staff Archives - Bethany Birches Camp

Posts Tagged ‘staff’

Director’s Update and Announcements

Greetings friends! This year’s newsletter includes voices from parents, volunteers and staff. Our goal in sharing from their experiences is to help you connect with what happens at camp.

The Soil and Seed Project

One of those voices is past staffer Greg “Elvis” Yoder who brought the Soil and the Seed Project to my attention. Their work represents one of the ways we like to help campers understand spiritual concepts and practices. Elvis worked at camp, contributed much to our music, and started what some know as “rock the pond.” We demoed the Soil and seed Project at camp this summer and highly recommend it. In their words: The Soil and the Seed Project nurtures faith through music, art, and Little Liturgies for daily and weekly use in the home. These resources help establish new rhythms of faith as together we turn towards Jesus, believing and celebrating the Good News of God’s Love for the whole world. The resources are free and you can find them at: https://www. thesoilandtheseedproject.org. If you have kiddos at home, give it a try as a post dinner or pre bedtime practice.

School Outings

In other news, we have recently partnered with a few local school groups. It started when a friend and teacher at Woodstock Middle School, Erin Hanrahan, suggested that her class really needed fresh air, a chance to connect more deeply, and to have fun. Her and program director Anna “Meatball” Martin planned two days filled with activities, free time, team building, and of course, food! It felt a lot like a camp program. We are hopeful that the students benefited and went back to school rejuvenated and with renewed hope in their lives. Some other nearby schools have partnered to provide a similar experience for their students. If you are within a school system and interested in this, let us know and we can share some of the options.

Camp Staffing

No doubt you have seen some of your favorite organizations and companies looking to fill open staff roles. Bethany Birches is no different. While we are in conversation with a few past staff and hopeful those folks can meet the needs, current gaps include food service, facilities and maintenance, rental coordination, and bookkeeping. If you know someone who might be a good fit to work within one or multiple of these roles please let me know: brandon@ bethanybirches.org or call the office at 802-672-5220. On the topic of staffing, join us in praying for and recruiting the winter 2023 seasonal staff and volunteer team. This winter we have planned to host 8 weekend programs including one for Camp Agape and one day for families. Winter camp gives us a chance to fulfill our goal for every young person within a 60 mile radius to have a chance to experience God in community and nature. The staff team utilizes kitchen, facilities, program, and counseling staff. We can use you even if you have only one weekend to join us! And for you teens, there will be an internship program happening each Saturday. DM the Bethany Birches Instagram for more information. There is so much more to share, but, the page is getting shorter. You’ll just have to find your way out here to Bethany Birches to be part of the fun. Come visit, or sign yourself up as a volunteer. Indicate interest by going to our website and hovering over “give” then select “volunteer.” Grace and peace to you,

~ Brandon “Tuna” Bergey, Executive Director

Nevin J Bender, the first camp director at Bethany Birches passes

Marcia Bender, Nevin’s daughter, who still lives near the camp, sent a message to Bethany Mennonite Church saying that Nevin had passed away. As part of her email she wrote “He visited with mom in the afternoon, ate dinner, then died at the table – very peaceful and quiet. I got to spend three lovely days with him earlier this month. To have been able to talk with him and sing with him and do puzzles with him was such a privilege, and it makes me smile and remember his loving, peaceful and steady presence.”

As the first director here at BBC, Nevin left his mark in many ways. The core of the camp program still looks similar to what he created including community and fun and rustic camp living. We will highlight some of the stories about him from Stories From The First 50 Years: Volume 1 in a coming blog post.

Obituary for Nevin James Bender

Nevin James Bender, 81, died on July 22, 2019 at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. Nevin was born on July 13, 1938, the son of Nevin V. and Esther Lauver Bender.

Nevin grew up on a small dairy farm in Greenwood DE. At a very early age he was eager to learn the skills needed on the farm and spent many long days planting and harvesting baby lima beans. Nevin attended Greenwood Mennonite School and graduated from Greenwood High School in 1956. He was the director of the Greenwood Mennonite Youth Chorus and was an active youth leader and congregational music leader at Greenwood Mennonite Church.

On June 24, 1961 Nevin married Lourene Godshall. They celebrated 58 years together this year.

Nevin graduated from Eastern Mennonite College in 1961 and went on to earn a Master of Divinity at Hartford Seminary. He became pastor at Bethany Mennonite Church in Vermont, and a few years later he established Bethany Birches Camp where he was also the camp director for 15 years. The camp continues to this day.

Nevin’s pastoral career ended in 1979 when he suffered a brain aneurysm. He and his family moved to Harrisonburg, VA in 1983 where he began working in the maintenance department of Eastern Mennonite College. This second career lasted for the next 25 years; he was known as a positive, reliable, and energetic member of the grounds crew. Nevin and Lourene were active participants at Broad Street Mennonite Church, where Nevin was on the music team, playing guitar and leading music.

Following Nevin’s retirement from EMC, he spent 10 years at Friendship Industries, working in contract packaging, and did volunteer work at Gift and Thrift.

From lima beans to pastoring to groundskeeping to volunteer work, Nevin demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to his evolving capacities, reinventing himself repeatedly to take advantage of his skills and talents.

Nevin was preceded in death by siblings Lura Benner, Titus Bender, and Mildred Bender. He is survived by his wife Lourene Godshall Bender; siblings Miriam Jantzi, Paul Bender, Hilda Swartz, Emma Myers, and Don Bender; children Nevin Bender, Conrad Bender, Marcia Bender and Angela Bender; grandchildren Miguel Garcia-Bender, Nikki Garcia-Bender, Marisol Garcia-Bender, Trinity Bender, Anna Hepler, Adaija Bender, Calef Hepler, and Shanta Bender.

