per attendee.
The next middle school retreat is offered Friday, Oct. 10, to Sunday, Oct. 12. The next high school retreat is offered Friday, Nov. 14, to Sunday, Nov. 16.
Retreats in the spring are also open for registration.
To register, visit campgray.com/weekend-retreats.