Camping Program Committee
The Camping Program Committee works with the Camp Program Manager to organize and operate the Yearly Meeting's entire camping program. This includes the three residential camps, Catoctin, Opequon, and Shiloh, as well as the Teen Adventure Program.
The BYM Camps website is available here.
The camping program has begun a process of discernment regarding the future growth and development opportunities for the program. As a part of that process, a request was shared with the Yearly Meeting asking for input on the process. Click here to download the document that was shared.
Click to see the complete description of the Committee as it appears in the current Manual of Procedure.
Each fall, the Camping Program and Camp Property Management Committees publish the annual camp newsletter, The Firecircle. Electronic copies of recent editions are available online here.
The Camping Program Committee has adopted an Anti-Racism Statement.
Listed below are the current members of the Committee(updated list coming soon)
Anna Kathryn Best, & Al Best, Co-Clerks Richmond Friends Meeting | |
Linda Garretson Sandy Spring Friends Meeting | Joseph "Jerry" Coates Eastland Friends Meeting |
Kary Haun Hopewell Center Friends Meeting | James "Jamie" DeMarco Homewood Friends Meeting |
Jennifer Collins-Folley Annapolis Friends Meeting | Hanna Brown Homewood Friends Meeting |
Olivia Chalkley BYM Camps | Donald "Don" Crawford Monteverde Friends Meeting |
Karen Daniel Frederick Friends Meeting | Nicole "Nikki" Richards Young Adult Friends |
Sarah Acuff BYM Camps | Cory Joseph Goose Creek Friends Meeting |
Elizabeth "Betsy" Boynton Alexandria Friends Meeting | Carley Richards Young Adult Friends |
Amanda Wessel BYM Camps | Brian Massey Camping Program Manager |
David Hunter Camp Property Manager | Jesse Austell Teen Adventure Camp |
Hope Swank Director, Shiloh Quaker Camp | Vacant Director, Opequon Quaker Camp |
Rai Carter STRIDE Coordinator | Rosalie Eck Director, Teen Adventure Camp |
Dyresha Harris Director, Catoctin Quaker Camp | Kim Manrique BYM Camps |
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BYM Camps Anti-racism Statement
BYM Camps strongly affirms the declaration by Baltimore Yearly Meeting as an Anti-Racist Faith Community. We support the Black Lives Matter Movement protests and uprisings against police brutality and all systemic racism against Black people. We know that the system of racist structures and beliefs making the BLM movement necessarily goes far beyond policing. It is up to all of us to rout out those influences wherever they reside in ourselves and the organizations in which we participate.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting Camps are made up of campers and staff of many backgrounds, socio-economic levels, gender identitiesy, sexual orientations, faiths, and racial and ethnic identitiesy. We strive to create an inclusive community that holds all members in the Llight as we work, play and enjoy time in nature together. We believe camp provides a unique opportunity for young people who might not otherwise meet to share a unique experience of joy, wonder, vulnerability, and empowerment together as they connect with each other. We acknowledge that BYM Camps have historically been white institutions and that outdoor education and recreation spaces have a history of inequality and underrepresentation.
We endeavor to become a more inclusive and equitable organization in which we amplify the voices of people of color among us and help to actively confront racial bias within ourselves and our community. Some of the things we have done to work towards these goals include continuing education, responding to feedback from our camp families and seeking to include more campers of color in our programs. For more than 10 years we have partnered with STRIDE to sponsor campers of color and challenged socio-economic status. In this same time period, Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity training has been part of pre-camp activities for counselors and staff in order to help work toward these goals. We acknowledge that these steps are only a beginning and that there is more that BYM camps can do to become an anti-racist organization.
BYM Camps strongly affirms the declaration by Baltimore Yearly Meeting as an Anti-Racist Faith Community. We support the Black Lives Matter Movement and protests and uprisings against police brutality and all systemic racism against Black people. We know that the system of racist structures and beliefs that makinges the BLM movement necessary, goes far beyond policing. It is up to all of us to rout out those influences wherever they reside in ourselves and the organizations in which we participate.
We recognize that we are an organization that is predominantly white, and because of thattherefore we need to work harder to reach our goal of being inclusive, open, accepting, and inviting to campers, staff, and volunteers of all backgrounds. We wish to disrupt and challenge the notion that it is acceptable for outdoor space and outdoor recreation to be a space aof white privilege. We also recognize that our camps each reside within specific geographical communities and that we can take action within those towns and districts to work towards true equity and justice in those broader environments in which BYM Camps are located. We are dedicating time to review our practices and to improve our programming, and we welcome dialog and feedback as we continue to grow.
