Meet Our Summer Leadership Staff

Summer Unit Coordinator – Leah Hill (Kermit)

I’m Kermit and my real name is Leah, although sometimes I forget I have a real name. My pronouns are she/her. I just graduated with a Bachelors in Social Work and I am starting my master’s in social work in the fall. After I get my master’s, I want to do school social work which also means I could work at camp forever!

I love drawing, spicy food, video games, and hanging out with my dog! Camp is my favorite place in the world and just as I looked forward to coming every year as a camper, I am even more excited as summer staff! Yee haw!

We Are Still Hiring

We still need to fill several spots for counselors this summer! Our counselors are competitively paid and room and board is provided. Our 10-day, paid staff training has been revamped to provide real-world skill building and leadership opportunities. And, with a record number of registrations, there’s never been a better time to be a part of the ministry of DuBois Center. Please contact Rylee at program@duboiscenter.org or Hayley at director@duboiscenter.org SOON as spots for counselors will fill up quickly!

WE WANT YOU to be part of our summer ministry!

Need for nurses and medical staff

As we close in on summer planning, we are still in need of very special staff members and volunteers! We need camp nurses and medics (RN, LPN, CNA, EMT, NP, and MD welcome) for several more weeks this summer, but especially the week of June 19 – 24 and June 26 – July 1. Camp healthcare staff can be a paid position if you can dedicate to a full summer, or a volunteer position for camp scholarship of someone you know.

Please reach out to Hayley via director@duboiscenter.org if you are interested in volunteering or working as healthcare staff this summer!

Join us for our Open Houses

We have two open houses scheduled for April 9 and May 15 and look forward to seeing you at one or both events! On April 9, we’ll consider all things DuBois Center: our ecological focus, how to be involved as a volunteer for workdays or summer camp, and of course, our horse barn. On May 15, we’ll celebrate all things summer camp with cabin tours, camp games, a smores station sponsored by our friends at Camp Phoenix, and a birthday party for our beloved horse Dakota, who was born at DuBois Center 20 years ago this May.

We can’t wait to see you at DuBois Center!

Registration is now open!

Registration for our summer sessions is NOW OPEN!

Spots in our summer sessions are filling up quickly, and we experienced a record number of registrations on the first day! Visit our website for Summer Camp details and to register for summer camp this year! Early Bird Pricing runs through April 6.

We can’t wait to see you under the summer sun at DuBois Center.

DuBois Center Is Hiring!

We are still hiring a few more people to round out our summer staff with a special need for additional counselors. Counselors must be 18+ and willing to work with kids in several age groups. Working as a summer camp counselor is a great way to get job experience, make some extra money, and have fun. Email Rylee at program@duboiscenter.org for an application packet!!

Mountain-Mover Award

The DuBois summer staff and volunteers were recently awarded the first-ever Mountain Mover Award from the Conference. This award recognizes the incredible job everyone did to host a successful 2021 camp season. They worked short-staffed the entire summer during an on-going pandemic and still had full camps with no covid outbreaks. The Conference is grateful for their exceptional dedication.

Pictured left to right back row (masks removed for photo): Tom Kahrhoff, Property Caretaker; Ferris McEvoy, Camp Medic; Noah Royer, Counselor; Ryan Goetter, Unit Coordinator; Hayley Elliott, Acting Director of Outdoor Ministries; Catie Goetter, Barn Coordinator; Ashley Klasing, Counselor; Leah Hill, Counselor. Front row: Gracelynn Norgaard, Counselor; Bradan Bruce, Counselor; Rylee Hodges-Stone, Program Director; Norman Bernhardt – camp dog. Not pictured: Bailey Avise-Rouse, Unit Coordinator; Kristian Avise-Rouse, Counselor; Olivia Cruthis, Waterfront Coordinator, Isaiah Galivan, Counselor; Claire Lambert, Counselor; Luke Volmert, Counselor.

Now Accepting Applications for Summer 2022 Staff and Volunteers

Applications are open for Unit Coordinators, Barn Assistants, and Counselors. View our website in the weeks to come for updated employment information and job descriptions. Contact Rylee (program@duboiscenter.org) for an application. Please share the news far and wide! We are looking forward to summer 2022.

We are also now accepting volunteer applications to help with our summer 2022 schedule. Can’t come all summer but want to donate a week of your time? Contact Hayley (director@duboiscenter.org) for an application or to talk about how you can make an impact. Starting in 2022, volunteers at DuBois Center will need to complete additional diversity and inclusion training, so plan now to help us in the spring and summer!

Many thanks to our Summer Camp Coordinator Team

Thank you to our coordinator team – (first row left to right in photo) Olivia Cruthis, Bailey Avise-Rouse, Rylee Hodges-Stone, and Catie Goetter, and (second row left) Ryan Goetter for coming out to power wash, scrub, and move equipment. More importantly, we are grateful to them for making sure we could serve more than 350 campers this summer at DuBois Center! Without their hard work and dedication, this summer could not have been successful. Thank you for your many efforts!

Hayley Elliott (in photo second row right), Acting Director of Outdoor Ministry

Rainbow Camp and thoughts on marking a change in season

We were lucky to welcome the Sixth Rainbow Camp to DuBois Center on Saturday, August 7. From activities like horseback riding, archery, crafting and canoeing to conversations at a shared table, more than 40 of us enjoyed a day of fellowship, nature, the taste of the first honey from the DuBois Center bees, and camp fun. We look forward to welcoming even more people to Rainbow Camp in 2022 as we continue to draw the circle of God’s love ever wider.

HoneyTrail ride2

Rainbow Camp 2021

Our Rainbow Camp coincided with our coordinator wrap up of the season, where our summer leadership team comes to debrief and do the manual tasks associated with transitioning from summer to fall. These moments of transition are always bittersweet when you are a year-round camp director. On the one hand, you get to really sleep for the first time in almost three months. On the other, you are saying goodbye (for now) to people who have profoundly impacted you despite only knowing them for a short time. I’d like to share a brief excerpt from our closing circle at Rainbow Camp. While words fail to express my gratitude for your hospitality, I hope you hear it in the spaces between the words.

“One of my favorite things about outdoor ministry is that, over time as you move through a space, it begins to move through you. And so, Rainbow Camp is also the close of our summer season. It’s been 4 months and two days (but who is counting) since I started as Acting Director for Outdoor Ministry. I find it difficult to really put into words the way this space has moved through me this summer. In a large part, I find it difficult because in addition to the beautiful place, it is also these beautiful people who have had this profound impact on me. When you ask an individual to do all the things that are required to reopen a camp, the result is chaos and failure. But when you ask a team to do it? You experience a summer like the one we have had. Sure, things were often haywire; we were understaffed; things could’ve easily fallen apart at any moment; but instead, now we are here, in this beautiful moment, celebrating not only our camp community, but my community as well. I wasn’t sure as an out, loud, queer person what this job might be like, but with a staff like the one we have, who were endlessly supportive and adaptable, even the hardest moments felt joyful, peaceful, important. It is this sort of connectivity and love reflected in my staff that reminds me of the best experiences I have had as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. That moment when everything has fallen apart, but your chosen family picks up the pieces, that’s what camp, and being a queer person, is for me. So, I want to say thank you, whether you’ve shared this space with me for months, or you’ve just been here in this space today. I hope it moved you. I hope it changed you. And I hope you leave feeling a little better than you did when you got here.”

Hayley Elliott, Acting Director of Outdoor Ministry