The family will host a time of visitation on Monday, July 29 at 3:00 PM, followed by a memorial service at 4:00 PM at the Detweiler Auditorium at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, 1501 Virginia Ave., Harrisonburg, VA 22802.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Bethany Birches Camp, 2610 Lynds Hill Road, Plymouth, VT, 05056 or make a donation on their website: www.bethanybirches.org

Staffing crises point to the Body of Christ

Greetings friends! Been a while since you’ve heard from us via the blog. That’s because in April, our Program Director, Courtney, fell ill and could not continue her duties! Please pray for her health and healing. Where did that leave us at camp? Restructuring! In terms of the summer camp leadership team, the restructuring seems to have worked. We were able to shift leaders around and call Amber “Cheeks” Bergey back into service as Camp Director. She is mentoring some newer leaders including the Day Camp Director and Resident Camp Director. All are learning and growing and doing good work.

Come June, it started to feel like we were going to make it through the summer excelling and hosting the many campers as good as always. As that feeling set in, a second crisis struck in the male counseling team. We lost an assistant to a broken leg, another to a change in heart. We lost a male counselor to anxiety and another to a concussion. We are still down all four of those guys. How could we go on?!

Many summer staffers talked with friends and one of those friends came to BBC for the first time and did a great job the first week of camp (and will be back twice this summer). We reached out to other Mennonite Camps and uncovered two brothers who were trusted counselors and could give us a few weeks. A long time counselor said he could return for a week or two. Our facilities manager who used to counsel, said he could counsel as needed. Things are starting to look up! I was reminded of the “Body of Christ” and how together we can function as a cohesive community and in so doing Jesus would meet us and help meet our need for “daily bread” (in this case, having qualified counseling staff for each camper). Keep an eye on our youtube channel this weekend for how we made the picture of a body at the top of this post.

Personally, this pair of crises stretched me and my family quite a bit. I found early morning wake ups common, some tears in talking with God, and challenges at home as the kids got used to their nanny (so thankful for her and my strong wife, Cheeks, who is leading the program team in her third pregnancy!).

I find myself stretched, challenged, thankful and looking forward to uncovering who the next camp director will be. If you know someone who would be a good fit, tell them of the opportunity to live and serve in the Green Mountains!

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey

Program Director transition: you will be missed Chick!

Why do all good things come to an end? So that new good things can begin!

Dan “Chick” Laubach has served as program director since May 2015. He has decided to finish his service at Bethany Birches effective the end of August 2018. He has made important contributions (and will continue to this year… and he evens plans to volunteer beyond this year). While he was program director, summer and winter registrations were opened earlier than ever. I believe that has contributed to the ongoing increase in attendance (in fact, half of programs offered in a calendar year have waiting lists… we’re expecting even more waiting lists this year). Chick has also contributed to a professionalism in the office. He has helped to upgrade policies and procedures and has sharpened some of our marketing and communications plans.

I very much appreciate the amount of time he has allowed us for making the transition. He is going to continue managing the program throughout this winter and summer. He will depart at the end of summer 2018. If a replacement is found in time, I would consider him/her starting as soon as May 2018 for maximum transfer of knowledge, ideas, practices etc. However, if an ideal fit is found, we would start them whenever works best for them. The search for a new program director will begin shortly. We have some backend work to do to clarify the type of person we’re looking for and finalize some details. In the mean time, if you or someone you know has interest, please do reach out to me. Call the office, email or even text if you have my number.

We give Chick a big round of applause and wish him the very best in his future endeavors. Most importantly, may you be guided by God’s spirit and at peace into the unknown. Thanks for your service and can’t wait to see you back here as a volunteer.

Brandon “Tuna” Bergey

The BBC Engine

Just the other week my father took me to the Deleware bay to fish for tautog. (Don’t ask me what tautog look like… because we didn’t catch any). Unfortunately, our trip was cut short because of a problem with his boat’s engine. We ended up going through three sets of spark plugs throughout the trip and finally decided to head home in fear of being stranded without any more spark plugs! Sitting in the car during our three-hour drive home I thought about how prepared we were for this trip (boat, rods, tackle, bait, etc) and yet the trip was derailed by a faulty engine.

I think summer camp is quite similar. All year long I work hard to prepare campers for an amazing week of camp. I plan fun games, create great schedules, research new activities, etc. And yet, without an “engine” all of that work is totally useless. At camp, our engine is our staff and volunteers: Counselors, cooks, maintenance, shepherds, program, and more. Without these people, camp doesn’t work.

I wanted to share with you some opportunities to be our “engine” this summer. Below is a list of available positions. All of these positions provide real opportunities to love campers, serve God, and grow in life experiences. If you know young adults who would benefit from a summer working at camp please share with them about BBC! This link is a great place to find more information about each of the available jobs.

We are also working to hire more assistant counselors than ever before! These positions provide older high school students a chance to grow, mature, learn about working with kids, and learn about God. It also makes a great statement on college applications!

Lastly, if you are looking for a way to serve this summer but are only able to work one week, please check out these volunteer opportunities: Shepherd, Nurse, Kitchen, or Maintenance. If you have any questions about these volunteer opportunities, please email Amber at amber@bethanybirches.org

“During my summer at Bethany Birches, I made close friends, I got to know myself better, and most importantly, I got to know God better.”
~ Scoop

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you up on the hill this summer!

Dan “Chick” Laubach- Program Director

Awesome Friends