By Gavin Gillar
I cannot possibly overstate how important Lutherhill is for me. It’s where I first discovered God outside of the walls of my church, it’s where I grew closer to my siblings and family, it’s where I’ve worked three summers, it’s where I’ve made my closest friends, and it’s where I’ve laughed and cried and sang and loved and everything in between. There is not a single corner of a single building at Lutherhill where I don’t have a billion and one fond memories.
I don’t actually remember a time where Lutherhill wasn’t in my life- I started coming when I was two years old, and now I’m twenty two. To put that into perspective, the first building many people walk into at camp is Carby Chapell; this was still under construction then. I remember a time when there were no “big cabins”, no Broesche Family Center, and certainly no Retreat Center. The nicest place you could stay at was a dilapidated giant cube monstrosity called The Arc, and man was I jealous of the families that got to stay at The Arc.
I grew up going to Family Camp, and as kids when my parents asked if we wanted to go to Disney World or Lutherhill we would always say Lutherhill. We came every summer, and my first overnight experience without my parents was when I was a LYLE. I felt terribly homesick at first, but at the end of it I was embracing my entire LYLE group with tears in my eyes. I was devastated when the first summer I was finally going to work at camp was canceled due to COVID.
As much as I loved being a camper at Lutherhill, I love being staff an order of magnitude more. The first summer I worked I learned that I probably wasn’t a very good counselor (Thank God for my co-counselor that week, Rowdy) but I loved being a camphand. The second summer I worked, I applied to be a lifeguard and briefly mentioned I’d also be interested in doing Media. Having never held a camera in my life before that moment, I realized very quickly how much I loved it and how much of a gift I had for photography. Last summer, I was originally planning on only volunteering a couple weeks, but I kept saying I could work just one more week until eventually I ended up “volunteering” the whole summer.
The theme for Lutherhill this summer is “All My Love,” and that can mean so many different things, and if you come to camp this summer you’ll learn all about it. But I just wanted to dedicate this article to “All My Love” for camp itself. It’s my love for the late nights in a cabin with my cousins and siblings playing card games. It’s my love for my dad screaming camp songs at the top of his lungs. It’s my love for the porches where I confided in my LYLE counselor, for the rickety bench where I confessed my feelings to a crush, for the Gagaball pit where I’ve definitely won countless games, for the cameras I’ve taken hundreds of thousands of photos on, for the swing where my heart broke because a queer camper told me she had never felt comfortable in a religious setting before this.
And for “All My Love” I have for camp, so do a thousand other people. Every day of every summer is filled with so much love and so much life happening so quickly, memories that will last a lifetime.
I cannot recommend strongly enough – if you have ever been interested in working at camp, or you know somebody who would be good for it, or even somebody who doesn’t have a lot going on this summer- come work at camp. Be a part of the story, of the faith and fellowship, form some lifetime memories, and be a part of our theme of “All My Love” at Lutherhill this summer.